Soon nature will be surrounding us with beautiful, warm tones. Celebrate the season’s change by creating fall containers that capture autumn’s colors. Don’t be afraid to mix and match. Have fun experimenting with different textures and forms. I love incorporating maple leaves and birch or dogwood twigs together with flowers and gourds to create a striking display of fall items.

Create a new design or freshen an existing container by replacing tired or finished summer-annuals with brightly colored fall blooms and plants with showy foliage. Some of my containers have annual plants that still look great. For these, I will just add some fall color to rejuvenate the pot. Fall color schemes generally include assorted hues of orange, yellow, and red. These are welcoming, bold tones that grab one’s attention even from a distance. With today’s flower choices, you can now also find blooms in shades of bronze, copper and terra cotta.

Drought can significantly reduce alfalfa yield. Timing of drought can be critical. First cutting may be reduced in the case of a dry March. Alfalfa root systems die back to some extent over winter. The root system requires good soil moisture in the early spring to regrow. If a strong root system forms then high yields will occur on first cutting. If the root system growth is restricted by dry soil, then the top growth will be reduced, even if good rain occurs in the later part of the first cutting growth period (during April and May).

Dry periods during summer reduce alfalfa growth. Severe drought may affect entire fields while lesser drought stress creates some field areas of very short alfalfa with some areas of better growth due to subsoils with higher water hold capacity. Our recommendation is to harvest what is economic and to leave very short field or short portions of fields.

Much to my chagrin, I have been noticing quite a few Japanese beetles in my gardens. Japanese beetles feed on the leaves and flowers of more than 300 types of plants. In my garden, they are currently favoring my basil and zinnias. Leaves fed on by the Japanese beetle are often left with a lace-like appearance. To learn more about this pest and its management, visit https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/japanese-beetle/ 

(Margaret Murphy)

Soldier Beetles in the Garden - Margaret Murphy

A wonderful thing about the community garden I garden in is that together with vegetables, garden plots are often peppered with an assortment of flowers. As I wandered through the garden the other day, I couldn’t help but notice how alive it was with the movement and sounds of pollinating insects as they made their way from flower to flower. One insect in particular caught my attention because it just recently showed up in noticeable numbers-the soldier beetle.

We usually see the goldenrod soldier beetle, Chauliognathus pennsylvanicus, also called the Pennsylvania Leatherwing. The adult goldenrod soldier beetle is dark yellow in color and reaches about ½-inch in length. It sports a black head with a black spot behind the head. It also has a black, oval-shaped spot on each wing cover. August and September are the months we see the adults most active in the garden. Continue reading here. 

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