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Table of Contents:
This Month's To-Do List | Now Is the Time | Arlington County Fair
Beating the Bugs | Organic Vegetable Garden
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August To-Do List
- Pay close attention to your garden's water needs, especially if it doesn't rain for multiple days. Water evenly and deeply, avoiding foliage and focusing on soil level.
- Consider covering less heat-tolerant plants with a row cover or canopy to protect them from direct sun and heat.
- Prune and mulch plants to allow them to conserve energy and to keep soil moist.
- Check your container plants daily, making sure they are well watered and adding a liquid fertilizer to the water every week or so.
- Be on the lookout for pests and diseases on your plants.
- Completely remove cool weather crops and add compost to soil, or intercrop with warm weather crops and remove cool weather crops over time.
- Continue to harvest warm weather crops. Eat fresh, dry, freeze or can, or donate to organizations serving community food needs.
- Continually deadhead herbs and leafy greens by snipping off floret tops to avoid bolting, which can make the plant bitter to taste (unless you want to collect seeds or encourage reseeding for next year's crop).
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- Plan for fall planting and extending the growing season into the winter months.
- For fall crops, continue to both direct sow and start from seed indoors.
- Direct sow cooler weather herbs: cilantro, chervil, chives, dill, lovage and thyme.
- Order garlic, onions and shallots for fall.
Plant, Pest, or Other Garden Questions?
 Contact the Extension Master Gardener Help Desk. Even during the pandemic, knowledgeable Virginia Cooperative Extension volunteers are available to answer questions!
MGNV August 2021 Events and Classes
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Now is the time to Focus on Watering Strategies
Watering takes on greater importance during very hot, humid weather, so you may need to increase your watering if you notice your plants wilting. Water deeply and thoroughly early in the day, up to 1 inch at a time.
 Water roots, never foliage, which can singe leaves in peak heat and contribute to fungal diseases.- Water more, but less often, since it is best to saturate the soil after it dries, instead of lightly watering the surface daily, which will encourage roots to grow toward the surface in search of moisture instead of reaching deeper down.
- Water in daylight hours (morning, afternoon or early evening).
- Weed regularly since weeds will use up available water.
- Mulch between rows, or plant some crops in covered rows, to control soil temperatures and retain moisture levels.
In general, signs of both too much or too little water include yellowing of the leaves, droopy plants and stunted growth.
Recommended practices for optimal watering include:
- Water seedlings with an even, gentle spray that neither batters nor floods them and provide more water than simply a fine misting.
- Allow seedlings to dry out between watering without letting plants get too dry. Your soil should not stay wet continuously.
- Water deeply and thoroughly to promote healthy root growth and to drain out any salt build up.
- Check the moisture of your soil beneath the surface since the surface of the soil can appear moist but still be dry beneath.
- Break up any soil crusting that may occur, which is generally prevented through thorough watering.
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Arlington County Fair Competitive Exhibits - August 18 - 22
Have you had a spectacular garden this year? Are your beans beautiful and zinnias amazing? Come to the Arlington County Fair and enter the Competitive Exhibits for Fruits and Vegetables or Flowers! Entries will be judged by Extension Master Gardeners and there are prizes galore to give you bragging rights in your neighborhood. Residents of Arlington County, Alexandria City, Falls Church City and Joint Base Myers-Henderson are eligible to enter. Kids welcome! Registration is online only at https://arlingtoncountyfair.us/participants#competitive-exhibits
Information and guidelines for each category can be found in the Competitive Exhibits Guide
 Competitive Exhibits Submissions
- Wednesday, August 18, 4:00 – 8:00 p.m.
- Thursday, August 19, 7:30 – 9:30 a.m. (only for perishable items; Departments I, II, VI, VII)
Awards Ceremony
- Saturday, August 21, 7PM
- Pickup submissions/entries following Awards Ceremony or on Sunday, August 22, 3:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Entry Deadline
- Online entries will not be accepted after August 16, 2021 at midnight.
