Simpson Park Demonstration Garden: Tuesdays@10

When Mother Nature can’t do it all….Simpson gardeners step in to offer a helping hand. Our Lagerstroemia indica were hit with bark scale so we hand-picked, brushed the trunks and squashed them. The Silphium perfoliatum in the Berm was infested with red aphids which we knocked off with a jet spray from the hose. In the Pollinator bed the Witch Hazel Hamamelis virginiana was hit with Phyllosticta hamamelidis, a fungus which causes brown lesions on leaves and dieback. We removed the infected leaves on and below the plant. Thanks to EMG Gerry Smolka the pool of stagnant water which accumulates in the well of a crape myrtle in the Shade Garden has been emptied through her ingenious use of a turkey baster! And Denise Dieter added a mosquito dunk as an additional deterrent when we are not available to empty the ever wet well. 

All of this pest control done by hand and without the aid of chemical treatments. We continue to educate and illustrate these techniques and more to our many Tuesday/Thursday visitors to our very popular community garden.