Weather

Fall Gardening and Preparing for Winter on CRIS Radio

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CRIS Radio: Focal Point 10/13/2025

Heather Zidack from the UConn Home & Garden Education Center talks to host, Stephen Thal, about the summer weather patterns, and how they have impacted our fall garden chores!

Transcript

00:00:01 Stephen Thal 

Hi, welcome to another segment on Focal Point. This is Stephen Thal, your host. And boy, we got another exciting program for our listeners. Today we're going to be talking about plants and gardens and how to take care of them, especially with the challenging weather- humid, hot. Oh, the plants must be having a tough time and garden things. What's happening? 

00:00:27 Stephen Thal 

Well, here to help us work this all out is Heather Zidack, and she's from the UConn Plant and Garden Education Center. Welcome, Heather. 

00:00:40 Heather Zidack 

Hi, Stephen. Thanks for having me. 

00:00:42 Stephen Thal 

Oh, it's always a pleasure. So what did the weather do to the plants this year? 

00:00:49 Heather Zidack 

So, this year was a wild year for our plants. It was a wild year for us too. Some of the weather that we noticed was quite crazy. But in particular, we had a very hot, very humid summer that led us to see a lot of fungal diseases. We got a lot of phone calls, a lot of emails, a lot of samples into our diagnostic lab that had a lot of diseases in the garden. So that was something that we saw. We actually have also been getting reports right now. People are asking us why are their lilacs blooming? And it's because of the stress that we've had this season. 

00:01:28 Heather Zidack 

So with that heat, that humidity, we've also had some really dry stretches that have kept us kind of right on the border of a drought. We're not quite there yet, but we are in abnormally dry conditions. So when plants are stressed, sometimes they do some really strange things and so people have been seeing their lilacs blooming in the fall when that's normally a spring blooming plant. It's not something that's normal, but it's definitely it's an environmental thing and it's not going to be like detrimental to the lilacs if you are seeing that. So it's it's worth noting, but it's not necessarily need for alarm. 

00:02:06 Heather Zidack 

We had earlier in the summer, we had the wildfires and smoke from that may have affected some of your plants. Because believe it or not, the air quality can affect your plants in the garden. And so that could have led to some ozone damage, which we see is like curling in the leaves. It can look like distortion in the leaves. So some weird things with that. 

00:02:29 Heather Zidack 

And then the other thing is that we saw temperatures whenever we went over 85 degrees, usually our common vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, things like that will actually kind of put a pause on. And so, they will not ripen or they may not fruit as heavily. So, we got some calls in saying, “Hey, why have my tomatoes been green for so long?” And it was probably because of the weather. 

00:02:56 Heather Zidack 

So a lot of things happening, the swings in moisture, so we'd have some really warm days, some really dry weather, and then we'd get kind of a deluge of rain. That kind of also stressed the plants out as well. 

00:03:12 Heather Zidack 

So we are advising right now to water your plants, especially your evergreens going into the fall. If we're not seeing an inch of rain forecasted, you want to make sure you're out there watering during any of your new plantings, any of your evergreens, anything like that. 

00:03:31 Heather Zidack 

The drought that we had last fall, so fall of 2024, actually caused a lot of losses in the garden for evergreens, rhododendrons, things like that in 2025 when we were coming into the spring and plants were starting to wake up. So, watering now is going to save you a headache in the spring for sure and if you've had anything like if you have had experience with like fungal disease in your garden this year we're recommending cut all of that tissue back let those leaves drop rake them up and dispose of them don't come compost it because you don't want to put it back into your garden so a lot of different weather patterns have caused the gardeners to have a little extra work this fall I think. 

00:04:14 Stephen Thal 

Okay so where do we go from here with the weather are we going to be bringing some plants into the house? And and we'll also be checking on the plants that have been in the house that may need some help for the fall. 

00:04:32 Heather Zidack 

Yeah, so it's definitely that time of year we recommend bringing in your plants when nighttime temperatures are 50 degrees or lower. And so, we've kind of been doing okay with that weather-wise but we are starting to get into that time where it's consistent and we're seeing that below 50 degrees. 

So, a lot of things if you keep, you know, palms outside or if you keep any citrus trees or anything outside, they need to be in if they're not already. So, some species can be a little more sensitive, so they may have needed to come in already, like even before that 50 degree mark, but that's our rule of thumb. 

00:05:13 Heather Zidack 

When you start to bring them inside, definitely look them over really well, feel them over really well, make sure that the leaves are smooth, everything is healthy, you're not feeling any kind of like insects or any sticky leaves or anything like that. If you are, it is time to kind of have a little bit of a closer look, have checked out for bugs, make sure that you're not bringing anything into your house that you don't want staying there for the winter with your plants. You know, check the undersides of the leaves, check through the soil a little bit, and identify and treat any of those issues before they come into the house. 

00:05:51 Heather Zidack 

So, we do help homeowners if you have pictures, you can send us pictures and we can take a look to see if any of those plant related insects are anything that you need to do anything about before it comes inside. 

00:06:07 Heather Zidack 

You want to give your plants a chance to transition from inside to outside. So if 50 degree nights is what they're-the goal is and we've been letting the weather come down to that 50 degrees and then you're bringing it into your 68 degree house, that's an 18 degree temperature difference. So they may show signs of stress. 

