Basil is having a rough week . . . .

First Dr. McGrath, a plant pathologist from Cornell (and the reigning goddess of integrated pest management for fungal diseases), is quoted as saying if you see the new strain of downy mildew on your basil, it's best to just go ahead and make pesto NOW . . . and then Becky gets Japanese beetles! Poor basil.

Q. Hey, how do I keep Japanese beetles out of my basil?

A. You have two realistic options. 1). Don't plant basil, 2). Hand-pick and drown the little fuckers (um, the Japanese beetles, not the basil).

Two other possibilities. From a long-ago forum conversation over at davesgarden.com, I think: smoosh up a bunch of dead Japanese beetles. Add water. Strain and spray on plants. The jury is out on whether this works, and whether (if it does) it's due to the redistribution of pathogens specific to Japanese beetles, or if, as one forum poster put it "They come up and go OH NO it smells like Uncle Ed and then leave." And, from my own brain: find something that Japanese beetles like MORE than basil, and space it around your basil in pots so that they all go there. Then, either remove the pots (bugs with 'em) or hand-pick and keep using them. Actually, the basic concept isn't mine--it's called trap cropping, and works great with some bugs (e.g., supposedly, crucifer flea beetles). Problem is, I've never tried it (or heard of it being tried) with Japanese beetles, and also Japanese beetles like almost EVERYTHING. It's hard to tell what they'll go to and what they'll avoid. I've had them eat my marigolds but leave my rose bush alone (I know; WTH??), and I've had them do the opposite. :/ I'll do some research and get back to you on that one . . . . .

If you don't have a whole lot of basil plants (or feel like putting in a ton of effort), you could do tall row-covers-on-sticks. Make certain you've removed all beetles first, or they'll just happily munch away under the row covers. Bear in mind that this would not be a good first line of defense in the spring, though, since they hatch from grubs underground and come up wherever they please.

Okay, did a little research on trap crops. The internet says: African marigolds (they're the tall, skinny ones), borage (although, the poor borage!), evening primrose, and knotweed (I don't know if they mean the little pink-and-white flower that most gardeners refer to as knotweed, or the big-ass fuzzy plant that farmers tend to call by the same name. I would not advise intentionally introducing either . . . .).

The internet also informs me that interplanting with four o'clocks can a) attract and b) poison the beetles. I'm beginning to suspect that the internet is full of shit.

So, yeah. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news! A few last bits of info that may prove useful:
1. For long-term control, DO NOT use those yellow pheromone traps. They just attract extra bugs.
2. For long-term control, DO use milky spore. It kills the grubs. May take several years. If you have close neighbors with tasty plants and un-milky-spored lawns, the adults will probably wander in, though not in as great numbers as otherwise.
3. When hand-picking, go in early morning or late evening, when they're less active. Hold your container full of soapy water below the leaf or branch you're picking from, as a few bugs will almost always try the "drop off the leaf and you can't find me, ha ha" escape tactic.

Hope any of that helps!! The next time I have access to a) Japanese beetles and b) four o'clocks, I will monitor that and confirm/deny, and will also test out some trap crops. Until then, happy hand-picking!

Sun, Shade, and Everything In Between.

A few weeks ago, via text.

Q. Can you grow tomatoes in part shade, or do they need a lot of sun? [paraphrased, as I've accidentally deleted the message]

A. Sorry, dude, tomatoes absolutely require a minimum of six hours of sun per day. No wiggle room. [Also paraphrased, and I seem to recall having used the words "boned," "screwed," or similar colorful euphemisms to describe his chances of getting a productive tomato harvest from the shady part of the yard]

More Info/Follow-Up: I have no idea why he was asking this; he grew great tomatoes in large containers on his (sunny) back porch last year, and has decided to do so again this year.

This question, whatever the inscrutable reasoning behind it, is a great example of some people's approach to gardening, especially in the early learning stages. They see that there's a little leeway between, say, full shade and part shade, or between "well drained soil" and not so well drained soil. They note that some plants survive through a light frost, and some even through a moderate freeze. They see experienced gardeners walk these fine lines with fair or even good results.

They assume, therefore, that the guidelines are arbitrary and mostly put there to annoy them. That's when the trouble starts.

"I put all eleven of my basil plants out early and they were doing great, but we had a few cool nights and now they're all dying of black spot fungus. The plants must have been defective!" (been there, done that)

"Can't understand why the marigolds and argeratum aren't doing well out back. Trees? Well, yeah, I guess I do have a few trees. And a bridge. And a some tall buildings. Why do you ask?" (guilty)

"Well, I dug down far enough to plant the rose bush, and maybe a little wider than the root ball, but I didn't feel like hacking through all that clay so I sort of stuffed it in and threw some dirt back around it. Is that why it looks like that?" (Only once! And it was a crappy rose bush to begin with. Really it was.)

Yes, experience and experimentation are absolutely the best way to learn! The question is: how many plants do you want to kill for each lesson? You can (briefly, partially) cheat Mother Nature. You can phone it in, you can half-ass it, you can make it up as you go along . . . but trust me when I tell you that you will have infinitely better results if you educate yourself about what conditions are best for which plants, and then make good use of that information.

In the interim, I should warn you that the rest of us are taking it in shifts to walk past your sad, straggly tomato plants, your drooping basil, and your dead flowers and mutter a few words of sympathy. We assure them you'll learn. We're not sure they believe us.

Preserving Herbs, Part One Of What I'm Sure Will Be A Series

At 8:15 a.m. last Thursday, via text message . . . I must have already had a lot of coffee. Either that, or I answer herb preservation questions in my sleep. Neither possibility would surprise me.

Q. Morning. How do I dry/save some of these herbs? Is freezing them after I pick them good or what?

A. I'm trying to remember which herbs you have [the bad thing is, I'd taken him the plants myself a few weeks before]. Dill will dry pretty well on a clean screen or rack in a sunny room. Basil dries okay but the best thing is to chop it up and freeze it with a little water in ice cube trays. You can store the basil cubes in a baggie. Cilantro doesn't dry well, but freezes okay.

More Info/Follow-Up: Obviously, this was the nutshell version. I know this will be a recurring topic, so I won't get into all the many, many, many uses for homegrown herbs. Or, at any rate, not yet! There are a few important edits and add-ons to my answer, though:

Drying herbs (or any garden produce) is a delicate process, fraught with potential for both success and disaster. If you don't have good air circulation, you risk mold both now and later. Few things are more disappointing than storing a season's harvest only to pull it off the shelf a month later and see fuzzy gray growth. Ew.

If you don't dry things fairly quickly, you start to lose quality (and, in the case of some medicinal herbs, effectiveness). If you dry them TOO quickly, or at too high a temperature, you lose a lot of flavor and end up with something that resembles the original plant to the same extent that the produce section at Wal-Mart resembles your local farmers' market. Double ew. For this and for several other reasons, most dehydrators will not work well for herbs. If you're lucky enough have one that will, read your owner's manual carefully and go for it!

Another unavoidable caveat: some herbs are simply easier to preserve than others. I may have advised freezing cilantro, but that's only because it's the lesser of several evils (the worst, of course, being a cilantro-less existence). Nothing is ever going to compare to fresh herbs except . . . well, fresh herbs. Some, such as oregano, rosemary, and thyme, are nearly as good dried as they are fresh. Some, like basil, will stay tasty after freezing. Others not so much.

All the above, though, as well as many others, are fantastic when enjoyed fresh and in season. All the more reason to grow your own!