Wednesday, July 31, 2024

Herbs are the Stars of the Summer Garden

Garden Friend - I thought you might like to read my recent garden article that ran in The Denver Post on herbs.

Link to The Denver Post article, click HERE. The full article is below.

Herbs are the stars of your summer garden. Here’s some ways to use them.

While they are often grown for their good looks, these plants can flavor food and make teas

Dill, commonly used in pickling and eastern European cuisines, is an example of a perennial herb. It also hosts the caterpillar of the black swallowtail butterfly. (Betty Cahill / Special to the Denver Post)

By Betty Cahill | Special to The Denver Post

PUBLISHED: July 27, 2024

Herbs are a group of plants that are as useful today as they were centuries ago, and thank goodness for that. Their good looks, easy care, and delicious tastes and smells make them stars in gardens and landscapes. Mid-summer is the prime time for eating fresh, homegrown fruits and vegetables, and a great time to use herbs to zhuzh up what’s on your plate now and to preserve for later use.

A simple definition of herbs are plants that are grown for their fresh and dried leaves for use in the culinary, medicinal, and cosmetic worlds, that also can be used to make crafts, dyes and home care products. Herbs encompass a broad group of plants, including woody perennial plants (lavender, rosemary), nonwoody perennials (chives, lemon balm), annuals (dill, basil), and biennials (parsley, angelica). There are many more in each category. Herbs grow well together in garden landscapes but can have subtle differences when it comes to pruning back in spring, timing of harvests, uses and preservation (drying, freezing, etc).

Sage, from front to back, grey santolina and lemon grass smell good in the garden. (Betty Cahill / Special to the Denver Post)

Spices, on the other hand, are the bark, roots, leaves and seeds from mostly tropical plants. One common plant we know as an herb also produces a spice: Cilantro leaves are used in dozens of dishes while the seeds of its plant are the spice coriander.

Many gardeners include herbs in their landscapes for their foliage and flowers, and to draw in pollinators and other beneficial insects. But they might be missing out on using those herbs in traditional ways. Get beyond the pretty and start using them in food and for feeling and looking good!

The Rocky Mountain Unit of The Herb Society of America has maintained the herb beds at The Hudson Gardens and Event Center for twenty years. (Mark Angelos / Provided by Betty Cahill)

Mark Angelos knows herbs well; he has been growing them for decades at his Denver metro home. He started out growing perennials at a young age, but had a mid-life plant crisis to the point where he was losing interest until he discovered herbs and their many benefits. Mark started out reading about herbs, then joined The Rocky Mountain Unit of The Herb Society of America to learn more and meet other herb enthusiasts.

Mark became smitten with herbs and remains so today.

“Every herb is magical — take a tomato and add oregano or basil or thyme and it makes culinary magic,” he says. He describes herbs as magical medicine, too. “They aren’t an illusion, herbs can have positive effects on our bodies.”

The first herb he grew was basil, but now he grows scores of herbs and at one point had an entire front and back yard full of herbs.

Members of the local herb society and Mark have maintained the herb garden at The Hudson Gardens and Event Center for twenty years. The herbs, which include over one hundred species, are well labeled and organized under culinary, medicinal, local native and Mediterranean origin categories. Be sure to visit this beautiful free-admission garden in Littleton off South Santa Fe Drive, which is open from sunrise to sunset daily.

Mark’s herbal tips include drying tulsi basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum) and nettle (Urtica dioica) leaves to make a calming, restorative tea. “Lemon grass also makes wonderful-tasting tea combined with chamomile leaves.”

His go-to herbs for Mediterranean, Italian and Greek cooking include dill, mint, basil and cayenne. Mark makes fresh ice cream and cookies combining coriander seeds and cinnamon for unexpected, tasty treats. He calls coriander seeds his secret ingredient. He uses tarragon leaves, as many people do, for chicken, fish and sauce dishes. However, one of his favorite uses for the leaves is in floral arrangements, especially combined with aster and daisy plants. Tarragon adds attractive color contrast and phenomenal filler texture.

