Summer gardening can be a joy. It's a way to relinquish a little control and reconnect with your surroundings, but when extreme weather hits, like heavy rains or a heatwave, gardening can also lead to some heartbreak. Horticulturist and host of All Things Gardening Charlie Nardozzi joins the show and shares the best tips to protect your gardening.
If your garden was affected by flooding, can you still eat the produce?
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but anything in your underwater garden should not be eaten.
"It's probably contaminated," Nardozzi said. However, there is some hope for other crops. "If you have plants where the water resided quickly, and if they were not flowering, those are okay to eat. The other thing is that if you want to come back and plant some more, you should wait about 30 days after that water has receded before you try to plant anything."
If you're looking to test your soil for any lead or heavy metals, there are soil tests on the market, but they can be expensive and hard to do. Nardozzi best recommends not to use the soil for at least 30 days.
What diseases are prominent right now?
The potato late blight fungus is one of the issues gardeners can face this year. Nardozzi points to the humid, wet weather Vermont has faced for days at a time as the cause of the contagiousness.
Indications you might have the fungus is that your leaves are a little different, with a blackish-grayish look with big spots. Nardozzi adds that UVM also suggests taking plants to the pathology lab if need help is needed in identifying diseases.
What flowers are doing well because of the bad conditions?
"Roses are doing great this year," Nardozzi said. Roses bloomed for a little window of time earlier this year, but according to Nardozzi, Japanese beetles have ruined the show. He expects the flowers will be in full swing again in a couple of weeks. There's even a rose named after the renowned chef Julia Child!
Hydrangeas are also having a great year, especially the blue-colored hydrangeas. Nardozzi points to warm winters for the reason those plants are doing so well this year.
Broadcast live on Tuesday, July 16, 2024, at noon; rebroadcast at 7 p.m.
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