General

The last three days have been cool for August. We got 1.5” of rain on Wednesday night and the following days were in the mid to low 80s. I didn’t need to water because of the rain and cool temperatures. Plus, rain is forecasted for later today. I picked up trash around all the gardens (probably left over from the county fair) and weeded a little. Weeds are pretty minimal this year. Lasagna mulching the paths around the beds was a great idea!

Harvest

I harvested 7.4 LBS of Mariana Paste Tomatoes, 3 LBS of Blue Lake Pole Beans and 3.5 LBS of Early Jalapeños. Tomatoes and peppers are coming in strong and will probably need a big harvest next week. The potato foliage is starting to brown, which hopefully means that we will be able to harvest soon. Dumping out the laundry baskets and finding them full of potatoes should be fun.

I ran into Becky from the SNAP-Ed Program and she was headed over to make salsa with residents of the senior center. She was very excited that she was able to get most of her ingredients from our garden!

Problems and Pests

Most of the tomato plants in a garden are showing signs of early blight. The Mariana tomato plants appear to be the worst, but are still producing a lot of fruit.

There were all stages of squash bugs on the Golden Glory Summer Squash plants. I manually removed some by knocking them into a cup of soapy water, but squash bugs tend to be an ongoing battle.

There is also evidence of animal activity in the garden. There appeared to be bite marks in some of the fruit. I had to cull 4 Super Beef Steak tomatoes and one 3 LBS Liberty Squash which had bite marks out of them. (Please note my use of terminology from our recent GAP training. LOL.)

The Strike Green Beans had evidence of insect damage on the leaves, but I didn’t see any insects. Both trial green beans fruit appear very spotty, especially when compared to the pole beans. Many of the issues facing the garden seem to be related to the wet summer we are having.

Notable

The iron weed is coming into bloom in the sensory garden and looks fabulous! I saw a black swallowtail fluttering nearby.

The herb garden also looks amazing! It provided me with all sorts of inspiration for something at my own house.

Overall the garden seems to be producing really well. Hopefully we will get a few good sunny days soon to dry things out.

Happy Gardening,

Johanna, OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Clermont County

A series of articles presented by Candy Horton, an OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteer

Over the past couple of months while dealing with a knee injury and surgery I have been reflecting on my garden project. I thought I would be in a much different place with this project than I am. I had some unrealistic expectations considering my situation but also in how my situation has changed over the past few years. Because of my situation I need to change my decision-making process.

Let me share what I mean and what I have had to reconsider. I have had a vegetable garden in the location I have chosen for the potager garden for years. During that time, we always had cats and dogs and there was lots of help in working in the garden. With becoming an empty nester and my knee injury, I have been hindered in how much I could do so the garden is not as far along as I had pictured it to be. The compost bins are working well. I have the leaves decomposing in the first bin and what I have in there, I will be moving into the bed that will be sitting fallow over the winter, making room for this fall’s leaves. The animal feeder that I was using for lettuce, carrots, radishes, and spinach worked great too. The plans were to plant seeds every other week and continue the planting and harvesting process all year round. The problem that showed up was that there was not enough room for all the plants using the continual process as often as I had planned. I think that if I were to plant only one type of plant and plant the seeds in the spacing that they need, I will not have to thin out seedlings and I would be able to plant enough rows to continually plant and harvest without any issues. I will be able to put hoops and plastic over that bed to continue the growing season throughout the rest of the year and into the next.

The bed that I planted my onions in has been doing well and I have been able to continually harvest onions all throughout the season. I will be planting more this week and into the fall. I am clearing another bed to get the garlic in by the end of September. The tomatoes and peppers that I have planted have not done well and that is where the cats and dogs come into consideration. For the past two years I have really loved watching the bunnies playing and scampering around in my yard, I did not even connect that they would love to eat my plants, nor did I consider the moles that are setting up house in my yard. In all the years that we have lived here, we have never had to contend with these issues because we have always had barn cats and my Yorkie. They both loved to hunt and dig in the yard which drove me crazy, but I now realize served a greater good for my gardens. This new issue will change how I plan my garden and what I will need to do to protect it from the animals that I share this garden with.