A handful of Mark’s favorite herbs

Spanish Sage, also called lavender sage (Salvia lavandulifolia), is a perennial. A wonderful alternative to traditional garden sage, Spanish sage doesn’t have the strong camphor taste, so it is pleasing for tea and any recipe calling for culinary sage. It is suitable for Zone 5 and needs a compact growth habit. It is very aromatic with beautiful blue booms and grows to 2’ x 2’. It is very drought tolerant when established and works in any garden style. Purchase established plants in spring.

Spanish sage is very drought tolerant when established and works in any garden style. (Mark Angelos / Provided by Betty Cahill)

Dill (Anethum graveolens) is an annual. No potato salad is complete without dill. Use it fresh on fish, vegetables, eggs, cucumbers, cottage cheese, or in dips. Try baking the leaves into bread for a savory taste. Sprinkle seeds anywhere in the landscape for a pop of yellow in mid-summer. Dill grows to 4 feet and re-seeds easily. It attracts honeybees and beneficial parasitic wasps and is a host for swallowtail butterfly caterpillars (Let them eat the plant, they won’t do much damage!). Hot weather causes dill to flower. Collect seeds for pickles as soon as flowers open and freeze leaves in airtight containers where it will hold its flavor. Dill also can be grown indoors for winter use.

Coriander (Coriandrum sativum), also known as cilantro in its leaf form, is an annual. Resembling flat-leaf parsley, the flavor is often said to be an acquired taste. The plant produces lacy clusters of tiny white, pink or purple flowers two to three months after sowing. The seeds follow flowering and have a sweet, peppery overtone with a hint of orange. The seeds, leaves and roots are all edible. Pick fresh leaves starting when the plant is about six or more inches tall. Cilantro keeps in the refrigerator for ten days or so if wrapped in a damp towel and enclosed in a plastic bag. It does not dry well. Use the leaves in salsa, tomato sauce, guacamole, and on beans, poultry, salads and vegetables.

French tarragon (Artemesia dracunculus) is a perennial. Plants are large, shrubby, dark, shiny gray-green leaves with smooth edges. It might look similar to rosemary, but it has a more open growth habit and is much hardier than rosemary in zone 5 growing areas. It produces loose clusters of small yellow flowers in mid-summer. Like dill, it can be grown indoors. Its flavor is described as anise-like. Tarragon is essential in making bearnaise and hollandaise sauces, and also is commonly used in salad dressings and vinaigrettes. Use it to flavor fish, meat, veal, omelets, quiche, and mushroom and spinach dishes. Try adding it to grilled or steamed vegetables. Tarragon is best picked just prior to use. To dry, cut whole branches and hang them in an airy, dark location or strip the leaves off the branches and place on a cookie sheet to dry. Freezing preserves the flavor better than drying. Freeze leaves in ice cubes, oil or butter.

For additional herb use ideas and preservation tips, check on the links. Happy herb gardening!

Betty Cahill speaks and writes about gardening in the Rocky Mountain Region.

Lavender, left, and chives are popular choices for home herb gardens. (Betty Cahill / Special to the Denver Post)

Learn more

Dietary Supplements: Herbals and Botanicals https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-safety-health/dietary-supplements-herbals-and-botanicals-9-370/

Herbs: Preserving and Using https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-safety-health/herbs-preserving-and-using-9-335/

“Homegrown Herbs” by Tammi Hartung, a Colorado author

Making Favored Vinegars: https://extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/nutrition-food-safety-health/flavored-vinegars-and-oils-9-340/

The Hudson Gardens and Event Center: hudsongardens.org

The Rocky Mountain Unit of the Herb Society of America: herbsociety.org/about/hsa-units-and-districts/hsa-units/hsa-rocky-mountain.html

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Summer Tomato Growing Tips 2024

Garden Friend - I thought you might like to read my recent garden article that ran in The Denver Post on summer tomato plant care.

Link to The Denver Post article, click HERE. The full article is below.