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Illustration © Melissa Joskow
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Managing Bird and Mammal Pests
Our two- and four-legged visitors to the garden are often a joy to see, and when we are not BOTH trying to harvest the same crops, most of us would agree that the birds, rabbits, raccoons, and other small mammals are welcome. Because deer cause so much damage and have very different kinds of controls, we will save them for another time, but the problems that many gardeners have are with birds and members of the rodent family. Chief among these are voles, rats, groundhogs, squirrels, and chipmunks. Rabbits are another story altogether.
Birds
Birds of all kinds enter our gardens on a frequent basis. They are usually good neighbors and can actually provide some help in pest control. Major offenders vary from site to site, but generally problems come from the larger birds that are omnivorous and consume fruit as part of their diet.
Blue jays, starlings, catbirds, and crows are members of the Corvidae family and will often help themselves to ripening fruit just as it starts to turn soft. |
Bird damage to apples (Source: University of New Hampshire Extension)
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In many cases they are attracted to tomatoes for the moisture they contain. Putting out a water feature, a fountain, or a bird bath will help supply those needs. Be sure to clean it once a week to reduce mosquito populations and keep the water safe for the birds.
Sparrows and other ground feeding birds can be attracted to newly planted seed and will sometimes also help themselves to newly emerged vegetables, especially lettuce plants. Covering newly planted rows with fresh straw will protect seeds and young plants from birds looking for a salad bar.
The main tools for controlling unwanted birds in the garden are scare devices, physical barriers, and chemical repellents. Scare devices can be noisemakers, strobe lights, or water sprays. They can be motion detected or set to go off at regular intervals. Low-tech tactics like stringing up shiny foil pie tins that move in the wind can work; a predator effigy like an owl or a hawk can sometimes work, too. If you choose to use netting to exclude birds from fruit, be aware that these nets can sometimes trap birds, snakes, and small mammals inside or underneath the netting.
The bottom-line is that you have to check and change netting and scare devices from time to time. If the scare tactic remains passive and unchanging, the birds will rapidly learn that there is nothing to fear and will move in. Change the pattern of light/noise and change the position or type of scare tactics every couple of weeks for best results.
Rodents
All of the common rodents in our area are omnivorous scavengers and will eat most anything they can find including seed, fruit, stems and leaves, and the occasional meat source including insects and other small animals. Many of these creatures are very smart and quickly find ways to circumvent our best efforts to reduce their depredations.
With all of these, the number one method of control is going to be exclusion. Using raised beds, fencing, containers, netting, and repelling devices are all going to work some of the time. For some of these there are registered repellents that may be effective. Detailed information in a free pdf is available on the 2021 Home Grounds and Animals Pest Management Guide page. A second tactic that should always be employed is to reduce shelter and other means of accessing protected hiding places and alternate food sources.
- Remove tree branches overhanging your home or garden.
- Provide roosting sites with a clear line of sight for birds of prey who are happy to swoop to the rescue if they can for their furry meals.
- Do not pile boards or logs up near garden sites.
- Remove tall brush and weeds along fence rows.
- Block, board up, or fence off access to sheds and other structures both above and below the soil line.
- Remove bird seed feeders, clean up old or rotten fruit, and grind up vegetable and fruit being added to compost piles for quicker decay.
- Encourage snakes and other predators in the garden.
Voles are small mouse-sized plant eaters that will feast on fruit, seeds, roots, leaves, and stems if not controlled. Snap traps and removal of mulch, weeds, brush, cardboard, and wood boards on the ground will reduce populations. Also encourage access to your garden by foxes and birds of prey. Moles are a different creature that prefer to eat insects and worms and live below ground. See photos of voles and moles here.
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Pine voles create golf ball-sized exit holes in their tunnels.(Source: Barbara H. Smith, ©2017 HGIC, Clemson Extension) |
Ground squirrels that include gray and red squirrels and groundhogs are often blamed for eating garden veggies, tomatoes, and fruits like apples and pears. They are territorial, so reducing their populations simply means that others will move in. Trying to exclude them by netting is difficult. Providing alternative food sources like bird seed, corn, and nuts may divert them from your garden.
