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The summer garden can be laden with fragrance and color. Butterflies and hummingbirds have been actively sipping away in the flowers, and the bees are continuously busy. In northern Virginia, long days and warm to hot temperatures bring our mid-summer gardens into full bloom. Trees and shrubs are clothed in a rich mantel of leaves. Home-grown vegetables are beginning to ripen. For a tomato lover, nothing tastes better than a ripe tomato just picked from one’s own garden and promptly eaten!

If you are growing tomatoes, July can often bring leaf diseases. Septoria (Septoria lycopersici) and early blight (Alternaria linariae or A. tomatophila) can cause serious problems for your plants. Septoria starts as tiny, round, gray spots with dark edges on the leaves. These spots enlarge and cover the leaf, causing it to turn yellow and die. It usually begins on lower leaves and prefers wet weather (or overhead watering). It is caused by water carrying the disease spores splashing onto the lower leaves early in the season. The spores are windblown. It is often seen with early blight. This disease appears during both wet and dry weather but really prefers rainy days. It also begins on lower leaves with small, irregular, brown spots, often with a yellow halo. These enlarge and eventually kill the leaf. Control begins with good air circulation and no overhead watering. Also, remove the lower leaves and suckers and keep a close watch for any leaf spots. Always water your tomatoes at the base of the plant. If you had early blight in previous years, you might want to spray a copper fungal spray early in the season to slow down the spread of any disease. If your plants do get some infection, you can remove the plant completely at the end of the growing season and destroy it; put it in a bag and place it in your regular trash/garbage. For more information on growing vegetables, recognizing problems and how to control said problems, see the University of Maryland Extension website at the end of this article. The website includes pictures of what certain diseases and insect damage look like on certain plants.

With hot summer weather, all newly planted trees or shrubs must be monitored frequently so they do not dry out. The new plant’s root system needs frequent care until there are enough new roots for the plant to take care of itself. This might take up to a year of continued care, but drying out is one of the major reasons for the failure of newly planted trees and shrubs. After planting, dig down beside the new plant’s root ball about 4-5 inches to determine its moisture level. You might need a trowel to do this. If the root ball feels wet, pull the soil back around the root ball and wait for about 4-5 days. If the weather is very hot and possibly windy, you might have to check the root ball more frequently. If the root ball is slightly moist or dry to the touch, water the root ball from the top with a hose with the nozzle removed. Water until the root ball and area around it are completely saturated. Continue to monitor every 4-5 days and water as needed. Do not let your plant dry out. As the weather gets cooler in autumn and into winter, the days of monitoring get wider apart. Do not depend on rainfall to water your newly planted trees or shrubs. When you check the soil a few days after a soaking rain, you might be surprised at how far the water has soaked into the earth. Even in winter, if we don’t have significant rainfall or snow, continue to monitor and water as needed.

Weeds seem to grow more vigorously than our carefully nurtured garden plants, while the pesky insects are finding a lot of plants (and even us!) to suck, chew or bite. With high humidity during these hot summer days, unwelcome diseases deform, discolor and demolish our lawns and gardens. For many gardeners, the deer, squirrels, chipmunks and other critters raid their garden veggies and eat the lovely roses and other attractive flowers and foliage. Rain might fall when our plants need it, but Mother Nature is somewhat forgetful and either brings too much or too little rain as needed.

With all these adversities, a person might wonder why we garden. For some, it might be the artistic pleasure of design, or maybe it’s our need to connect with nature — we find solace and energy from growing and caring for our lawns and gardens. It helps us when we’re stressed, depressed, or just plain tired of being indoors. Not that gardening can’t be a cause for stress when outdoor problems occur. I’ve read some reasons why people enjoy or don’t enjoy gardening. Well, there were a lot of interesting reasons given, but for a person who has had a garden, I’m not sure I agree with many of those reasons. Why do we go out and weed an area or plant a garden or lawn? Why get up really early so one can spray the roses or other plants or turn on the sprinkler, just to protect the plants from drought or disease or insect pests? Why do we try to lift bags that are too heavy, try to dig soil that is almost as hard as cement, or spread bags and bags of mulch? We all have our own reasons. For me, it’s because if I don’t care for my plants, they will suffer. I planted most of the lawn and gardens through many years, and I want them to thrive. When I do, they reward me by growing and producing flowers and vegetables, like the tomatoes that I love to eat when freshly picked. They are so much better than the ones in the stores. The roses are fragrant and beautiful when in bloom, as is the clover in the lawn. It stays green during the heat of summer when the grass goes dormant; also, the bees love the clover flowers. So, as a gardener, I feel the garden rewards me more than the hard work it takes to keep it healthy. Another reason I find gardening rewarding is that I love horticulture and the science behind it. One is constantly learning something new, no matter how many years one has gardened.

Here are a few websites that are very helpful with your gardening.

• For information about caring for your tomatoes and other vegetables, this website is very helpful. Although it says for tomato problems, there are other choices you can click on for whatever vegetable problem you might be having: https://extension.umd.edu/resource/ key-common-problems-tomatoes/

• These are helpful for newly planted trees and shrubs: https://extension.umd.edu/ resource/watering-trees-and-shrubs/
https://www.merrifieldgardencenter. com/tips-inspiration/planting-guide/.