Keeping mid-summer coleus full of colorful foliage all the way until frost. The coleus of “Joseph’s Coat” has been producing an array of pink, yellow, red, white and lavender foliage since early June. As we reach mid-August, they have flower seeds which are lavender in color. To promote more leaves to grow, pinch off these flowers so that the strength of the coleus plant will be devoted to producing more leaves instead of flowers. Water the coleus every evening and feed with Miracle-Gro liquid plant food or a handful of Flower-Tone organic flower food every ten days. Pinch off all faded leaves.
Do not mow grass laden with morning dew. With the dews of the month of August growing wetter and cooler means that it will be lingering around longer and the sun will take longer to dry it up. Never mow dew-laden grass not only because it is wetter and cooler but it is also stickier. It causes grass clippings to stick to the mower housing as well as to your shoes and clothes. It also piles up a mess of ugly clippings to rake up. Add all this with the promotion of rust and tracking wet clippings into the house. Wait until late afternoon for the sun to dry off the dew before mowing the lawn.
Cabbage, collard, and broccoli plants are in hardware and seed stores. The cole family of cool weather vegetables are now showing up in hardware, nurseries, seed stores, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Ace Hardware. You can purchase them in four, six, and nine-packs. You can plant them even though the nights and days are still very warm. The secret of their growth is to use the water wand to cool them down each evening after sunset to refresh and cool the plants and the soil. Use the spray mode on the wand and apply a light spray around base of the plants. Here are a few hints on setting our cole family plants for productive results:
– Use a layer of peat moss in the furrow to help retain moisture.
– Spray plants lightly with water wand each evening.
– Watch out for cabbage butterflies and sucking insects and control them with Sevin liquid mist spray.
– As plants grow, keep soil hilled up and side dressed with Vegetable-Tone organic vegetable food.
The Holly-Tone family of organic vegetable and flower foods. The Holly-Tone family of organic foods includes Holly-Tone for evergreens and azaleas, Rose-Tone for rose bushes, Flower-Tone for all varieties of flowers and containers, Plant-Tone for seeds and vegetables and plants, Tomato-Tone for all stages of tomato growth, Vegetable-Tone for sustaining vegetable crops during growth. Plant-Tone and all the Holly-Tone family of organics are fine-textured, totally organic and clean and easy to apply. It comes in three- and ten-pound bags (the three-pound bag is easier to use). A little of it goes a long way. The bags have zip-lock openers which makes it easy to apply to seeds and plants without getting on your hands or wasting by spills. It may stink, but it is effective. It has proven itself in gardens since 1929.
The impatiens are a colorful showoff in hanging baskets. Impatiens make the most beautiful of hanging baskets. The salmon colored impatiens are the prettiest of them all. Many people don’t grow impatiens because they say they develop many fungal diseases and wilt. Much of this is caused by watering them too much, and also by not feeding them the proper nutrients, and maybe, just maybe, too much sun. An organic food such as Flower-Tone organic flower food applied to the medium and stirred in around the base of their containers will give them the boost they need. Another way to have healthy impatiens is don’t plant more than three plants per medium basket or container to prevent them from being crowded and rootbound. In a hanging basket, impatiens have room to cascade and also have better drainage.
The curtain call of the summer of 2020. On Monday, August 24, we will celebrate Saint Bartholomew’s Day. This day is known as the curtain call of summer with other calls coming slowly but surely as they pave the way into the season of autumn. Each morning the dews will get cooler as well as wetter. These morning dews will also be sticky. The days are already getting a minute shorter each evening and we have lost an hour of daylight since June 21. Sunset comes a little earlier each evening and soon we will feel a subtle nip in the air on the porch. The warm weather vegetables of summer are already in slow-down mode as the cool August dew is sending them a message that their harvest will soon be over. August is truly a month of transition of one season paving the way into another. After Dog Days a lot of gardeners are looking forward to the cool season of autumn.
Starting a row or bed of purple top turnips. Turnips are a root crop that needs to be sown this month so they will have plenty of time to produce large turnips. The most popular turnip variety is the purple top. You can sow them in a row or bed or you can scatter or broadcast the seed to form a turnip patch. A patch can sometimes become a “no-no” because it makes it harder at the time of harvest. We like rows or beds because it makes harvest easier and you can thin out turnips to promote growth of larger turnips. Another plus is that you can apply a layer of crushed leaves between rows to protect against freezes and promote a longer harvest. Plant turnip seeds in a shallow furrow about two or three inches deep and thinly spread the seed in the furrow so the turnips will have space to develop. Apply a layer of peat moss on the seed and then an application of Plant-Tone organic vegetable food. Hill up soil on both sides of furrow and tamp down soil with the hod blade. Use the water wand to spray a mist of water on the turnip row every evening. Side dress the turnips with Plant-Tone every two weeks and hill up soil after side dressing with plant food.
Trimming and feeding panda and asparagus ferns. These ferns have made the deck seem like a much cooler place this summer. They have been outside in a semi-sunny location since the middle of April. We trim them once a month and shape them up to promote new growth. All they need is a drink of water every week and feeding with Flower-Tone organic flower food every fifteen days. They thrive all summer outside on the deck and spend autumn and winter in the sunny living room.
Making a crunchy cheesy broccoli casserole. There are many recipes for broccoli casseroles, but they all have one important ingredient and that is cheese. This casserole has just that – plenty of cheese. You will need one quart cooked broccoli, one can Campbell’s cheddar cheese soup, one cup finely shredded cheddar cheese, two eggs, three tablespoons mayonnaise, one stick light margarine (melted), one and a half cups crunchy Cheetos (crushed into quarter-inch pieces). Boil broccoli until tender, drain and place in a medium bowl, add melted margarine into broccoli. Add all other ingredients except the Cheetos. Stir all ingredients together. Break or chop Cheetos into quarter inch cubes and add to the mixture. Spray a casserole dish with Pam baking spray and pour broccoli mix into casserole and bake at 350 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes until light brown on top.
Keep humming bird feeders filled with nectar. The flowers of late summer are slowing down production, but humming birds are still active in their quest for food. Keep your feeders replenished with nectar by keeping feeders half full to see how much they are consuming each week. Add more if they are consuming what is in the feeders!
Hoe-Hoe-Hoedown: “Pass the gravy!” The mother had invited a host of guests for dinner that evening. At the dinner table, she asked her daughter who was 6 years old if she would like to say the blessing over the food. The daughter said, “I wouldn’t know what to say.” The mommy said “Just say what I would say.” The daughter bowed her head and prayed “Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?”
“Meow Meow” Cat nights begin tomorrow night. Cats like these nights so well they call them by the name each night when they call out “meow meow.” Dog Days ended last week and now we have Cat Nights. Cats are creatures of the night and they nap all day so they have plenty of energy to prowl and curiously wander all night. August as the month itself, resembles the cat. On a humid August day, sometimes that desire to take a “cat nap” takes over our body. Just as cats are hard to figure out, so are the days of August as we transition into the very first signs of autumn, with plenty of daytime heat and cool dew at night. One certain fact about “Cat Nights” is we know they will be hot.
Source: https://www.mtairynews.com
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