Update from Alan

A week ago Tuesday we had the storm warnings but all we got was a sheen of dampness on the pavement and not even that at the fairgrounds. Last Wednesday it ‘rained’ all day but the ground stayed dry under a thin damp layer. I know I should be careful about what I wish for, but we really do need a few days of soaking rain to restore soil moisture levels. We’ve been watering the vegetables almost daily, to keep the wind and sun from burning them up, but the rest of the plants are getting very stressed. Several established perennials in the wedding garden have already expired. We ran a hose out to the marigolds at the main sign and gave then a second watering and all the dahlias planted as edging are hanging on with the help of copious amounts of straw mulch. The dwarf red dahlias in the back beds are actually in bloom.
Since the last update (22 June) the tractor has dumped about 14 loads of old cattle compost on the new shrub beds in the wedding garden. Soumendra put in a double shift and spread most of it single handed. Tony brought his tiller to break up the clods and yesterday Moeen and Dick started planting spare dahlias in the area to act as a ground cover while the shrubs get planted and established. Also in the wedding garden, all the remaining dwarf red dahlias were planted by Moeen as edging along the central walkway, Phyllis planted four clutches of Acidanthera bulbs to fill in bare spots and 16 pots of Agapanthus also went in. Margaret and Dick completed planting the OSR/Heart Lake Rd corner bed, that whole area was straw-mulched and water was trucked in buckets.
In the nursery, hilling up the potatoes has been completed and Dick has taken on the task of removing side shoots and tying up the tomatoes. The whole potato/tomato patch really is looking pretty decent. Hand picking Colorado beetles has been a daily routine and it will have to continue so long as the potato leaves are green and delivering nourishment to the tubers. Picking beetles is a chore for most people and the question has been asked several times "Why don’t you just spray the damn things."
Well, PTG is a teaching garden and there is no better object lesson of the larger scale impracticality of hand picking than to actually do it. It certainly can be done - this is the second year that I have picked every day during the green-leaf season - but the cost is enormous. We have a potato patch 30' wide by 60' long - about 0.041 acres - and, in warm weather, it takes me about 2 hours to do one pass. At that rate, it would take 48 hours for one person to pick one acre or five people could pick one acre in a ten-hour day. Even at $5.00 and hour that’s $250.00 a day per acre every day of the growing season. If the season is 70 days that’s $17,500.00 per acre to control just one of many potato pests! Not only is hand picking an outlandishly costly method of pest control, from where would the millions of people come to work at $5.00 an hour to meet the world’s potato needs?
I’m sure it’s in the literature somewhere, but I have learned a coupe of things so far this year from picking beetles. 1. Ladybugs do prey on Colorado beetles. Or at least one did because I found it with a small larva in its jaws. 2. Temperature influences the number of larvae present on the potato plants. When the temperature was in the 30's I was picking over 600 or 700 larvae a day. After a couple of days of cooler temperatures, earlier this week, the count was down to maybe 100. Now the population is going back up again.
The nursery garden is looking a lot tidier now. The tractor-drawn gang mower managed to make a couple of passes up and down the driveways. Dick has managed to tune-up the hand mower and the string trimmers so most of the long grass around the edges has been beaten into submission. I’ve spent all kinds of money over the past few years having the trimmers ‘serviced’ commercially and they’ve never lasted more that a couple of weeks, after Dick’s magic touch the motors are working better than they did when they were new.
Monday morning is column writing and Monday and Tuesday are earmarked for medical but I’m available for the garden the rest of the time a.m. and p.m. As usual, let me know that you are coming.

The nursery garden is looking a lot tidier. The tractor-drawn gang mower managed to make a couple of passes up and down the driveways. Dick has managed to tune-up the hand mower and the string trimmers so most of the long grass around the edges has been beaten into submission. The PTG spent all kinds of money over the past few years having the trimmers ‘serviced’ commercially and they’ve never lasted more that a couple of weeks, after Dick’s magic touch the motors are working better than they did when they were new.

Day +25 sunny with cloudy periods UV8 Winds W15km/h P.O.P.10%
Night +9 a few clouds Winds SW10km/h P.O.P.0%