We've broken away from those 90
degree temperatures and even saw quite a bit of rain this week, but your plants
may still be suffering. Saturday Purdue
Extension Educator, Phil Sutton, was at the Urban Garden Market in South Bend to share his
expertise.
Nancy Dahlstrom brought a box full
of plants from her garden to the Urban garden market Saturday. She was looking for advice on what she's
growing. She said, "I was thinking I need help." And she got
it. "I discovered that I have to go home and dig
up weeds that are thriving.
I need to go home and
get a magnifying glass and look and see if I have mites," said Dahlstrom.
According to Sutton Thriving weeds
and spider mites are common problems caused by dry weather. So what can you do? The answer is simple for
both problems, water. "If you can't water you'll
never have that beautiful green lawn," said Sutton. He added that, "when we get rain usually
spider mites aren't that big of a problem cause they don't like humid
weather."
Aside from watering Sutton said just
know your plants, "the best thing you can apply
to your garden is your shadow. That
means you're walking it every day so you get familiar with what is normal and
you can act on what is abnormal."
Now Dahlstrom will be doing that and
some other work in her garden. "Digging out the weeds and they're growing the best of
course."
Another good reminder that even
trees, no matter how big or small they are need water. When it's dry a good thing to do is put a
sprinkler on the tree. You'll want it to
get an inch to an inch and a half of water.
