Gardening
Boost Your Garden's Harvest While Reducing Pest Problems
Plant protection tents protect plants from cold and wind, animals, and insect pests.
Photo courtesy of Gardener's Supply Company/gardeners.com
Boost this year's harvest and reduce pest problems with less effort, while being kind to the environment. Employ row covers, chicken wire cloches and crop cages to prevent damage without the aid of chemicals.
Floating row covers of spun-bonded or woven materials let air, light, and water through to the covered plantings. The warm air that is captured protects the plantings from frosty temperatures. The coverings also prevent birds from dining on newly planted seeds and eliminate damage by certain insects like flea beetles, onion maggots, seed corn maggots, and leafhoppers that may infect lettuce, celery, and carrots with aster yellows disease.
Cover susceptible seeds and transplants at planting to prevent the insects from reaching the plants. Insects like flea beetles and onion and seed corn maggots overwinter as adults in the soil near the previous season's planting. Move susceptible plants to a different part of the garden to avoid trapping the insects under the row cover with their favorite food source.
Double the benefit with less effort by planting short season radishes with long season cole crops such as cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower. Harvest the radishes as the larger vegetable plants need the space. This will provide two harvests from one row. The row cover eliminates problems with root maggots on radishes, cabbage worms on cole crops, and rabbits from dining on them all.
Basil and beans are favorites of Japanese beetles. Cover these at planting and since they do not need pollination to enjoy the harvest, leave the fabric in place throughout the season. Just lift to harvest and replace.
Cover squash at planting to prevent birds from dining on newly planted seeds and to reduce the risk of squash vine borer and squash bugs. The fabric prevents these insects from accessing the plants. Remove the covers when flowering begins to allow pollinators access to the blossoms. Don't use row covers when planting squash in the same location as the previous year. Since squash vine borer insects will overwinter in the soil near the squash plants, the row cover will trap the insects and provide easy access to the plants. Continue to monitor for these pests throughout the remainder of the season.
Loosely drape the row cover fabric over the planting and secure the edges with boards, pipes, stones, or landscape pins. Commercial setups like the 3-Season Plant Protection Tent include a framework and fabric covers, making it easy for gardeners to cover and access the plantings. Systems like this include two covers; one to protect plants from cold and a second lighter weight fabric for preventing insect damage during the warmer growing season. Reuse the fabrics as long as they remain intact.
Self-supporting mesh enclosures like Pest Control Pop-Ups (gardeners.com) are another option for protecting plantings from insects, birds, and animals. Look for products like this that are simple to install and fold flat for easy storage when not in use. Finer mesh products keep out insect pests while larger mesh wire covers protect plantings from birds and animals, including hungry squirrels dining on greens and ripe tomatoes. Various sizes and designs provide coverage for individual plants, raised beds and berry bushes.
Make this the year to be proactive at preventing and minimizing pest damage throughout season without the use of chemicals. Your efforts will be rewarded with a bountiful harvest.
Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including The Midwest Gardener's Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses "How to Grow Anything" DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda's Garden Moment TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and was commissioned by Gardener's Supply for her expertise to write this article. Her web site is www.MelindaMyers.com.
Antiques
Latest Antique, Collectables, and Auction News
It's been several weeks since my last update on antique, collectibles and auctions news. Many historical items and a one-of-a-kind piece of sports memorabilia have recently been put up for auction.
The Daily News writes that a collection of NASA photos from the Apollo space program are being offered at a UK auction house. The collection, which features photos from the Apollo 11 moon-landing flight, belonged to the late journalist and author Tim Furniss. An original copy of Earthrise, the first photograph of earth taken by a person, has an estimate of £1,200 (about $1,588 USD). A photo of Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface next to the American flag is also estimated at £1,200. A photo of Buzz Aldrin taken by Neil Armstrong, which may be the most famous photo from the mission, is projected to sell for £2,000 ($2,647 USD). The entire collection is estimated to sell for £41,500 ($54,927 USD).
Moving to news a bit closer to the ground, a leather helmet worn by American aviation pioneer Amelia Earhart recently sold at auction, according to CBS news. Earhart wore the helmet during the 1928 flight that made her the first woman to fly on a transatlantic flight. She wore that same helmet when she took part in the Women's National Air Derby from Santa Monica, CA to Cleveland, OH. Thousands greeted Earhart when she landed in Cleveland, and she lost her helmet in the crowd of people. A man named Anthony Twiggs consigned the helmet to auction. His mother Ellie was in that crowd in Cleveland. CBS reported that "Ellie told her family that a boy who liked her said he had found Earhart's leather helmet on the ground and wanted to give it to her." The aviator cap sold for over 10 times the estimate of $80,000, fetching $825,000.
Today's final story comes from the sports world. Netflix's "The Last Dance" miniseries about Michael Jordan was partially responsible for a recent surge in collecting sports memorabilia. Yahoo Sports reports that a Connecticut man named Mike Cole recently realized that he owned a ticket stub from Michael Jordan's debut game. A friend of Cole's originally gave him two tickets to a Bulls game when he was a student at Northwestern University in Chicago. None of Cole's friends on campus wanted to go to the game with him after the Bulls had three previous losing seasons. Yahoo reported that there wasn't "much buzz preceding the debut of a rookie guard from North Carolina drafted after Hakeem Olajuwon and Sam Bowie." Cole went by himself, picked up the tickets at the will call window and saved the unused ticket.
Cole said that he would have sold the ticket for $500 before he learned what the game stub was worth. Some predicted the ticket might fetch up to $1 million. It didn't reach that valuation, but Cole was more than pleased with the $468,000 it brought. He will use the money to pay off his mortgage, help pay for his children's education and travel. His decision to sell it proved to be a slam dunk.
There are only a few more days to consign items for our spring multi-estate auction. My "Evaluating your antiques" class will be held at Bay Path's adult evening school on Wednesday, March 23rd. More auctions and other events are also being planned. Please see our website https://centralmassauctions.com to join our email list or follow us on Facebook to keep up to date on auctions and other events.
Contact us at: Wayne Tuiskula Auctioneer/Appraiser Central Mass Auctions for Antique Auctions, Estate Sales and Appraisal Services www.centralmassauctions.com (508-612- 6111) info@centralmassauctions.com