If you’re like most gardeners, you’ve been
toiling away in the yard for a few months now and are seeing the results of
your hard work. You’re also ready for a well-deserved break.
 The University of Illinois Extension
Sangamon-Menard Unit Master Gardeners have the perfect answer: a summer
garden walk. Join us on Sunday, July 10, from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. for a tour of
unique gardens at five lakeside homes in Springfield.
This event is a great opportunity for gardeners and
nongardeners alike to see some beautiful properties, learn about individual
plants, and obtain advice from master gardeners about your home garden.
Author Guy Sternberg will be available until noon at one of the sites to
autograph his books, co-authored with Jim Wilson: Native Trees for North American Landscapes and Landscaping with Native Trees.
Homeowners at the these properties have graciously
allowed their gardens to be open for the tour: Dave and Teri Neff (master
gardener), 33 Oak Lane; Claudette and Tom Hiler (master gardener), 5 Oak
Lane; Natalie and Sid Marder, 8 Bay Ridge; Bob and Wini Biehl, 12 Bay
Ridge; Jim and Carol Dove, 7 East Shore Lane. All properties are located
off East Lake Shore Drive, near Exit 88 of I-55. A pleasant seven-minute
walk on a woodland path takes you between the Oak Lane gardens, and the Bay
Ridge gardens are next-door neighbors.
The five landscaped properties include trees (one site
boasts 56 mature white oaks), shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses, and
Japanese gardens. You’ll see sunny, colorful mixed beds; shady
woodland areas with hostas, astilbe, and ferns; and homemade hypertufa
containers. The gardens on the walk also feature vegetable beds, small
fruits, fruit trees, ivy ground cover, daylily beds, compost bins, and
roses.
Plants will be labeled, and master gardeners will be
available to answer questions specific to each garden. Master gardeners
will be on hand at the Hiler residence to answer your home-gardening
questions. Cold drinks and cookies will be available at the Neff garden,
served by the Smartseeds, the junior master gardeners of Ball Charter
School.
Tickets, which cost $8 in advance, may be purchased at
Ace Hardware stores in Springfield and Chatham. Tickets are also available
at the Sangamon-Menard Extension offices, located in Building 30 on the
Illinois State Fairgrounds and in Petersburg at 420 S. Seventh St. Tickets
may be purchased for $10 the day of the garden walk at any of the garden
sites. The money raised by this event will help support University of
Illinois Extension Sangamon-Menard Master Gardener and horticulture
programs. There are no refunds, and the walk will take place rain or shine.
For more information, call 217-782-4617 or visit
www.extension.uiuc.edu/sangamonmenard/gardenwalk/index.html.
Beetlemania returns!
The summer invasion of the leaf-devouring
half-inch-long eating machines known as Japanese beetles has begun.
Adult beetles feed on more than 300 species of plants,
including such favorites as roses, lindens, grapes, birch, willow, apple,
peaches, and raspberries. The beetles chew the leaf tissue between the
veins, leaving a skeletonized leaf.
Adult Japanese beetles are a colorful metallic green
with coppery brown wing covers. Adults most actively feed from 9 a.m. to 3
p.m. on warm, sunny days.
The adults are attracted to other beetles and damaged
leaves. Therefore, reducing feeding damage now can result in less damage
later.
There are several options for controlling adult
beetles.
• Try handpicking
adult beetles in the early morning. Hold a bucket containing soapy water or
rubbing alcohol below the infested leaves. Shake the plant or poke the
beetles, and they will drop into the buckets.
• Heavily attacked
ornamental plants can be sprayed with carbaryl (sold as Sevin), cyfluthrin
(sold as Tempo, Bayer Advanced Garden Insect Killer), or other pyrethroid.
Always read and follow label directions for safe use of pesticides.
Although beetle-infested plants may look devastated,
the beetles rarely kill woody plants.
To learn more about Japanese beetles, view a photo or
learn about control strategies for grubs, visit University of Wisconsin
Extension, Japanese Beetle factsheet, at www.uwex.edu/ces/wihort/gardenfacts/X1062.pdf
This article appears in Jun 30 – Jul 6, 2005.