00:06:29 Heather Zidack 

They may kind of not be used to the amount of moisture in the air in your home as compared to what was outside, especially as it starts to get a little colder and we start kicking on the furnace and the air is drier inside the home. 

00:06:43 Heather Zidack 

So keep an eye on your plants, monitor them. Those stress responses may happen, but don't-go ahead and-don't overreact to it. So if you see them drying out, if you see them wilting a little bit, don't change your practices too much. Continue to water as you've always watered. Continue to take all the care that you always have to make sure that they're not drying out, but you're not over watering either. 

00:07:12 Heather Zidack 

We see a lot of people that will over love their plants and over water them. So you end up kind of seeing things come inside, the wilt, we’ll panic and then we'll put a ton of water on it, which then sends it to swing the other way into that over watering and root rot and things like that. 

00:07:30 Heather Zidack 

So just keep doing what you're doing, but keep an eye on what's happening to make sure that you can respond if there is an issue. 

00:07:39 Stephen Thal 

Okay. And that also goes for the local gardeners too. They probably experience a lot of people requesting help during the summer and now how to make best use of their garden. 

00:07:54 Heather Zidack 

Yeah, yeah. And we're going to start seeing now with, you know, again, weather related, we're going to start seeing frosts. Some parts of the state may have seen them already. 

If you have anything like mums or pumpkins outside, those are things that you may want to protect from those frosts. 

What happens is that when the dew falls at night and it crystallizes into frost on your plant material, it can actually damage the tissue and that causes your pumpkins to rot faster. It causes a lot of tender flower petals to not look so good. 

00:08:31 Heather Zidack 

So, what we recommend is to either bring them inside if you just have one mum on the front step, that's easy to bring in and just leave in the kitchen overnight. 

00:08:40 Heather Zidack 

But if you have a larger grouping of plants or if you have some, you know, some cole crop vegetables or something like that that you may want to protect, you can use something as simple as a bed sheet or a towel even. 

Never use a plastic tarp or anything to cover plants because that will just exacerbate the cold against the plant tissue, but definitely do find a way to cover them if frost is coming or bring them inside. 

00:09:12 Stephen Thal 

What kind of covers can you use? 

00:09:14 Heather Zidack 

So, anything that is fabric based is going to work really well. They do sell specific like frost covers, but you don't have to go that far. 

If you have an old sheet, if you have towels, a pillowcase even, kind of depends on your plant size, but a lot of those just to keep that frost from falling onto and making contact with the plant tissue. 

00:09:37 Stephen Thal 

Okay so now we got to get in and roll up our sleeves and begin the work to preparing the plants as Heather has been saying earlier because of the weather and now she's trying to talk a little bit more specifically about plants that come in the house to make sure they don't have some sort of a disease, which will impact the plants that are in the house as well. 

Now, is this the time too, because of the changing of the sunsets and amount of light coming in, you have to move your plants inside the house to different positions in the house. 

00:10:21 Heather Zidack 

So not necessarily different positions. Plants that we have indoors go through yearly cycles just like the ones outdoors. And so some of them may be able to tolerate that change in light as they adjust because it happens slowly. Always check your plant label to make sure if it needs like a full sun or indirect sun. 

You know, we've talked about before those differences are kind of like if you think about a cat in the living room, right? So, if it needs bright indirect light, maybe the cat is somewhere that the light is not shining through the window but it's right next door versus if it needs bright direct light, the cat is sitting right in the window and if it needs shade, it's over by the couch and you don't see it necessarily. 

So, if you always kind of think about in that way, you can remember where your plants need to be in terms of their labeling, which is important to follow. 

00:11:14 Heather Zidack 

But they do adapt a little bit over time when they're indoors, which is why we need to help them adapt when they go outside. 

So if you keep them in a place that is draft free, bright enough for whatever their requirement is, and away from any of the heat sources, so away from any radiators, vents, anything like that that can dry them out, keep them away from like being too close to wood stoves obviously, and that will help them to not be too dry so they don't lose water as quickly. But the other thing too is that like I said, they go through those yearly cycles, so they will go dormant just like the outdoor plants. 

00:11:58 Heather Zidack 

Cooler temperatures, changes in light, changes in water can trigger dormancy, but it is species dependent and so with our houseplants because we keep them in a steady environment as possible, some years they'll go into dormancy, some years they won't. 

And so it's just kind of knowing what plant you have and whether to expect that or not. That can be really helpful. The other quick tip with houseplants that I like to remind everybody is that we allow the soil to dry in between waterings. 

00:12:32 Heather Zidack 

So don't keep your soil wet when your plants are indoors. Let it dry out as much as you can in between to help prevent fungus gnats. Those are those little black flies that seem to get everywhere. 

Again, follow what your plant needs for watering, but if you can stretch it and let it dry out a little bit, you're going to help reduce that issue. 

00:12:54 Stephen Thal 

Oh, that's great. Is this also a time to take a look at repotting any of the soils or any of the plants that we're bringing in or the house plants that have already been there. 

00:13:07 Heather Zidack 

You certainly can. 

00:13:09 Heather Zidack 

People like to repot either in the fall or in the spring. Usually when you repot in the fall, it can be good if you've had them outside and you're worried about any critters that may come in with them in the soil. It's a good time to do it. 

You can do it in the spring if they've put on a lot of growth over the winter while they've been indoors.  

So it all matters on checking the plant in the pot to see if there's any presence of any kind of insect or anything. 

