Garden tips for the Buffalo area.
by Connie Oswald Stofko Western New York is feeling the heat wave that is moving across the country. “If there was a time to water, this is it,” said John Farfaglia, extension educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension in Niagara County. Pay special attention to trees and shrubs that have been planted in the last couple years, Farfaglia said. Those are the plants that will suffer the most if they’re not watered. Make sure you water deeply. Hanging baskets can…...
by Steven Jakobi, Allegany County Master Gardener Volunteer Gardeners love growing tomatoes, and losing them to disease can be disappointing. There are two blights to watch out for: late blight and early blight. These can affect potatoes as well. Causes of late blight and early blight There are two very different blight diseases that affect tomatoes and potatoes (and some of their relatives in the plant family Solanaceae). Late blight, caused by the fungus-like water mold, Phytophthora infestans, is a…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko Adult Japanese beetles are out and active, so now is the time to check to see if you have them in your garden, said John Farfaglia, extension educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension in Niagara County. He has spotted them in his own garden. Japanese beetles occurrences can be very local, so you may not have them in your own garden. If you have them, you’ll know. It’s easy to see the beetles and to see the damage…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko Nature’s Kaleidoscope is a new exhibit at the Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens that aims to give you a new way to look at nature– through shapes and patterns, said Kristin Pochopin, director of Horticulture at the Botanical Gardens. Buffalo-NiagaraGardening.com, the online gardening magazine for Western New York, is proud to be the sponsor of this summer event. Start off your visit by looking through a giant kaleidoscope located in the main dome. Then look for…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko UPDATE MAY 2021: Jumping worms have been identified in Erie County and may be in other parts of Western New York, too. See the article here. There’s a new threat to Western New York gardens: jumping worms. They’re bad for your garden, and they can really screw up the ecosystem of forests. Jumping worms (so named because they jump and thrash when handled) can change the consistency of soil, making it granular and grainy, like coffee grounds. That…...
The time to prune shrubs that bloom before the middle of June is right after they flower, according to an article in the newest edition of WNY Gardening Matters, published by the Master Gardeners of Cornell Cooperative Extension in Erie County. If you wait too long and prune them after they have set next year’s buds, you will lose the flower production next year. Early-blooming shrubs that you shouldn’t wait to prune include lilac, deutzia, kerria, Philadelphus, forsythia, viburnum, St. John’s…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko In the past few weeks, I’ve seen clouds, heard thunder and even felt a few drops of rain in my Amherst garden. (I think I counted a total of 13 drops.) It’s not unusual to have a dry spell like this, but you need to remember to keep watering your garden. At the Buffalo Niagara International Airport in Cheektowaga, they measured just .11 inch of rain since May 23, said meteorologist David Thomas. (I didn’t…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko Today you can see a short video that gives you a glimpse of the beautiful pond and gardens of Ron and Sandy Baty. If you are inspired by what you see and want to install a pond in your yard, Ron suggests joining the Niagara Frontier Koi and Pond Club. The members are happy to share their knowledge. The Batys shared their landscape on both the daytime and nighttime portions of the Ken-Ton Garden Tour last year…....
by Connie Oswald Stofko If you want to attract adult butterflies to your garden, you can choose plants that provide nectar. But if you really want to help butterflies, provide plants that they need in other parts of their life cycle, too. That’s the suggestion of Douglas W. Tallamy, famed author of Bringing Nature Home, who spoke in Western New York in March. Butterflies don’t lay their eggs on any old plant, Tallamy said in Bringing Nature Home. They lay their eggs…...
by Connie Oswald Stofko Maple trees in my neighborhood are heavy with seeds, and some trees have few leaves. “These things happen in cycles,” said John Farfaglia, extension educator with Cornell Cooperative Extension in Niagara County. No one knows why it happens; it may follow a period of stress for the tree, he said. But since no one knows what conditions produce a bumper crop of seeds, there’s no way to predict when it will happen. What gardeners may…...
© 2018 Buffalo-Niagara Gardening. All rights reserved.