Nature’s sweet gifts: Forage for wild berries
If you look carefully in the wild, you’ll see the small but delicious fruits of the Thimbleberry (aka dewberry or black cap raspberry) growing close to the ground on thorny, thin purple-ish canes.
Starting out white and turning to red, let these tasty little treats turn a fully-ripe black before picking, but do pick them — they are a delicacy you won’t see in stores.
The same goes for the incredibly juicy wineberries that are now flowering, soon to bear their big and beautiful red fruits on distinctive reddish-colored arching canes.
Once grown as an ornamental, these plants have escaped into the wild and become a common sight in our region. The blackberry/raspberry-like fruits may be the juiciest of all the berries.
Just be aware that — like their cultivated cousins, raspberries and blackberries — these wild things are thorny and spread like mad.
If you prefer your berries to be better behaved, stick with blueberries and strawberries.
Mama don’t want no frogs ‘round here!
Hartley in Waldorf, Maryland, writes: “Do you know of any way to keep frogs away from our patio and backyard area? They’re all over the place!”
Geez Hart, whether they’re frogs or the more common toad, these amazing amphibians are eating their own weight in pest insects every day! What kind of problem could they be causing?
Hartley responds: “They’re annoying; always hanging out under the patio umbrella.”
They’re there for the shade. Please don’t harm them, they’re some of nature’s best pest controllers — and they’re cute!
Set up another spot for them nearby in deep permanent shade, keep the patio umbrella closed when not in use and they’ll move into their new space, especially if its near water and/or vegetation.
Its almost garlic harvest time!
Did you plant garlic back in the fall? If so, we’re getting close to payoff time!
First, if you haven’t done so already, go out and look at your plants. If any have little bulges at the top of a central stalk, cut those bulges off to prevent useless seed heads from forming.
If you want, you can stir fry these treats in a little olive oil, they have a wonderful mild garlic flavor.
After trimming the little bulges, keep a close eye on the plants. When the bottom third of a majority of your plants have turned brown, pull up a sample head. If it looks like a big scallion, slice it up and use it to flavor a dish — all parts of the garlic plant are edible at all times.
When your pulled sample reveals a big full head of nice fat cloves covered by a paper-ish wrapper, harvest it all and lay it out to dry in a cool but airy spot out of direct sun for about a week.
Then enjoy — but save the biggest cloves for replanting on Labor Day!
Lettuce reads the news, turns bitter
Did you plant salad greens back in the spring? The wave of hot weather we’ve been enduring is as tough on these cool-weather lovers as it is on us.
Wait until morning and harvest some sample leaves with a pair of scissors. If the liquid at the site of the cut is clear, you can be sure that the greens are still sweet.
But if there’s what looks like white latex at the site of the cut, the greens are beginning to “bolt” and turn bitter.
If the taste is still pretty good, harvest it all and use it quickly.
If the taste is sharp and yucky, just leave the plants in place. They’ll produce small flowers that will turn into seed pods. Shake the produced seeds into the soil in late August and a new run will begin growing in the cool air of fall.
Feed your head, not your lawn!
Summer is here both on the calendar and in the hot and humid weather that drops D.C. hotel room rates like a stone. Do take advantage of those rates and have family come into town to visit the Smithy, but do NOT feed your lawn!
Bluegrass, rye and fescue — the classic cool-season lawn grasses — are originally from the U.K., where summers are not nearly this intense. Feed those poor grasses while they’re struggling to survive the summer and you could finish them off for good.
Also: Don’t cut your grass when it’s wet or during a heat wave.
Make sure the grass gets an inch of water a week from you or the sky. If the watering is up to you, deliver that inch in one hourslong soaking ending early in the morning. Don’t water frequently or for short periods of time and don’t water at the height of the day or in the evening.
Mike McGrath was Editor-in-Chief of ORGANIC GARDENING magazine from 1990 through 1997. He has been the host of the nationally syndicated public radio show “You Bet Your Garden” since 1998 and Garden Editor for WTOP since 1999. Send him your garden or pest control questions at MikeMcG@PTD.net.