00:13:40 Heather Zidack 

You're definitely going to want to change out your soil. But also if the plant is, those roots are a little too tight in the pot, it starts to get root-bound, that's more your sign of whether to do it or not. It doesn't have to be on a time frame per se. 

00:13:56 Stephen Thal 

Okay, this is Stephen Thal with another segment on Focal Point, and we're interviewing Heather Zidack from the University of Connecticut Plant and Garden Center up in Storrs, Connecticut. 

00:14:08 Stephen Thal 

And she'll give us some phone numbers that we can call regarding if you need some help with your plants or the garden that you've been doing. 

Heather, you got some phone numbers we can use? 

00:14:24 Heather Zidack 

Absolutely. 

So, if you have questions about anything in the garden, anything plant related, your house plants, anything that you have that you you keep for plant material, we can help at the Home Garden Education Center. 

That number is 877-486-6271. Again, that's 877-486-6271 or you can always e-mail us at ladybug@uconn.edu. Again, that's ladybug@uconn.edu. 

00:15:03 Heather Zidack 

We look at pictures to help with diagnosis, so sometimes a picture says a thousand words. Also, I can give you the phone number too. It's a great time of year to be doing soil testing. 

So, the Soil Nutrient Analysis Lab, their number is 860-486-4274. Again, that's 860-486-4274. 

00:15:26 Heather Zidack 

So, between the services in the Home Garden Education Center, we work with our plant diagnostic lab and then the soil lab. We have pretty much everything that the home gardener or plant enthusiast needs to make sure that they're keeping their plants healthy. 

00:15:45 Stephen Thal 

That's good. 

00:15:45 Stephen Thal 

What about fertilizers? 

When does that come into play? 

00:15:50 Heather Zidack 

Yeah, that's a good question. So at this point, we should not be fertilizing anything. There are some exceptions for like lawn care and things like that, but my colleague is much more versed in that. 

00:16:05 Heather Zidack 

In general, it is too cold to fertilize anything right now because what's going to happen is if you were to put down any plant food,you would be pushing growth and any growth that's new on plants is very tender and very small and very susceptible to damage. 

So, it'll push out new growth and then it would freeze and cause damage and not do so well for your plant. So, we don't recommend fertilizing at this point in the year. 

The next time that you would be able to or you should would be for the springtime, once the soil temperatures start to climb up again and it starts to warm up. 

00:16:46 Heather Zidack 

If you have houseplants, you can fertilize. 

00:16:50 Heather Zidack 

However, some of them only need it once a year. It really depends on the species of houseplant you have. 

And so again, like I talked about over loving our plants with watering, sometimes we can over love our plants with fertilizer and, you know, overfeed them. And so sometimes we don't want to do that. So it's something to be aware of. 

Usually, as long as the plant is in active growth, you're able to fertilize. And so since we're kind of in that time of year where things are winding down and going to bed for the season, we just don't do it. But it all depends on what you're growing and what you have to keep an eye on. 

00:17:30 Stephen Thal 

Okay, what are some of the other things that we need to take care of in the fall? 

We did mention, we talked a little bit about fertilizer. 

We talked about bringing plants into the house. Making sure they're not bringing some critters in. 

00:17:43 Stephen Thal 

What about the compost pile? Is that something that we do all year round or just certain times of the year? 

00:17:50 Heather Zidack 

Yeah, composting is year round. So you want to make sure that you're continuously turning your compost pile. There's a couple different kinds. 

So there's hot composting where you keep your compost pile at 140 degrees by turning it throughout the year. 

There's also cold composting, which is what I'm a little better at, where you kind of throw it together, turn it when you can, but it takes longer and it may not necessarily take out all of the pathogens and weed seeds in the same way that hot composting will. So you have to be really careful with your compost at that point. 

00:18:25 Heather Zidack 

Which is a good thing to keep in mind because right now, we advise people who are doing their garden cleanup for the season. 

There's a lot of controversy between that going for do I clean up in the fall or do I clean up in the spring? And so, what I tell people with that is to maintain what I call goal-oriented gardening. So, if your garden is all about pollinators and wildlife support and native plants and all of that. Definitely clean up in the spring. Don't cut back your perennials right now. You can leave your leaves a little bit. That leaves habitat options like hollow stems, leaf litter, and all of that for overwintering insects. And it leaves seed heads for birds to feed on as well as for winter interest. 

00:19:16 Heather Zidack 

However, if you have had a lot of disease this year and we talked about like with all the weather conditions, we saw fungal disease, people had, you know, if you had insects in your garden this year or things like that that you needed to manage, then one of the best things that you can do is clean up your garden in the fall. 

00:19:37 Heather Zidack 

And it goes against that instinct to leave the leaves and leave that pollinator habitat, however, it does help us to reduce our need for chemicals and other products in the spring and the following season because you're taking out anything that's potentially infected and just disposing of it right now instead of letting it overwinter and come back in the next season. So, if you've had disease in the garden and your goal is to have to try to not have that happen again next year. 

You want to clean up all your leaf litter, you want to pull up all your sick plants, dispose of everything in the garbage, don't compost it. You know that you are removing some of those habitat opportunities for the pollinators, but you're keeping your plants healthy for them to come back to and find next season. So it's kind of a toss up between the two. 

