Twigs from my garden

Insects and weeds - that's what you will hear gardeners discussing this time of the year. Here are a few tips about both topics.

Japanese beetles

The Japanese beetle is a brilliantly colored metallic green beetle with bronze wings. About one-half inch long, it eats the leaves and fruit of hundreds of different plants, preferring those with tender leaves, from trees and bushes to garden plants.

If you have noticed these voracious insects as you walk through your yard, or the damage they have caused to the plant leaves, you can fight back with an insect-specific insecticide. Many gardeners feel the best way to try to eradicate them once they are leaf-chomping adults is to pick them off and drop them into a bucket of soapy water. Another way to treat for Japanese beetles is by applying a pre-emergent insecticide to their grubs or larvae that lie in the soil before the adult emerges in late spring and early summer. Mark your calendar for May through June next year to treat the plants they have targeted this summer.

Slug bug

Slugs are mollusks related to oysters and clams. They secrete mucus, which helps them glide along. They hide in damp, cool areas under logs and leaves during the day where they deposit their eggs. They feed at dawn and dusk. You know slugs have visited your garden when your Hosta leaves look like lace doilies. You can spread a snail and slug killer around your Hosta or try one of the older methods, such as placing a saucer of beer under each Hosta, which I have not personally tried, but I have heard works.

An ideal condition for slugs (and snails) is beneath garden debris - wood, old leaves, any debris that makes a cool, moist place for them to hide during the day, so clear out that debris and you will discourage slugs from using your garden as a nursery and delicatessen.

Toads, spiders, and birds are especially fond of slugs. Increase the diversity of your garden plants, and you will be more likely to attract these slug-eating predators to your garden.

Befriend a toad

A toad can eat thousands of insects, as well as slugs. Instead of throwing away a terra cotta pot with a broken rim, turn it over in your garden in a cool spot, with a water source close by-maybe a broken saucer - and invite a toad to reside in your garden.

Some like it hot ...

Two organic ways to kill weeds are 1. Pouring boiling hot water on them, and 2. Spraying them with concentrated horticultural vinegar containing 15 to 20 per cent acetic acid (which can be purchased at a garden center). Be careful of overspray on other plants, however.

Weeds in the lawn

I'm sure I sound like a broken record, old-fashioned as that may be, but there are routine lawn care techniques that will help control weeds tending to grow in the lawn.

Set the mower to three inches to "shade out" weeds and encourage grass root growth. (You can reset the mower to two inches in the fall.)

Remove no more than one-third of the grass blade at each mowing.

Mow before weeds have a chance to set seed.

Allow mulched grass clippings to remain on the lawn.

Water once a week when we have had less than one inch of rain. Water deeply - for about an hour or one inch of water.

A healthy lawn is your best defense against weeds.

Clover - a weed or not a weed

White clover wasn't always considered a weed in the lawn. Before advertising campaigns of the 1950s, clover was even added to grass seed for its texture, blossoms and its ability to add nitrogen to the soil. Shade out clover by allowing grass to grow higher, avoid applying high levels of potassium in fertilizer blend, or just lower your lawn standards.

Event

From 12:15 to 12:45 p.m. Tuesday, master gardener Nancy Stienecker will speak about "Garden Weeds" in the gazebo of the Children's Garden, behind the Allen County Museum on West Market Street, Lima. Bring a lawn chair and lunch on Tuesdays throughout summer at the Brown Bag Series. These talks are free and open to the public.

Master Gardener Tip of the Week

Weeds and insects aren't all bad. Keep in mind that when you use an insecticide, you may also be annihilating useful native insects, as well. In addition, butterflies like to feed on clover, milkweed, nettle, Queen Anne's lace, common sorrel and milkweed. Consider allowing a small border of these so-called weeds, mixing in some native wildflowers such as Rudbeckia and Echinacea, to flourish in a sunny corner of your yard and provide natural habitat for helpful insects.