Shade your tomatoes during heat waves, and other summertime growing tips

Here’s what can go wrong despite our good garden practices

This tomato shows signs of psyllids, a pest that can result in summer infestations. (Betty Cahill/Special to The Denver Post)

By Betty Cahill | Special to The Denver Post

PUBLISHED: July 13, 2024

We grow them because we love them. Are they easy? Not always, but their delicious ripe rewards confirm why tomatoes continue to be the most popular crop grown among home gardeners.

In this, Part II of tomato care through the summer (read Part I here), let’s explore what can go wrong despite our good garden practices as we cruise into the harvest period.

The number one uncontrollable possibility in mid-summer is continuous high outdoor temperatures, which can affect flowering and fruiting. When days are consistently in the 90s, the yellow-colored flowers can dry up and fall off, which means no flower pollination and no tomatoes from the spent blossoms. One way to help reduce intense sun and high temperatures is to shade the plants.

Depending on the shade cloth material and weave, sunlight penetration under shaded plants can be reduced as much as 20% or more. Less intense direct sun can help cool plants and prevent flower drop, sunburnt fruit and foliage.

Shade cloth can help protect tomatoes during extended heat waves. (Betty Cahill/Special to The Denver Post)

Check out available shade cloth options at your local independent garden retailer and online. Other materials, such as floating row cover, lightweight bed sheets, towels and burlap, also can work. In my book, shade cloth is worth the small investment. They also work very well for hail protection and can last ten or more years if stored out of the elements in the off-season.

Be sure to place the cloth on a frame of some type or attach it to stakes over the plants. Otherwise, the cover can weigh down the foliage. Although it is time-consuming to cover and uncover plants each day, doing so during the hottest part of the day can relieve stress on the flowers and reduce the possibility of flowers drying. The good news is that any fruit that is already on the vine should continue to grow and ripen, and new flowers will grow again.

Maintain a close eye on tomato plants and all vegetables during high-heat days, as they may need additional watering to keep up with their higher transpiration rates. Consider increasing the water frequency to once or twice a day, without increasing the amount of water which can lead to overwatering.

Other heat-related tomato issues can appear like rolled leaves, blossom-end rot, cat-faced fruit and sun-scalded fruit.

Rolled leaves from heat won’t unroll once temperatures cool a bit and generally don’t cause problems with the plant. Blossom-end rot shows up as brown or black lesions at the ends of the earliest fruit promoted by inconsistent watering and nutrient movement in plants; simply pluck the bad ones. Same for the unattractive cat-faced or contorted-looking fruits, most likely the result of cold weather early in the season that deformed them from that time. Sun-scalded fruit has pale white to yellow spots on areas that face the sun. Just remove the affected fruit since they won’t recover.

Two tomato diseases and a tourist pest insect that arrive from the south in summer are fairly common along the Front Range. The diseases are early blight and tomato spotted wilt virus, while the pests are psyllids. The best defense for gardeners is to be on the lookout for early signs of trouble on the plant leaves and take action if it’s not too late.

Tomato early blight (Alternaria solani) is a fungus that is around on old plant debris, the soil surface or in the soil. It gets started when conditions favor its development–warm temperatures in the 80s, plus moisture, humidity or heavy dew on plants. Discourage possible spread of the fungus by not watering overhead and always rotating crops from season to season, along with using a mulch under plants that helps prevent water splashing on lower leaves since the fungus can remain in the soil and winter over. Removing all vegetable matter that may harbor fungal and other pathogens after the outdoor growing season is always good bed planting hygiene.

Tomato early blight starts showing up after the first fruits get growing and begins on the older, lower leaves first. Look for small, round or angular dark, brownish spots that enlarge to over a half-inch in diameter. The larger spots resemble target-like rings with the tissue around the spot turning yellow. Severe infection causes the leaves to turn brown, wither and die. Stems are also infected, turning dry, brown, and sunken-looking. The fruit is okay to eat.