00:20:31 Heather Zidack 

And so I always encourage gardeners to really look at their own personal goals in their garden and see what they're willing to work with. If they really want that pollinator habitat to clean up in the spring, go for it. If they want to manage the disease, then fall may be the better time. And the other thing to keep in mind that I encourage people is to think about their own time. 

00:20:56 Heather Zidack 

So your time is valuable when it comes to garden cleanup. And make sure you're doing what you have time for when you have the time. So I've explained this and I've talked to other gardeners about this and I am a big football fan and so on Sundays, I am watching football instead of being out in my garden, believe it or not.  

And so sometimes for me, cleaning in the spring allows me to have that extra hobby and so it's kind of looking at my time and my priorities and really making sure that my garden is fitting that. 

00:21:31 Heather Zidack 

Because at the end of the day, we all do gardening as something we enjoy, and we want to make sure that we continue to get out there to enjoy it. 

00:21:40 Stephen Thal 

Okay, are there any other major things that we need to cover at this point, Heather? 

00:21:46 Heather Zidack 

One of the things that I definitely encourage people, like right now, if you're out in the garden, make sure that you're digging up any of your bulbs. It's the bulb time of year. 

So when I say dig up bulbs, I mean all of your elephant ears, your canna lilies, your gladiolus, any of those annual bulbs should be dug up, put into paper bags for storage. If you're growing them in containers, you can just cut them back and put the container in the garage or the basement to make sure that it will stay cool, but it won't freeze. 

On the other side of that, you want to start planting your spring blooming bulbs right now, you want to plant your garlic in late October, early November, you want to remove your vegetable plants that have those signs of disease, and don't compost again like I had mentioned. 

00:22:39 Heather Zidack 

The other thing that you want to do is you want to try to cover your soil in any of your garden beds. So a lot of the perennial garden beds that you have and a lot of your foundation plantings and things like that may already have mulch around them, so it might not be as important. 

But for your vegetable gardens and things that you're turning over every year, it's important to make sure that that soil is covered for the winter. Some gardeners were able to put in some cover crops by now and have something to hold the soil, like plant material-wise, that they'll be able to turn in. However, at this point in the season, we recommend just using something like straw, leaf mulch. You can chop up your leaves and put them out onto the garden as long as they were disease free. 

00:23:29 Heather Zidack 

And what that does is when you break up your leaves and you chop them up first, it allows them to break down faster so that there's less cleanup for you in the spring instead of having like if you've ever seen outside the dense thick leaf patches that we tend to have in the spring where leaves have collected. You want to make sure that they're chopped up, they're fine and that they're able to be turned into the soil at the end of the season. 

When you do, if you do have anything that you're turning in, so if you're going to do the leaves this fall and turn things in in the spring, it needs to be about three weeks before you're planting in the springtime. So, keep that in mind. 

00:24:11 Heather Zidack 

Make sure that you are cutting back any of your perennials, if fall cleanup is your goal, this is the time to do it. You want to cut back and leave one third of the perennials above the ground. 

So, say you have a six inch perennial, you want to cut it back to a two inch stub and that's where you'll leave it for the fall if you decide to clean up now. 

00:24:35 Heather Zidack 

If conditions continue to stay dry like they have been, keep watering all of your trees, your shrubs, your perennials, especially your new plantings until the ground freezes. So we've still got a little bit of time that we should be watering with supplemental water. 

We recommend one inch of water a week, which actually ends up being about, I think it's like 0.62 gallons per square foot. So that can help you kind of figure out how much water you need in a week for your plants. 

00:25:07 Heather Zidack 

And you want to wait till all your shrubs are dormant so their leaves have dropped before pruning in the fall. Do not prune any of your spring blooming shrubs. 

So, you don't want to prune your hydrangeas. You don't want to prune your forsythia, your lilacs, anything like that because things likely already set their buds for next year already. So, if you prune them now, you could lose your flowers. 

00:25:34 Heather Zidack 

The other thing that we recommend is, like I said, you don't want to fertilize anymore at this point. You know, consider getting your soil tested now so that you can have those results in the spring and be able to hit the ground running. 

00:25:48 Heather Zidack 

And again, like I said, our office is open year-round to help support with any of these home garden houseplant questions that you may have. 

00:25:59 Stephen Thal 

And also you have a number of local gardeners, don't you, or grangers? 

00:26:05 Heather Zidack 

We do. We have county offices that will help with garden questions as well through our master gardener colleagues will help with identification and things like that. If it's disease questions, definitely send it to the Home Garden Education Center. 

00:26:23 Heather Zidack 

But the master gardeners at the county offices are also very well equipped to help with cultural questions, how to take care of plants, how to identify them, and some of these fall and spring cleanup tips as well. 

00:26:36 Stephen Thal 

Do you have many fruit plants that need to be taken care of, or are they all pretty much gone? 

00:26:43 Heather Zidack 

They're pretty well done the only one to keep in mind is your fall blooming raspberries or your fall fruiting raspberries those you want to prune after fruiting is complete otherwise you're going to be all set um mostly in the winter when things are totally dormant so we're looking at like March would be the time to start pruning your fruit trees. 

00:27:04 Stephen Thal 

Oh okay one other thing I forgot to ask you you also have to take clean your tools that you use the garden with. 

00:27:12 Heather Zidack 

Absolutely. That's a great winter chore. Clean your tools, especially if you're between pruning diseased plants. 

