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Cereal
Killers
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It could be an Agatha Christie
mystery. A wealthy heiress invites all of her
friends to her lavish and beautiful gardens for a
party. The guests arrive to find a sumptuous buffet
of hor'douerves, so delectable that the guests are
unable to resist. Of course, the hostess has
poisoned the food and all the guests die.
it may be fiction in an Agatha
Christie novel, but it's reality in many a home
landscape. By early August, if a few of your garden
or landscape plants have a few holes in them, or
even if a few are just plain missing, there's no
need to become like the psychopathic hostess and
kill all of your garden party guests. |
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Another cereal killer is still
stalking Wyobraska landscapes--the String
Trimmer....
After years of warnings about the danger of string
trimmer and lawn mowers, many trees are still dying
each year from lawn care related injuries. Some
homeowners have learned that a six foot circle of
mulch is all that it takes to protect their trees
from this ruthless killer, a distant relative,
undoubtedly of the infamous ax murderer. But many
are still leaving their trees vulnerable to their
slow and tortuous killer.
A case could be made that the string trimmer
murderer is even more psychotic than the ax
murderer. The string trimmer murderer kills slowly
over one, two or even three years |
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Previous Articles
April 27, 2006
Crazy Clematis
May 04, 2006
Ornamental Grasses
May 11, 2006
Perennials
May 18, 2006
Herbs
May 25, 2006
Hummingbird Garden
Party
June 1, 2006
Gardening with Kids
June 8, 2006
Wildflower Week
June 15th
Shade Garden
June 29
Thumbs,
Feathers, Fruit
July 6, 2006
Reading Plants
July 13th
Back to the Oregon
Trail
July 20th
Theatre West Garden
Walk
July 27th
Notes from the Garden Walk Coming Soon
A Prairie Garden Journal
Searchable Archives |
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Low levels of a wide variety of insects is a sure
sign of a healthy garden, not a sign of an impending
infestation. Most plants are able to tolerate up to
20% of their foliage being eaten before they
experience any serious stress. So don't panic a the
first sign of a few munched leaves. Better yet, get
out and enjoy the party.
The next month will find the birds and the bees
rather busy out in your garden. Bees, butterflies
and hummingbirds will all be sipping nectar from
their favorite flowers, butterfly larvae will be
gorging themselves on their favorite leaves, (and
when they gorge themselves, entire leaves can
disappear in just a few hours) dragon flies, wasps
and assorted other carnivorous insects will be
feasting on their favorite insects, and birds will
be storing up fuel for the coming winter by eating
mostly insects. So, leave the insecticide in the
garage, or better yet, on the store shelf, and just
get out into your garden or landscape and enjoy your
summertime guests.
Hummingbird and Salvia |
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inflicting a series of injuries every week until
that tender bark is severed all the way around the
tree, causing the tree to starve over the next one
to two years. At least the ax murderer was quick.
This cereal killer is most active in the busy lawn
care months of May through August, so be sure to
protect your trees before it's to late.
Fire was the other cereal killer stalking Wyobraska
this past week. For much of the time the fires
seemed to be someone else's problem, like most of
stories in the newspaper, but when the wind changed
directions Sunday night and drove great clouds of
smoke over Scottsbluff and Gering on Monday, the
fires took on a decided immediacy. It was a reminder
that there are some cereal killers that we can't do
much about. Fire has been a cereal killer in
Wyobraska for millions of years, and we can do
little more upon it's occasional return than to be
awed by it's destructive force. Then again, awe is
rarely a bad thing.
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