🌹 Valentine's roses, anthracnose & too many seeds!
Here, let me save you from sending the wrong message...
Happy Lunar New Year to friends who celebrate, especially all you Oxen out there (shoutout to my daughter Julia — 1997 FTW!) 🐂
👉If you like the insights, tips and advice in this newsletter, share it with a gardening friend.
Hello, friends!
So, here’s how it goes with me. Every. Single. Year: I buy way too many seeds because my eyes are bigger than my garden, then I start way too many seeds because I’m afraid they might not all germinate, but they do germinate, so I leave them be because I don’t want to risk losing too many because this is nature, and nature is unpredictable, but I don’t lose too many, but still I don’t have the heart to destroy perfectly healthy living things, so I carefully transplant the extras into their own little pots, and then all my kitchen counters are covered in seedlings until the end of May when invariably I’m surprised to realize there’s not enough room in my beds to plant them all, but it feels so wasteful not to plant them all so I put tomatoes in my Earth Boxes* and tuck herbs around potted annuals and grow bush beans on the deck. Anybody else? 🙋♀️
*Learn about Earth Boxes and my other favorite things here
It’s Valentine’s Day, and I suspect many reading this have left gift-buying for the last minute. If you’re thinking of grabbing a bouquet of roses, which, of course, would be thoughtful and beautiful, consider that it also would be fleeting and expensive. Although there's definitely a place for them, their in-ground counterparts also are thoughtful and beautiful gifts to consider, especially if the recipient is a gardener. Order them from your favorite catalog now, and they'll be delivered at the right planting time. I know, I know, a delayed gift doesn’t really pack the same punch. Maybe buy a token, like a single rose or a small box of chocolate, and gift it with a card that contains an announcement of the real gift.
But if you’re still planning to run out for the fresh-cut variety, you should know what their colors signify to avoid sending the wrong message and ensure your gift matches your intention:
Red: True love and romance
White: Purity, innocence, new beginnings
Yellow: Friendship
Purple: Passion or love at first sight
Pink: Admiration and appreciation
My presentation calendar is keeping me busy as a pollinator these days, and I’ve really been enjoying the opportunity to “meet” hundreds of home gardeners who’ve been attending my Zoom programs. Check my Events Calendar for a list of upcoming, free virtual presentations you can attend via local public libraries. I hope to see you there!
📬 Ask Jessica
DEAR JESSICA: During the 2020 growing season, we encountered a huge problem with Anthracnose. I have done a hefty amount of research to ensure that I have diagnosed the problem correctly and understand the best preventative measures going forward. Among other things, I plan on not using the same gardening area to plant tomatoes until 2023. However, I would like to plant tomatoes during the interim on the opposite side of our property and wonder if there are anthracnose-resistant varieties available as an extra layer of precaution. Thank you for your continued help and support of the gardening community. — Alex Rokowetz, Bethpage, NY
DEAR ALEX: Anthracnose is a fungal infection that results from prolonged leaf wetness and spreads via splashing water (from one plant part to another or from plant to plant). For this reason, it’s very important to avoid overhead watering, either by sprinkler or hand-held hose.
Moisture accumulates on leaves and between plant parts when plants are packed together too tightly or aren’t pruned to maintain sufficient airflow between branches. This is easily avoided by using drip irrigation, soaker hoses or even manually directing hose water to the roots, where it’s needed, instead of the leaves.
The disease first presents as sunken spots that eventually turn dark on green or ripe fruit, and later as leaf spots. Sometimes, the fruit damage isn’t visible until a few days after you’ve picked what you thought were perfect tomatoes, which makes it all-the-more disappointing.
Unfortunately, there is no cure, just preventive measures. In addition to proper watering practices, if your tomatoes have been affected in the past, you can treat new plants with a fungicide (Fung-onil, Daconil — or copper, if growing organically — are good choices). This should be done early in the season – when the first fruits are about walnut-sized – but no later than June. Repeat those applications according to package directions.
Other measures you can take are a 3-4-year crop rotation, as you mentioned (during which time you should avoid planting not only tomatoes but also other Solanaceae plants, like peppers, eggplants or potatoes, in the bed), enriching the soil with plenty of compost at planting time and applying mulch. Unfortunately, no anthracnose-resistant varieties exist yet.
The good news is that if your tomatoes become infected, they’re perfectly safe to eat if you cut away affected parts of the fruit. This usually works for me, but my tomatoes have never been so badly infected that their insides were dark, as yours were. It seems yours had a particularly bad case.
Good luck!
💡 If you do one thing this week…
If woody plants were infested with aphids, mites or scale in the past, apply dormant oil now to prevent a reoccurrence.
👏 Sunday shoutout
Vasana Hildebrand of Lloyd Neck, NY, shared these photos of her extended vegetable garden before and after a recent snowstorm.
“In those two zippered cold frames, I have celery, Swiss chards, kale, red leaf lettuce and some herbs,” she said, adding that next year, she plans to “cover the edges with some hay straws to keep them a bit warmer.”
“This one below was fabric-covered during the early fall,” she added. So pretty!
Send in your photos, and you might be featured next! Be sure to include your full name and the names of anyone depicted, your hometown, details about your plant or garden, the name of the person who took the photo, and a sentence granting permission for its use in this newsletter and archives.
🌱📅 On sale! Order your daily garden reminders today
Late last year, I self-published my 2021 Day-by-Day Gardening Calendar, and it has proven to be a wildly successful endeavor that far surpassed my expectations (if you purchased one — or several, as many have — thank you!)
I’m down to the LAST BOX, and frankly, I’d like to move it out of my dining room. That’s why I’ve taken 25% off the regular price of $24.95; I’ll even throw in free shipping. So that’s $18.71 plus tax (where applicable) for 365 daily garden reminders.
Wondering when to apply pre-emergent crabgrass control? There’s a very small, specific window during which it will be successful. It’s in the calendar. ✅
When’s the best time to prune hydrangeas? ✅ Cut down butterfly bush? ✅ Plant peas? ✅ Repot your houseplants? Overseed a lawn? Fertilize the lawn? ✅✅✅
Hang this baby on your wall and you’ll know exactly what you should be doing today and every day of the year to keep your houseplants healthy, your crops producing and your garden beautiful.
Sale price valid only while supplies last, naturally.
📧 Send me your feedback!
I welcome your comments and suggestions, so please send them along — as well as any topics you’d like to see covered and questions you’d like answered in the Ask Jessica section.