The other thing is in the winter, it's great to not only clean your tools, but if you need to sharpen your tools or it's a good time also to make sure that you repaint all the handles so you can find them again when you have them in the garden. 

00:27:34 Stephen Thal 

Hey, Heather's going to give us the phone number one more time in case you missed it the first time. 

00:27:40 Heather Zidack 

Yes. So if you have any plant or garden questions, you can always call our office at 877-486-6271. Again, that's 877-486-6271. 

00:27:55 Stephen Thal 

That'll be great. 

Well, thank you again for coming again to help our gardeners or people that have interested in starting gardens or plants or whatever. Great information. 

Give my best to your whole team and I know when it comes around Christmas there's a lot of plants there that have to be protected once the season goes by. 

00:28:20 Heather Zidack 

Yes, yeah there's a lot of holiday plants that we could certainly talk about. 

00:28:26 Stephen Thal 

Okay well thank you again and wishing you and the whole team at UConn Plant and Garden Center continued success. 

00:28:33 Heather Zidack 

Thank you so much. 

00:28:35 Stephen Thal 

Stephen Thal with another segment on Focal Point. 

I want to thank all of you for listening. 

And a couple of things we want to remind you of is first, make sure that you wear a hat and dark glasses to protect your eyes against the sun all year around, particularly during the winter, particularly if we get snow, be a lot of glare. 

00:28:59 Stephen Thal 

The other item I wanted to mention is to make sure that you have an emergency plan and practice it. If you need any help with it, call your local fire department or police department and they can direct you to the proper resources to help you build one of these plans because someday that life may be somebody in your family that you save. 

00:29:23 Stephen Thal 

And also when you travel, make sure you know what the emergency rules are so that should you get into a situation, you know what to do. 

00:29:33 Stephen Thal 

So once again, thank you all for listening. 

Stay safe and stay healthy. 

 

Weed Management for Late Summer

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By Heather Zidack, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

With a perfect combination of warm days, cool nights, and plenty of rain, every gardener has been fighting weeds since this summer began! To add to the frustration, the weather patterns themselves have felt like they have fallen on weekends, holidays, and all those precious hours that we love to be spending in the garden, making it difficult to get out and manage what is there. So how do we catch up?  

A person using a weed wacker
Photo by Heather Zidack, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

I’m sorry to say that the adage of “pick your battles” is going to be the best strategy to keep you from “getting lost in the weeds.” Mechanical removal like string trimming, mowing, or cultivating your garden are always effective. But some of us are looking for something that feels more efficient or saves our back from hours of labor-intensive weed pulling in this summer heat. Strategizing more long-term goals for your planting beds and lawns might be better for you than running outside with your garden weasel right now.  

We’ve all heard “nature abhors a vacuum” before. Weeds are no different. If turf is thin, or garden beds are left with uncovered soil, weeds will pop up. Utilize groundcovers and mulches to keep soil covered. If you’re in between plantings in the vegetable garden, a temporary cover, like cardboard, may keep seeds from contacting the soil until you’re ready to plant! For more long-term coverage, consider cover crops in your vegetable gardens.  

Encourage dense plantings through proper fertilizing, watering, and care. Healthy perennials and shrubs will shade out seeds that may try to germinate below them. For lawns, consider overseeding to bulk up thinned turf areas between August 15th and September 15th.  Mulch garden beds and pathways with a minimum depth of 3 inches if groundcovers aren’t being used.  

Once you have soil coverage under control, look at the nutrition. When the soil is not nutritionally supportive, you often find compounding issues like patches where you can never get grass to grow, poor vegetable production/flowering, and lots of weeds! Many weeds can thrive in these poor soils. While weeds aren’t necessarily a definitive indicator of a nutrient problem, it can be another clue when looking at the health of your planting areas. If you kill the weeds, and the soil remains poor you can expect weeds again the following season. Therefore, testing your soil and correcting imbalances is a long term and sustainable solution.  

Some common weeds, like crabgrass, are beyond a stage where we can easily control them with methods available to the homeowner. Fear not! Crabgrass is an annual, and the plants themselves will not return next year! They, instead, propagate through seeds.  

At this point in the season, shift your focus towards minimizing next year’s seed bank. As much as we loved to “make a wish” on a dandelion as children, we were only spreading more dandelions into the yard! Keep this in mind now as you tend your garden. Cut grass before weeds can develop flowers and distribute seeds. Remove plants like pokeweed, before they have a chance to develop berries that can be carried off by animals.  

Don’t underestimate the value of a good identification. Knowing the exact species of weed in the garden can help you make a targeted approach with whatever physical, cultural, or chemical method you might be considering.  

If you must resort to chemical management, read the label in full and follow all instructions provided. At the UConn Home & Garden Education Center we do not recommend the use of anecdotal home remedies for weeds. Many of these methods are not researched. Products used in the garden should be labeled for use on a specific host, a specific pest, and have specific application instructions. As an example, while vinegar may be recommended anecdotally to use on weeds in the garden, one should only consider a product like horticultural vinegar that has a specific formulation, concentration, and a product label that clearly identifies its uses, safety precautions, and instructions for use.  