Eastern Chipmunk (Source:
Missouri Department of Conservation)
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Chipmunks are so very cute but they are tremendously destructive and will gather up freshly planted seeds, eat small cucumbers, and other young vegetables and fruit, and generally feed on above ground plant structures. Rat snap traps are sometimes used for these problem animals. |
Rats often require professional control tactics because their numbers are driven by available food sources that are not limited to the garden. They are also quite adept at accessing raised beds, chewing through netting, and even climbing trees. A professional pest management assessment of the population numbers and main food sources will be needed to control garden predation. As control often involves the use of poison baits, care must be taken to limit access to the bait by children, birds, other wild animals, and especially pets.
Rabbits
Bunnies are classified as lagomorphs and are not rodents. Your best options for controlling their feeding activities in your garden will be exclusion, repellents, and perhaps diversions. Fencing will need to be similar to chicken wire with mesh smaller than 2 inches square. For best results fencing around beds should be installed with at least 6 inches of it extending down into the soil and at least 2 feet of height from the outside ground level to the top of the wire. This is still easy for you and others to step over.
Repellents that are effective will have to be reapplied regularly. One that works is pet hair or the scent of dogs or cats in the garden. Common animal product fertilizer products like bone meal and blood meal are effective and contain nitrogen and phosphorous that your plants will appreciate. Chemical products that are available as repellents generally have some kind of protein-based odor component.
Diversions such as providing them with clover patches or overseeding your lawn with clover will provide them with a food source that is more attractive than your vegetables. As with rodents, making an effort to reduce hiding places will pay dividends in reducing your gardens’ attractiveness.
Next Month: Fall Crop Pests - the Pressure is OFF!
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July Observations from the Organic Vegetable Garden
All photos by Jessica Kaplan 2021
July is the hottest and busiest month at the MGNV’s demonstration Organic Vegetable Garden (OVG). High summer means we are continually planting, harvesting, and maintaining. The weeding never ends.
Elizabeth Collaton and Judy Salveson displaying a mid-July harvest |
Harvesting
This month, we’ve harvested bumper crops of turnips, Swiss chard, beets, carrots, and beans. Our beans are mostly bush varieties such as the reliable Provider and the beige and purple Deer Tongue, an OVG favorite. Both are hearty and flavorful. We also love the Roma II variety, which is long and flat, but not in taste. Last year we planted haricot vert and they were quite delicious, but not as plentiful as other types. When you produce most of your crops for food banks, that's important.
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We have planted Willow Leaf pole lima beans, but they will not be ready for harvesting for some time. Other crops we are beginning to harvest are zucchini, shishito peppers, cherry tomatoes, and eggplants. It's so exciting to see the fruits of one's labor.
Carrots and beets bagged for delivery to AFAC |
Harvested bush beans - Roma and Deer Tongue (beige) |
Planting
| By July, most of our summer crops have been planted. However, as we harvest the last spring and early summer crops, bed space opens up. In it, we mostly sow buckwheat. It's a fabulous cover crop that grows quickly and thickly – so thickly that weeds are unable to gain a foothold in the beds. Another benefit of buckwheat is its delicate white flowers that attract pollinators, always a bonus. When we need a bed for fall planting, we cut down the buckwheat and use it as a green manure. |
Flowering buckwheat |
Care and Maintenance
Much of our work in July involves caring for our plants and beds. We stake and cage tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants and put in climbing apparatus for the pole beans and cucumbers. Without supports, these plants will not thrive. Another July task is weeding. Every work party, a group of volunteers devotes their time to weeding beds. It's vital to make sure water and nutrients feed our crops, not uninvited guests. Weeds can also carry diseases that will attack plants. Watering plants regularly is another maintenance job of importance. It can be overwhelming in the OVG in July when the weather reaches 90+ degrees every day. If not watered routinely, seedlings and weaker plants will be stunted or die. Late afternoon thunderstorms can ease the watering regimen, but can't be relied on.
Stop by and visit the Organic Vegetable Garden at Potomac Overlook Park
2845 North Marcey Road, Arlington, VA 22207
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For more information on Vegetable Gardening, check out Select On-Line References for Kitchen Gardening on the Master Gardener of Northern Virginia (MGNV) site. MGNV volunteers support the work of Virginia Cooperative Extension's public education outreach.
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