Another issue that I realized that I must overcome is my own thought process. I would get frustrated with something and realize that I am still thinking in seasonal planting timelines. With the year-round garden method, you are always planting and harvesting something all year long. It is more a matter of how you are managing the planting, harvesting, and caring for the plants that are different. For example, with it now being August, I need to start looking at what I want to harvest all winter. What I need to do to protect those crops through the winter and how they will grow during that time. For example, lettuce, I will need to make sure to have row covers over those beds with plastic that can handle snow and winter temperatures. I also need to get them planted soon so that they will have plenty of time to get a good root base before it gets cold. I also need to take into consideration that it will take the plants longer to get to the point that it can be harvested during the cold winter months. And the last thing that I realize that I must work on is the idea that nothing in the garden is a failure. It is more of a lesson learned.

Tuesday, September 12, 2023

OSUE Butler CO., 1802 Princeton Road, Hamilton, Ohio 45011

9 AM to 4 PM

Registration Flyer

COST: $45 INCLUDES LUNCH, SNACKS, AND HANDOUTS

6 CE Credits available to MGVs

RSVP to OSUE Butler CO. by September 4, 2023

Join other MGVs who love to learn and hone your diagnostic skills at the same time! The class includes individual presentations in the morning focusing on a review of basic entomology and plant pathology. Learn about the diagnostic process and then practice in the afternoon. Test your skills with hands-on samples that provide an opportunity for learning more about the diagnostic process. All Ask a Master Gardener volunteers receive free registration, but you must register. Contact the sponsor and let them know you are an AaMGV. Each county in attendance will receive 10 hand lenses to take back to their county office.

Instructors: Pam Bennett, Carrie Brown, Ann Chanon, Carrie Jagger, Ashley Kulhanek, and Curtis Young

Join the OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteers during the Clermont County Fair July 23-29, 2023 in Owensville, OH. These volunteers will be volunteering their time and talents to educate the community and assist the Ag Society.

As you visit the Floral Hall, stop by the MGV display to “Ask a Master Gardener” your gardening questions. Participate in the basket drawing which will be given away on Saturday. Learn the difference between bees, wasp, and flies. Then take the challenge to identify the animal tracks that you may find around your home or garden.

MG volunteers will be helping with intake in the Floral Hall for those displays and competitions for horticulture and floriculture. They will also be preparing the centerpieces for the VIP Tent hosted before the Friday evening concert.

We welcome the community to participate in our in-person Horticulture Education Series on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. Brochure

MONDAY, JULY 24, 2PM

• Diagnostic Weeds Identification Walk
  • Take a walk through the MGV demonstration garden and surrounding area as you learn to identify specific weeds from a Master Gardener Volunteer.
• LOCATION: Demonstration garden east side of grounds behind the Boy Scout Cabin
• SPEAKER
  • Kandy Riley, OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Clermont County

TUESDAY, JULY 25, 11AM

• Vegetable Trials and Preserving the Harvest
  • Learn about the vegetable trials that are established in the demonstration garden, zucchini, cucumber, tomato, and green beans. You may even be able to sample as you learn about Preserving the Harvest.
• LOCATION: Demonstration garden east side of grounds behind the Boy Scout Cabin
• SPEAKERS
  • Susan Givler, OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Clermont County
  • Margaret Jenkins, OSU Extension Family Consumer Science Educator Clermont County

FRIDAY, JULY 28, 11:30AM

• Spot the Spotted Lanternfly!
  • Join us to learn more about the non-native insect, the Spotted Lanternfly. This insect has made it way to Southwest Ohio. Learn how to identify, report, and remove to protect our grapes and more.
• LOCATION: 4-H Hall stage area
• SPEAKER
  • Deb Garner, OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Clermont County

Want more information about becoming a Master Gardener Volunteer? MGV Brochure

Want to be added to our MGV interest list for future training opportunities? Interest Survey

Want to be added to the Extension weekly email to receive updates and upcoming extension programs? Subscribe Here

The last three days have been cooler. We got 1.5” of rain on Sunday and the following 2 days were 64 degrees when I was there at 10:00 am.

I didn’t need to water because of the rain. The beds were still moist Tuesday morning and rain was forecasted for tonight. I saw no insect activity, but there seemed to be evidence of previous munching on the green beans for the vegetable trials. However, new growth looked good.

I noticed that the squash for the vegetable trials had white on its leaves. After conferring with Susan, we think it’s just the natural coloring of those varieties and not powdery mildew.

Everything else in the garden looks good. I tied some of the tomatoes to their stakes. They must have grown a lot lately and were laying across the soil.

There aren’t too many weeds yet, mostly just small crab grass.