No matter what weed you are trying to manage, persistence is key. This is especially important to remember if you’re dealing with the most aggressive weeds, or even invasive plant species. Rarely do we see a single treatment leading to complete eradication. So don’t be discouraged if plants are taking multiple seasons to tackle. The CT Invasive Plant Working Group has great guidances on what you should do for specific species of invasive plants like Japanese Knotweed, Mile-A-Minute Vine, Tree of Heaven, and more.  

If you have specific questions or need help with weed identification in the lawn or garden, send us pictures, or stop by with a sample.  

The UConn Home & Garden Education Center supports UConn Extension’s mission by providing answers you can trust with research-based information and resources. For gardening questions, contact us toll-free at (877) 486-6271, visit our website at homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu, or reach out to your local UConn Extension center at cahnr.uconn.edu/extension/locations. 

This article was published in the Hartford Courant August 9, 2025

Extreme Sports for Plants: Temperature Tolerance

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By Dr. Matthew Lisy, UConn Adjunct Faculty

Spathiphyllum wallisii in a pot wilting indoors

This Spathiphyllum wallisii is forty years old. In the fall of 2024, it wilted due to an extreme negative temperature change. (photo by M. Lisy)

Spathiphyllum wallisii outside, lush and healthy

This is the same Spathiphyllum wallisii showing a lot of new growth during the warm, humid summer of 2025. (photo by M. Lisy)

Plants, like humans, have an ideal temperature preference.  In general, we like to have temperatures between 60 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit.  Temperatures outside this range cause us stress.  Our plants have very similar temperature requirements, only they have no ability to shiver or move!  This past winter, I had a 40-year-old houseplant near my bedroom window.  Our fall weather hit, and we dropped about 30 degrees in a day.  My plant wilted and looked like it was going to die.  After a long process of investigation and discussions with my fellow plant professionals, I can only conclude it was the rapid temperature change.  The good news is that it made a full recovery once it adapted to the cooler weather.

This past winter, I had some Sansevieria that were under my windowsill.  They get beautiful light in the later part of the day.  The house is heated to 55 degrees, which is above their lower temperature tolerance, but the plants were not looking good.  This spring, I found out that the storm window had fallen out of place.  This set up a cold draft that negatively affected the plants, causing some formerly unexplained rot over the winter.

Not all plants have the same susceptibility to temperature.  Cacti and succulents are usually from hot, arid climates.  These plants are used to seeing temperatures soaring in the day, and then getting comparatively cold at night.  As long as they are given proper light, most of these plants can tolerate life very easily in our homes.  Even cold, unheated basements or outdoor greenhouses are just fine as long as temperatures stay above freezing.

Many of our plants come from the tropical forest floor where they are used to similar temperatures during the day and the night, all year long.  While there is some adaptation to life in our homes, they have a preferred temperature and humidity range.  There are some really neat “new” Philodendron species being offered for sale.  Many of them have minimum temperatures of 60 or even 65.  This can be difficult to do in an era where our smart thermostats are programed to turn down while we are not home, and up when we return in the evening.  These temperature swings may be intolerable to our plants.

Be careful watering plants when the sun is shining.  Those little water droplets can end up capturing the sun’s rays just like a greenhouse would.  The droplets heat up and can actually burn a spot in the plant leaf.  Remember, each drop can do this, so many times, the whole plant can look like a spotted mess!

Temperature can many times mark the difference between success and failure to keep some of the more difficult species of houseplants.  Changes should be done slowly to avoid stress.  If houseplants are kept outside in the summer, waiting too long can see the loss of some plants with lower temperature tolerances.  Placing plants closer to the house or inside a simple greenhouse can help during the first cool nights of early fall.  Especially sensitive plants should be brought in before any threat of cool weather.  I learned this lesson the hard way with my prized Philodendron squamiferum.  Its ideal temperature range is 65-85 degrees Fahrenheit.  I had it in the basement and was planning on moving it to the first floor, but left it down there as the light was nice.  While this plant technically can tolerate temperatures in the 50s for a short duration, it got too cold for too long and it dropped all its leaves one night (it died).  As a general rule of thumb, if it is too cold for people, it will be too cold for our houseplants!

The UConn Home & Garden Education Center supports UConn Extension’s mission by providing answers you can trust with research-based information and resources. For gardening questions, contact us toll-free at (877) 486-6271, visit our website at homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu, or reach out to your local UConn Extension center at cahnr.uconn.edu/extension/locations.

This article was published in the Hartford Courant August 2, 2025

It’s Not Too Late! Plant Now for Fall Harvests

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By Heather Zidack, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

Squash seedling with first true leaves mulched with straw.
A young squash seedling planted in time for the fall harvest! Photo by Heather Zidack, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

Gardeners have had a broad range of experiences with their vegetable gardens this season. Some planted early in May with the warm weather, which was followed by a cold front that meant covering plants, or keeping them in pots longer than you had planned. For others, a pattern of cool, rainy spring weekends delayed planting! Cornell even sent out a reminder to residents to watch for tractors on the roads a little later this season as farmers, too, were scrambling to adjust in upstate New York. Thankfully, there is still plenty of growing season left for us to shift our practices and still have a bountiful harvest from our home gardens.

There are roughly 100 days left of the growing season until the first predicted frost date, according to the farmers’ almanac. That means you have an opportunity to still plant your dream vegetable garden! Look at the “days to maturity” to determine if planting now makes sense. Many summer crops, like zucchini, cucumbers, and even some types of winter squash have much shorter days to maturity and can be started from seed right in the warm, summer soil.

