By Amor Chamness Cook
DEAR AMOR: Spring is here. I can tell because I already have thistles growing in my yard and landscaping beds. I feel like I ve tried everything over the years to kill these things, to no avail. I ve blasted them with weed killer, cut them, pulled them (which I later learned is not the best idea). I ve even cut the stalks and injected weed killer via syringe into the stalk and they still grow back. Is there any way to eradicate these things for good? Steve
DEAR STEVE: You are not the only one tortured by these noxious, unwelcome weeds. I have been being patient with my yearly battle with them as well.
Amor Chamness Cook
DEAR AMOR: What is the best way to get rid of squash bugs? Chelsey
DEAR CHELSEY: I can relate to your squash-bug disgust. Squash bugs, anasa tristis, can infest vining plants like gourd, squash, pumpkin, cucumber, cantaloupe and watermelon.
As a gardener, I take pride in the many vegetable varieties I’m able to grow. There is one vegetable, however, that I will not grow. I had observed that whenever I had kabocha squash, countless squash bugs were infesting it, covering the whole vine patch.
Beyond my unfortunate failure in raising kabocha, I have maintained my yearly crop of vine plants through the years. Included in my must-haves are my favorite kinds of gourd, summer and winter squash, cucumber, cantaloupe, and watermelon. By experience, these don t seem to attract thousands of those super pesky bugs in my garden. If they were present, it had not caught my attention at all. Yes, I do watch my garden grow.
By Amor Chamness Cook
DEAR AMOR: I had an influx of spider mites in my sunroom last summer. How can I prevent that from happening again this year? Marsha
DEAR MARSHA: Spider mites are plant suckers. They are found mostly on the underside of plant leaves, feeding themselves on its milky sap by piercing the leaf tissue. They can infest our prized plants indoors as well as trees, shrubberies and vegetables in our home gardens outdoors. Indoor plants are most susceptible to this infestation.
A recommended way to determine if it was a spider mite that discolored and scorched our plants is to use white paper. Tap the leaf or branch of the infected plant with the white paper underneath it. If there are tiny eight-legged bugs crawling on the paper, then we have identified the pest that may have attacked ornamentals and vegetable plants.