On Tuesday while I was weeding in the Sensory Garden, a woman approached me and asked about the garden and specifically this plant.

There was no marker that I could find for this plant, but after some detective work on my phone we decided it was yellow loosestrife. Was I right? I also told her about the vegetable demonstration garden and I met her back there. She spent some time looking through the garden while I weeded. She really seemed to enjoy the garden. I told her to come back and see how it does, and to follow along in the Extension’s newsletter.

Overall the garden looks good! I was really impressed by the creative decision to use laundry baskets for growing potatoes!

Happy Gardening,

Johanna,

OSU Extension Clermont County, Master Gardener Volunteer

A series of articles presented by Candy Horton, OSU Extension Master Gardener Volunteer

I am really intrigued by the idea of companion planting in my potager garden so I thought I would dig deeper into the subject. When looking at the research for companion planting it leans more towards historical journals for data. There is information regarding companion planting dating back hundreds of years. The consensus seems to be that there is truth to the system, but it really depends on variables. It cannot be said that it will work every time in every situation. Science does support companion planting, but I will need to trial and error ideas to see what works for me. The University of Minnesota Extension has a good article titled “Companion Planting in Home Gardens” in which they talk about the benefits of companion gardening. It saves space, assists in soil health and the plants give mutual support to each other. One of the suggestions for saving space is that by “planting short season crops in the same location as later maturing crops is a way to conserve space and grow multiple successions of plants in the same space.”  Examples that they give are to plant lettuce or spinach in my bed and then later transplanting tomatoes or peppers into that same bed once I harvested the others. I could see this working for me if I were to plant the short, seasoned crops, then the later maturing crops and then plant a second set of the short season crops later in the season, especially if I used cool season crops for the first planting.

An interesting perspective on companion planting from the University of West Virginia Extension recommends that I not plant “onions and beans together as onions stunt the growth of beans.”   They also talk about planting vegetables and flowers together to attract pollinators and repel harmful insects. In their article titled “Companion Planting they give a list of plants, along with their companion plants and plants that I should not plant near them. It is remarkably interesting and begs to be given a try. Other benefits of companion planting that they talk about include Nitrogen Fixation, Pest Control and Trapping, Flavor Enhancement, Level Interaction, Plant Sheltering and Crop Rotation. Nitrogen Fixation happens when plants add nitrogen back into the soil such as beans do. Then there’s Pest Control and trapping, this is when plants will repel bad insects from the garden and attract good insects. Marigolds are said to be such plants. Basil is said to enhance flavors of peppers and tomatoes when planted nearby. Level Interaction and Plant Sheltering is when corn acts as a trellis for pole beans or provides shade for squash and the squash in return deters raccoons from eating the corn cobs. Crop rotation is when I will move my plants around to help the soil with different benefits from the plants growing in that space. By understanding these processes, I can use the placement of plants in the garden to amend my soil, protect crops and attract beneficial insects into the garden.

Another element of companion planting is the use of herbs in the garden. Usually in planting a vegetable garden, I do not think of having herbs in and among the vegetables. They are usually in pots or in their own garden, but using herbs add another layer of protection and benefits to my garden. For example, the herb Anise is related to caraway and dill plants. It is good to use around plants like cabbage and cauliflower because its smell camouflages its companions to hide them from the pests that love to eat them. They also are host to predatory wasps that love to feed on aphids.

The last area of companion planting that I am going to try is to add in perennials and annual flowers into the garden. Bachelor Buttons are a good addition because it is one of the earliest flowers to bloom, attracting beneficial insects. Geraniums are known to repel cabbage worms and Japanese beetles and Marigolds are known for repelling different harmful insects. By using all these elements of companion gardening I think that my vegetables will be healthier, more flavorful, color, and interest in my garden.

… to join us for the Southwest Ohio Perennial School.

The registration price of $50 has been extended to April 7.

Registration Form or call Meghan at 513-732-7070.

1. Paul Koloszar – Northern Sea Oats and Other Mistakes I’ve Made, Managing Expectations for Natives – Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
2. Tim McDermott – Urban Agriculture – OSU Extension Franklin County
3. Amy Stone – Spotted Lanternfly Update & Scavenger Hunt – OSU Extension Lucas County
4. Pam Bennett – Pollinator Plants and Gardens: You can Please Everyone – OSU Extension Clark County
5. Beth Scheckelhoff – Ornamental Grasses – OSU Extension Putnam County