Have a type of bean, radish or leafy green you love, but can’t process bushels at a time? Plant every couple of weeks this month for a staggered harvest to enjoy your favorites for an even longer period at a more manageable volume!

Do you plan to harvest garlic this month? Be ready to follow up with a short-term crop like leafy greens, beets, carrots, or even some types of corn!

The practice of succession planting gives gardeners a chance to extend the garden season and promotes soil health by keeping your garden beds active. Rotating crops in this fashion reduces the risks of soil erosion, weed overgrowth, and nutrient depletion, when done correctly.

When setting up a succession or rotation schedule, consider what has been in the bed previously and how those plantings might interact. Determine the nutrient needs of the plants you are considering. You want to be sure you are not planting one heavy feeder right after another as this may mean you need to provide more nutritional support than you planned for. Instead, opt for plants that feed on different nutrients, or better still, plants that help to reintroduce nutrients into the soil.

Succession planting and crop rotation not only benefit the garden beds that have been put on the back burner as we’ve tried to find time between the rain and temperature swings, but it may also benefit those who have a history of battling with garden pests. Planting later in the season may help prevent or minimize damage from many single generation pests, like the Squash Vine Borer or the Four-Lined Plant Bug.

Many Cole crops (those in the brassica family) and cool season crops can be started from seed now in preparation for fall planting. However, it may be best to start these indoors instead of directly sowing in the ground. Temperatures over 85 may cause delayed germination or bolting too early once those plants pop out of the soil. Starting them indoors gives you a little more control over the temperature. Otherwise, search for heat tolerant varieties for better results.

If you want a rest from the care of vegetable gardening and harvesting, consider planting annuals. There are many varieties of marigold, cosmos, zinnia, and some other beautiful cut flower varieties that could happily take up some space and lend their services to some late season table arrangements for you!

There’s a lot to still do if you want a bountiful fall harvest, and there are a lot of considerations to make when planning what to plant next. Do your research with cooperative extension or land-grant university resources for science-backed information to guide you in your next steps. And remember, we’re here at the Home & Garden Education Center to help you make sense of it all!

The UConn Home & Garden Education Center supports UConn Extension’s mission by providing answers you can trust with research-based information and resources. For gardening questions, contact us toll-free at (877) 486-6271, visit our website at homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu, or reach out to your local UConn Extension center at cahnr.uconn.edu/extension/locations.

This article was published in the Hartford Courant July 12, 2025

Gardening with the Weather on CRIS Radio

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CRIS Radio: Focal Point 6/16/2025

Heather Zidack from the UConn Home & Garden Education Center talks to host, Stephen Thal, about our strange spring weather, gardening outdoors and more!

 

 

 

Transcript

00:00:01 Stephen Thal 

Hi, welcome to another segment on Focal point. This is Stephen Thal and I'll be your host for today's informative program. 

Our guest today uh is known to us. She's been on several times in the past year to help us understand more about living plants, whether you have them inside your house, or you put them outside or you're doing gardening and she's also part of the UConn plant science program and they offer many, many services which she'll be explaining sometime during her presentation today. 

However, to kick this off. We have to be more cognitive of the weather, the types of weather we're having. Examples include drought, some places there's too much rain, so here to help us straighten it out and get some good plant life going. Is Heather Zidack back from the UConn Plant Science Center. Welcome, Heather. 

00:01:00 Heather Zidack 

Hi, Steven, thank you for having me. 

00:01:03 Stephen Thal 

So let's take a look at the weather pattern. Weather patterns have been infected- impacting plants. 

00:01:11 Heather Zidack 

Yes, it has been a very notable spring this year with the amount of rainfall that we've had. But before I talk about the rainfall, I want to just go back a little bit because we've actually seen effects from last fall in our garden. So what happened at the end of last summer, early fall and into the winter, if you remember, we were actually in a drought through most of the state. 

And that lasted through March of this year. And so because a lot of plants went into the winter under drought conditions, we actually saw a combination of the lack of water with the heavy winds from this winter and it caused a lot of moisture to be pulled out of those plants. 

We saw a lot of winter kill, so broadleaf evergreens, rhododendrons, mountain laurels, all sorts of shrubs like that, anything needled evergreens as well. A lot of arborvitaes Japanese Hollies, things like that. We saw the-uh They turned brown and then they ended up just kind of dying back. Luckily with a little bit of care, homeowners have been able to bring some of them back and at this point in the season, we're starting to look more towards disease causes, but this was seen all over the state, so we had this drought in the fall. 

And then here we are in March and April, seeing the effects of it. So everything that happens is cyclical and we see it happen in the next growing season. And then here we are now with significant rainfall. I think it's rained-What every weekend for quite some time now. 

00:02:52 Heather Zidack 

And that rainfall in May was enough to pull us out of a moderate drought across the state, except for like one small area in Fairfield County who is abnormally dry, which is the lowest rating that you can have in drought conditions. So that's really good. 

The expectation for the next month or so is average. So you want to start to monitor your gardens and make sure that if we're getting an inch to two inches of water a week, we have enough water for our plants, for the most part. If we're seeing less than that, we've got to get out and start checking the soil and get into the habit of  watering so that when we get into the next fall that we have coming, we don't get used to not watering and then seeing plants decline from that. Because I think that was something we saw last year as well as we had a very wet spring and when we got to the fall. 

