Yes, this miserable heat wave is just as stressful to local lawns as it is to us.
That鈥檚 because most of our lawns are composed of bluegrass, rye and/or fescue. These 鈥渃ool-season grasses鈥� are originally from parts of Europe where summers are much more mild. To help them cope with this聽ridiculous heat:
- Most importantly, 聽do not feed or apply any kind of weed treatment to your lawn for the next six weeks or so. Fertilizers and herbicides will just burn the turf up.
- Do not cut the grass lower than 3聽inches. It needs that much height to shade the soil to try and keep its roots cool.
- Don鈥檛 cut your lawn at all during a dry heat wave. Wait until the weather breaks and/or rain is predicted after the cut.
- You can certainly water your lawn — and you should if there are five days without a solid inch of rain or water from irrigation.
- But only water it deeply 鈥� for several hours at a pop. Short waterings that don鈥檛 really saturate the soil are useless. In fact, short and/or frequent watering encourages the roots of your lawn to remain too short to sustain the turf during a heat wave.
- Water only in the early morning when the grass is most receptive.
- Don鈥檛 water during the heat of the day — when the grass blades and roots are closed up tight to retain what moisture they already have — or in the evening, which can cause disease to spread and prosper.
- Don鈥檛 water more often than twice a week.
- And don鈥檛 freak out if your lawn turns a little brown when the thermometer reads three digits. Just water it deeply, don鈥檛 feed, treat or cut it, and it鈥檒l green right back up when the weather breaks.
Check tomato plants for horrible hornworms!
So I went out yesterday and saw that deer had apparently gotten to one of the tomato plants I have been growing in a huge multi-plant 鈥済arden tower鈥� container thing on my patio. The tower is close to 5聽feet tall,聽so I鈥檓 just letting the vines drape down over the sides 鈥� where they鈥檙e exposed to hungry deer (unlike my in-ground tomatoes, which are securely caged).
The damage sure looked deer distinctive 鈥� whole branches bitten off cleanly. Then I saw what looked like a green bulge on one of the lower branches and pulled off a huge, fat tomato hornworm. These are the biggest, hungriest caterpillars in our area — and so exactly the color of tomato branches and leaves that they鈥檙e almost invisible. So if you see missing branches and half-eaten fruits, inspect your plants carefully!
Hornworm hunting
The tomato hornworm is the largest caterpillar in our region. But despite their massive size and the amount of damage they can cause, their green color is so perfectly matched to that of the tomato plant that they鈥檙e difficult to see鈥攅ven if you鈥檙e looking right at them.
Instead, look for branches with large sections bitten off cleanly at the end, then trace that branch back and look for a green bulge blending in perfectly a little lower down or off to the side. Or look underneath the damage for another clue: Their massive telltale droppings of frass 鈥� a $20聽word for bug poop.
A careful inspection could well save your harvest. These huge caterpillars are at their most active right now and it only takes a few of them to defoliate an entire tomato plant.
Don鈥檛 squish hornworms with white spines on their back
Yes, if you find a big green caterpillar eating your tomato plants, you can鈥攁nd should鈥攑ull it off and squish it. (Unless you have chickens; they would greatly enjoy being tossed some of those big green treats.)
But don鈥檛 squish if that caterpillar has what look like white spines down its back. Those 鈥榮pines鈥� are the egg cases of an almost microscopic wasp that is the hornworm鈥檚 most fearsome foe.
A hornworm with visible cocoons has already been weakened greatly and won鈥檛 be able to do much more eating鈥攕o just leave it be. The baby wasps that hatch out of those cocoons will finish the job by feeding on the insides of your tomato fiend; and then they鈥檒l fly off in search of more prey.
These parasitic wasps may only be the size of the period at the end of this sentence, but they鈥檙e a tomato鈥檚 grower鈥檚 biggest friend.
Don鈥檛 feed the birds 鈥� water them!
This heat wave is as tough on the local bird population as it is on us. Just like us, those birds need lots of fresh water, which is very scarce in the wild at this time of year.
So bring on the birdbaths鈥攖he more the better! Keep them filled with clean fresh water and birds will鈥攁hem鈥攆lock to your landscape.
Bonus: Position those birdbaths near plants with pest problems and the birds will eat some of your bad bugs and beetles on their way in and out.
But don鈥檛 fill seed feeders at this time of year. The Humane Society notes that the baby birds that have recently hatched will do much better in the long term if they learn to find their first food in the wild, where seeds and insects are abundant at this time of year.
It’s fine to feed birds in the winter, but right now what they need is water鈥攆resh, clean and lots of it.
Mike McGrath was Editor-in-Chief of ORGANIC GARDENING magazine from 1990 through 1997. He has been the host of the nationally syndicated Public Radio show 鈥淵ou Bet Your Garden鈥� since 1998 and Garden Editor for 海角精品黑料 since 1999. Send him your garden or pest control questions at MikeMcG@PTD.net.