When caught early, start by cutting off infected lower leaves and branches and discard them, do not compost them. A tomato plant should be fine to continue growing and producing when up to a third of its lower foliage is removed, but no more. Use care when watering not to splash any water up on the plant. If overhead watering is the only option, apply at a time when leaves will dry quickly. Fungicide use may be helpful, discuss options with your master gardener volunteers and reputable independent garden center help desks.

Tomato Spotted Wilt Virus (TSWV) is the result of very small pest insects called thrips that get the virus from infected nearby host weeds and certain ornamental plants, then infect tomato leaves when feeding. Tomato leaves with TSWV initially look bronzed and dark-spotted. Look for purple-colored veins in the leaves as the virus advances. Upper leaves become cupped and twisted and the overall plant may appear stunted. Tomato fruit will have small to large yellow spots and patches. Fruit is edible; however, the plant is not salvageable and needs to be completely removed as soon as possible. Do not compost it. Look for and purchase TSWV-tolerant or -resistant seeds when seeding at home or buying transplants at garden centers. Remove weeds around the landscape and vegetable growing area.

Uninvited pest psyllids (pronounced sill-ids) hitchhike in the wind to the Front Range during the summer. Infestations can be irregular in gardens, some years psyllids may find your plants, other years there’s no occurrence. Psyllids inject toxic saliva into tomato and potato plants causing unmistakable visual damage — color changes and leaf curling.

Early scouting of leaf undersides is advised when looking for them. Small, yellow eggs that grow into green, oval, yet flat nymphs can be seen. As the nymphs feed on leaf undersides, their excretions or droppings (technically named lerps) look like salt or sugar crystals. Adult psyllids, about the size of aphids, are dark in color and can jump when disturbed on plants.

A highly infected tomato looks like a saltshaker was emptied over the plant. The leaves also will look yellow to purple in color and appear to stand on end with a feathered, twirled look. Insecticidal soaps can help when infection is detected early. Be sure to cover both upper and lower parts of the leaves and entire plants. Other control options can be found on the fact sheet under resources.

Later in the summer with Tomato Growing Part III we’ll look at harvest, late-season growing tips, recipes and preservation.

Resources

Recognizing Tomato Problems — extension.colostate.edu/topic-areas/yard-garden/recognizing-tomato-problems-2-949/

Potato or Tomato Psyllids — agsci.colostate.edu/agbio/ipm-pests/potato-psyllid/

Betty Cahill speaks and writes about gardening in the Rocky Mountain Region.

Wednesday, July 3, 2024

Summer Gardening Q & A

Garden Friend - I thought you might like to read my recent garden article that ran in The Denver Post on summer landscape questions and answers.

Link to The Denver Post article, click HERE. The full article is below.

Gardening: Q&A for lawns and plants in the heat of summer

WPPanicle Hydrangeas grow well in Colorado's dry climate. (Betty Cahill, Special to The Denver Post) — WPPanicle Hydrangeas grow well in Colorado’s dry climate. (Betty Cahill, Special to The Denver Post)

By Betty Cahill | Special to The Denver Post

June 29, 2024

By late June, gardens are growing and blooming in full stride — mostly.

Lawn areas may need a quick RX for bare spots. And why do plants fail shortly after planting?The squirrels are driving us squirrely, is it possible to better coexist with them?

Lawns

Dead lawn patches and areas are easy to detect during the outdoor growing season. If the water conservation bug hits you or if lawn management has become more than a burden, consider a partial or full lawn replacement. Work with a competent, experienced landscape contractor who is familiar with all phases of lawn replacement and can help plan and match a landscape tweak or redo with your current growing conditions.

Parched lawn is different than dead lawn. A good way to distinguish the cause is to physically watch automatic sprinkler heads water all the zones. Repair the obvious: Broken and tilted sprinkler heads, below-grade heads, water pressure issues and plugged heads are easy to spot and repair. Lawn areas not getting enough water usually recover nicely once sprinkler issues are resolved.

