July 2013 Update

Pick Your Own Blueberries starts July 9th. Follow signs to the blueberry picking where you can get your containers and pay for what you pick. There is a 3lb minimum. Blueberries are also available by the quart already fresh picked at the store. Pick Your Own Strawberries has ended. In other growing and gardening news, all of this rain has certainly helped in some ways and hurt in some ways. While you haven’t had to water the lawn or garden much, we also haven’t had a lot of sunshine which plants need in order to process the soil nutrients and grow. You may have noticed brownish-red splotches in your lawn. This is most likely due to the heavy rains leaching nutrients from the soil. An application of 10-10-10 or organic fertilizer will help replenish those lost nutrients. We carry both conventional and organic fertilizers and compost products in our farm store. The red splotches can also be a fungus known as Red Thread for which fungicide applications may be necessary and require consultation from a turf grass professional. Your garden may also be suffering from too much water. Is your soil now saturated and heavy? You’ll need to cultivate and loosen up the compacted soil to help aerate the plant roots (don’t dig too deep or too close to the plant which can damage roots, just a gentle soil loosening with a cultivating tool). You may also need to work in some light fertilizing to help replenish diluted nutrients. Damp wet weather is also a recipe for plant fungus problems. Tomatoes, potatoes, squash and pumpkin plants may need fungicide applications to ward off blight and powdery mildew problems. Fruit trees may need extra fungicide applications as well. We carry several fungicide products in our farm store for home garden use. So just because you haven’t had to water your lawn or garden doesn’t mean there isn’t work to be done! Good luck and happy gardening. ~Smith