We are almost half way through August and have really been feeling the South Georgia summertime heat and humidity. My three tomato vines seem to have given up and only one of the eggplants is even showing signs of trying to grow. Ants built a bed at the root of one overnight, climbed the plant and ate through the leaf stems; from one day to the next the poor plant dropped all but one leaf and that one was drooping. I watered the root system and dusted with Sevin and am hoping it may recover and maybe produce eggplants through the rest of the summer. Eggplants are considered hot weather-tolerant and should continue to grow and produce until fall brings cooler days.

I am beginning to think I have too much to take care of all the plants properly. I am behind on feeding and deadheading, still have transplants from the house in town to get planted, have plants in containers that need to be set in the ground, have three rose bushes (two Lady Banksia) that need a permanent home, rooted gardenias to plant and pamper, rooted papyrus that need planting in a moist spot or maybe in a water garden tub, several variegated airplane plants that need to be placed in hanging baskets and I am still planting seeds like a demented fool. My husband would tell me I was obsessed with plants and planting and around Thanksgiving and Christmas I was obsessed with cooking and baking, I guess there are worse obsessions.

August is also a month when many gardeners begin to feel overwhelmed and burnt out from the heat, weeds and mosquitoes. I have lots of grasshoppers that love to eat large holes in many plants; I didn’t have many in town and hate to poison due to all the butterflies. Monarchs and zebras are the most abundant with some fritillaria and big beautiful yellow or blue swallowtails.

Daylily seed should be coming up by the dozens, but they are sparse so far even though I planted fresh seed from spring flowers. Amaryllis seedlings are coming up “like hair on a dog’s back” as a deceased friend would say about seedling that were very thick. I still have some in a bucket that are about the size of a golf ball that need to find a forever spot to call home. Gingers recently dug from town that need a good site with enough sunlight to thrive are waiting for their home.

The rainy days last week were good times for snail stomping. Cloudy overcast damp days keep them out all day feeding on vegetation. I placed some stepping stones near places where they like to live and lettuce drew them to the stones; I could go out several times a day and find more to stomp; I enjoy doing that.

A red-blooming flowering maple plant (abutilon) was growing fast and covering its self in drooping bell-shaped flowers; then one day holes begin to appear in the leaves. I checked for caterpillars, but didn’t see any and the holes kept coming, finally the plant was almost defoliated and stopped blooming. One day I roughly shook the plant to see if any insects would fly up or worms fall off; grasshoppers jumped off the plant and were stomped, each day I shook the plant, after killing about six of the green hoppers the plant begin to regrow foliage and has just started to flower again. I still shake it almost every day, but have not found any more grasshoppers. Gardening is always a challenge as there are so many pests or diseases just waiting to attack our plants.

I found scale under leaves on the camellia bushes, so they need to be sprayed with Superfine oil to smother the scale insects and an application of slow release fertilize to aid in bloom bud development. To enjoy each plant in it’s season, the chores related to them need to be accomplished long before we see the results of our labor.

Don’t forget to keep a look out on Japanese magnolias for scale on the branches that look like bumpy bark. These are commonly called turtle scale and appear like tiny hard shelled turtles attatched to the tender ends of the branches. Malathion is a good insecticide to kill established scale of this type.

I have had them so bad I had to take a stick and scrape them off the bark or damage the shell so the insecticide could get to the soft bodied insect under the hard shell.

This is the time of year mildew often attacks summer phlox (phlox paniculata), mildew is worse in very dry weather and I have not seen any this year, but my phlox gets much more air cirrculation than it did in town. If you see mildew on your phlox a simple solution of one gallon of water with two tablespoons of baking soda will knock the mildew out. It may take weekly spraying, but the baking soda changes the pH on the surface of the foliage and mildew can’t grow. The solution will not harm butterflies or hummingbirds attracted to the large heads comprised of many small flowers producing nectar.

I an out of space, see you next week.