Dead lawn causes may not be easy to determine. Consider previous year drought stress, winter de-icing chemicals, pest insect feeding, pet urine and critter damage as possible reasons. If watering is consistent, re-seeding or sodding dead spots is doable even during the hot summer months. Try re-seeding smaller areas. This easy chore can be done in an hour or two when fixing just a few spots here and there. Here’s how:

Prepare the dead grass surface area by raking and loosening up compacted soil and grass. Work some compost into the soil, then smooth it down. Sprinkle or use a spreader to broadcast grass seed that is close to the type of grass already growing. Independent garden centers have local grass seed blends that are best suited to growing in Colorado.
Spread a very thin layer of loose soil over the seeds, then cover with a light layer of weed-free straw (if available) and water with a fine mist. Keep the area moist until the new grass seed is established and growing well. Prevent foot traffic from the seeded spots. Watering twice a day might be needed when temperatures are in the 80s and 90s. Pull any weeds that emerge. In 5 to 6 weeks, the bare patches will blend in nicely and be ready for regular mowing and fertilization.

Plantings

PWInvincibelle hydrangeas, a gorgeous variety that can grow in Colorado. (Proven Winners) — Invincibelle hydrangeas, a gorgeous variety that can grow in Colorado. (Proven Winners)

Why do some beloved perennial plants and shrubs die suddenly or within a few weeks after being initially planted? If we all knew the exact answer(s), perhaps we’d be able to prevent future losses or at least build our planting confidence.

Choosing the right plant for the right location in a landscape is rule No 1. A close second is making sure the soil, sun and planting zone conditions are correct. Newbies to Colorado learn quickly that rhododendrons and azaleas simply don’t grow well here — their needs for wind protection, afternoon shade, milder (less extreme winter weather), continuous moist and acid soil conditions make them incompatible for our high plains and dry, alkaline-soil Colorado landscapes.

Hydrangeas certainly offer the wow factor when in bloom and fortunately for those who love them, they have adapted to growing here; many varieties are sold locally. To ensure growing and blooming success, choose the most cold-hardy hydrangeas that bloom on new growth (wood) each spring or blooms on both old wood from the previous season and new spring growth. These include hydrangeas like Limelight, Pee Gee, Endless Summer, Little Lime, Invincibelle and Tardiva.

The absolute key to planting hydrangeas and other shrubs and trees correctly is to not overly amend the planting hole with compost, topsoil and potting soil, which creates what is known as the “bathtub effect” where water absorbs quickly in the planting hole. Once the water hits the surrounding native soil it stops and holds the water in around the roots which leads to rot or death by drowning.

For the best bloom, hydrangeas prefer six or more hours of sun each day. They’ll be happiest with wind protection and shade during the hottest parts of the day. Hydrangeas are not drought-tolerant like so many other native and recommended adapted blooming shrubs for our climate. They need regular watering, but not to the point of being waterlogged. Pruning hydrangeas correctly and at the right time matters (check the resources below).

Pests

The best way to deal with squirrels in your garden? Learn to get along with them. (Betty Cahill, Special to The Denver Post)

Some gardeners consider squirrels as a natural, welcome part of their year-round outdoor wildlife enjoyment, just like a nibble here and there from deer won’t hurt the roses (they’ll grow back quickly). If that’s not your sentiment, however, you’re not alone. Talk about wildlife management can go down many emotional rabbit holes.

Squirrels are difficult to control since they are so mobile on our power lines and tree canopies and have fewer natural predators in dense urban settings. Repellents (homemade and commercial) around landscapes may only have temporary results. Some gardeners claim that hanging and placing several scented dryer sheets on fences and near bird feeders keeps them away.

Make your landscapes less friendly to them by using available resources. Two-foot-wide metal collars attached 6 feet from the ground around the base of trees can prevent them from climbing individual trees (they can still jump from close tree canopies). Close openings to attics and other buildings. Diluted hot sauce can be sprayed on tomatoes and later on fall pumpkins.

One taste and squirrels generally get the message.