From caring for sad-looking lilacs to tips on gracefully turning gardens back into an easy-care landscape, Charlie Nardozzi has the answers!
Cutting away diseased lilac branches
Q: My smaller lilac bushes are browning. The more established ones are doing okay for now. But since they are close to each other, I fear they will also be affected. How do I treat my lilac bushes to prevent them dying and others getting brown: cut back the diseased branches? I fear there will be nothing left! - Pam, via email
A: Lilacs have had a rough season, with early rains this spring that caused a lot of disease and fungi. Then later in the summer, the weather turned hot and dry, and as our region experienced drought conditions, lilac leaves dried up, turned brown and started dropping.
Clean up fallen leaves as much as you can; that can help mitigate any fungus in the soil. Then prune away any dead branches. Keep your lilac bush healthy by following this guidance.
And in order to check on your lilac's overall health, look to see if the bush has buds, then check the stems. Nick the stems with a knife. If you can see green underneath, the lilac is healthy and will bounce back.
Deer vs. pear
Q: My lovely Seckel pear tree started producing last year. No matter how I tried to foil them, the deer got them all. (They left me two). Can I pick them now and let them ripen in the house or barn? They ripen about the first week of October. - Laurel, in Ticonderoga, NY
A: Deer are most likely attracted to the ripening pears' scent. There are a couple of ways to keep them at bay.
First, try masking the smell with repellent sprays. These are even more effective if you rotate between a couple of different sprays so deer don't become accustomed to them.
More from Vermont Public: Keeping larger animals from your garden's bounty
Another method is to try portable solar electric fencing that you can move around your garden to keep deer away.
Also, pick the pears before they're fully ripe. If you let pears ripen on the tree, the scent will fill the air, and the deer will definitely be drawn to it!
Just as the background color starts turning more yellow on the pears, try this test: lift the pear up and then gently pull. If the pear comes off, harvest it. Bring the pears inside, and let them fully ripen there.
Creating an asparagus nursery
Q: I have about 10 seedling asparagus plants in my garden, offspring of a few I planted there. Will they amount to anything if I transplant them to a more permanent site? Or would it be better to create a bigger spot in my already stretched thin garden? - Diane, in Rutland
A: You can create asparagus plants from seedlings, though it will take a few years. And you can help them along by creating a "nursery bed" for the seedlings.
Choose a place, perhaps add a small cold frame and some rich soil, then move the seedlings there.
The asparagus seedlings will likely need about three years to grow until they establish healthy root systems.
In the interim years, prepare a new bed and then replant your asparagus there. Then get ready for lots of asparagus for many years!
Mixing coffee grounds into compost
Q: Thanks for your wonderful show! I'd love to know if my organic coffee grounds should be separated from my normal compost and dispersed in my perennial and or vegetable garden. If so, do I need to mix them into the soil? - Katherine, in Thetford Center
A: You needn't separate the grounds from other compost. Coffee grounds are good organic material. Go ahead and mix the grounds into compost and use as you would any other compost.
How to gracefully decommission eight raised beds
Q: I have a gardening question that I think would resonate with lots of gardeners in Vermont, since we're an aging state. Years ago, I turned most of my lawn into gardens. It's about 3/4 of an acre with flowers, shrubs, a couple of trees, and eight raised beds, seven of them for veggies. I am now 75 and heavy gardening is in my past, not my future. Over the next five years, I intend to close my gardens down. I have no intention of turning them back into lawn so I would be curious to know if you have any suggestions as to how to do this gracefully so that my yard needs less maintenance but is still beautiful. - Sonja, in West Hartford
A: Kudos to you for the work and care you have put into your gardens for so many years and for thinking ahead.
There are multiple ways to slowly close the gardens down, then create a beautiful, low-care landscape in their place.
Begin by deciding if you want to continue to produce any food for yourself. If so, consider keeping one or two of those raised beds for vegetables and herbs.
And then in the flower gardens, begin transitioning those into native plants that will spread around on their own, without any additional work. Native plants like phlox, rudbeckia, echinacea and bee balm will create huge clumps and fill in spaces.
Next, move into adding native shrubs. If you don't already have some, begin planting viburnums, dogwoods, aronias and other shrubs. Those choices are great plants for birds and other wildlife, and they're easy to care for.
Making these changes will help slowly transform your multiple gardens into a beautiful and low-maintenance landscape.
Letting predators take care of aphids in lieu of pesticides
Q: I don't exactly have a question; it's more of a bone to pick with Charlie. He answered a question about red aphids on plants and advised that next spring, when the aphids first appear, apply insecticidal soap or neem oil to knock them back. My point is why go straight to pesticides? Insecticidal soap may not be so bad but neem oil is a highly toxic pesticide. Why not take an ecological gardening approach and spray the plants with a jet of water from a hose, knock all the aphids off that you can, and then sit back and wait for aphid predators to do the rest? I am looking at my three red milkweed plants right now and they have lots of aphids on them; they have had them all summer. The plants are easily five feet tall and doing fine. Why would I use a toxic substance like neem oil on them? It just isn't necessary. The sooner we stop jumping to 'how can I kill this insect' to 'how can I work with nature for my plant's and the environment's benefit,' the better our world will be. - Kathy, via email
A: Yes, to all of this! An ecological gardening approach should always be the first thing you try. In this case, it was a dire situation where the aphids were completely destroying the plants.
Neem oil or insecticidal soap tend to be low-impact sprays, but certainly the first thing you could do is try a jet spray of water, and then eventually the beneficial insects will come in, too.
All Things Gardening is powered by you, our audience! Send us your toughest conundrums and join the fun. Email your question to gardening@vermontpublic.org or better yet, leave a voicemail with your gardening question so we can use your voice on the air! Call Vermont Public at 1-800-639-2192.
Listen to All Things Gardening Friday evenings at 5:44 p.m., or Sunday mornings at 9:35 a.m., and subscribe to the podcast to listen any time.
