* As you head out to the garden each day, fill a bucket or large jar with a solution of soapy water and bring it along. Japanese beetles are now actively munching on the leaves of vegetables and flowers. The beetles can be easily hand-picked and dropped into the soapy water. The best time to collect Japanese beetles is early in the morning when they are lethargic and less likely to fly off.
* Pull outer leaves of cauliflower over the developing head and tie them together with twine. This technique, called blanching, will keep the head from turning green.
* Fill the voids in the vegetable garden by sowing seeds of summer squash, bush beans, snow peas, leafy greens, collards, kale, kohlrabi, beets, carrots, radishes, Chinese cabbage, and cauliflower. Prior to seeding, work compost into the soil. Be sure the developing seedlings receive plenty of water through the summer. Most of these crops will be harvested in fall, and will have better flavor than their summer harvested counterparts.
* Sow seeds of cilantro, since plants from early sowings are now bolting (sending up flower shoots). However, don’t pull up all of the bolting cilantro. Allow some of the plants to flower and develop seed pods. Pick off the pods when they begin to dry and allow these to further dry by placing them on a paper towel. Once fully dried, the pods can be used as a spice (coriander).
* Cover blueberry bushes with netting. Birds are already plucking fruit from bushes even though the berries are not fully ripe. Naughty little birds!
* Remove faded flowers from roses. Spent rose flowers act as magnets to Japanese Beetles. I don’t mind them munching on the old flowers, but they quickly move onto the foliage which has already been decimated by Rose Slug and Rose Chafer.
* Harvest lavender by cutting off the flower stems when about half the flower buds on each stem are open. After cutting, dry the flowers by tying the stems in bunches and hanging these in a dry airy location. Alternatively, my wife’s method is to spread the stems over newspaper in plant trays which are them kept in a warm room. When the flower stems are brittle, after about a month, they are dry.
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Throughout much of the local area, especially in South County and along the New York and Connecticut state lines, spongy moth caterpillars have had a devastating effect on a wide variety of trees and shrubs, leaving many completely defoliated. In many cases, this has been the second year of such defoliation, a situation that threatens the overall health of those plants. Could these plants be facing a third year of defoliation in 2023?
I don’t know, but there are signs that the caterpillar population is crashing. Interestingly, this crash is not due to anything humans have done to control the spongy moth caterpillars. Rather, it is due to two naturally occurring micro-organisms that are now infecting many of the caterpillars. One is a fungus (Entomophaga maimaiga) and the other is a virus. Caterpillars killed by the virus typically hang from the tree trunk in an upside down V-shape. Those infected by the fungus are shriveled and hang vertically, head down, on the trunk. At this point, I am optimistic that the caterpillars will be much less of an issue next year.