00:03:47 Heather Zidack 

Not only did we have a drought from the environment, but a lot of us didn't get trained, we'll say, to go out into our gardens every day or two to check to make sure the water was there, because we just relied on it coming from the sky. So that's been a really huge impact that we've seen over the the last season in our gardens and we're just getting started with growing.  

00:04:10 Stephen Thal 

Wow, what are some plants that are directly impacted by this? 

00:04:15 Heather Zidack 

So some of the things that we've seen, like I said, the evergreens were a really big deal. 

A lot of stuff that's more shallow rooted is going to see more effect one way or another. It's going to have more signs of stress, but the bigger thing that we're seeing right now out in the garden-Once we've gotten passed into this spring and seen some of the shrub damage is looking at our annuals and what's happened with our annuals is we've looked at the temperatures and we've had some significant cold in comparison to previous springs. So when you have cold weather like we've had what we recommend. Is if it's 50° or more. 

It's good to put your annuals, your house plants, your tomatoes, your Peppers, all of that outside. We've had a few weeks. I think it was the week before Memorial Day this year where those temperatures dip below 50 and so we actually saw a lot of people were covering their plants, bringing them inside, making those adjustments. 

00:05:19 Heather Zidack 

In order to protect their crops, because if they were left outside, although they would survive, they wouldn't necessarily die off. Turn brown and fall over and have to restart. You may notice things like the flowers dropped or they slowed down how they were growing, especially anything in the eggplant, pepper, tomato family once the temperatures get to like 60°, they pause development, so once it gets lower than that they start to get a little bit stressed. On the other side of it, our cole crops and our Greens have loved this weather. I just was out my garden this past weekend and I picked a giant basket of lettuce and spinach and all of that because these cool nights and warm days are really encouraging growth of those crops without sending them into flowering. So it's just something that kind of keep an eye on. 

00:06:11 Stephen Thal

And uh, what about? Uh, you were talking about leafy lettuce. Uh, how do you take care of those? They're a little tender, aren't they?

00:06:20 Heather Zidack 

They actually are pretty tough. What's really interesting is that once we usually get into this point in June, July and start getting into the heat of summer, they actually start to get a little bit more difficult to grow because they don't like the heat of the summer. 

00:06:36 Heather Zidack 

They'll start putting out flowers. They'll start wilting, using a little more water. 

So we tend to not see them grow as well in the home garden in the high heat of the summer. You can protect them from that with any shade cloth or putting them in a shadier area because they're not producing anything like fruit or flower. They don't need to have as much of the sunlight as some of your other plants do that also applies to some of your your herbs like your basils and things like that, so they can go in a shadier spot if you have- 

00:07:09 Heather Zidack 

You know a spot in your garden that maybe is a little too shady for your tomatoes, but it might do OK for your leafy greens, your herbs and things like that. With the weather that we've been seeing too, it's really important to make sure that you're spacing your plants really well this year. You don't want to make them too close to each other, because crowding can often help when it comes to diseases and pests. They love tight, crowded areas, so if you space out your plants really well this year-You're going to help reduce that pressure when we start seeing the hotter temperatures, some of this humidity that we get in the summer and things like that. 

00:07:51 Stephen Thal 

Now when you're asking when you're working in the garden. Should you be wearing gloves to protect some of the insect bites you get, or some damaging to your hands? 

00:08:04 Heather Zidack 

Absolutely. I wear gloves when I'm in the garden all the time. I do it for a couple of reasons. I have, you know,  I like to protect my my manicure, right? So I keep my gloves on. But it also is really good. Like you said, if you have got insects in the garden, but like I've seen this Spring because of all the rain that we've had, my garden is actually close to a wetland and we've had a lot of mosquitoes. So I found myself actually going out with not just gloves but long sleeves, long pants and close toed shoes and a hat, just to make sure that I'm protecting myself as best I can from the insects. 

00:08:46 Heather Zidack 

It's a good thing to do, just to have that extra layer of protection when you're pulling weeds. You never know when you're going to have something that you know might just interact with your skin or something like that. So definitely I wear gloves all the time in the garden and I do recommend it for everybody that's out there. 

00:09:05 Stephen Thal

And what about? Uh, you had mentioned to me about you shouldn't walk on wet soil. What does that do?

00:09:15 Heather Zidack 

Yes, so especially this spring with all the rain that we've had and everything, gardens are starting to get a little bit flooded a little bit waterlogged. So the first thing that we recommend is don't walk on the soil when it's wet if you can, especially when it's been really saturated after some of the rain that we've had these past few weeks. 

00:09:35 Heather Zidack 

What that does is that compacts the soil and it squishes it down and closes a lot of those air pockets that are there between the soil particles. So that makes it harder down the road for water to penetrate and get into the soil and to the roots of your plant. So if you do have either saturated soils or this is good if you're just checking your water needs in the garden, it's a really good thing to get tactile with it and use your hands so. 

00:10:04 Heather Zidack 

You want to dig down a little bit. You want to grab a little handful, squeeze it in your hand if it. If it's really dusty, really dry. We all know what that feels like. And so that's when your plants are usually gonna need water. If when you squeeze your hand, you've got water running out of your hand, it's gone the other way. And it's definitely saturated. You don't want to walk on it. You don't want to add any water you wanna try to keep your plants where they are so they can dry out a little bit. 

00:10:33 Heather Zidack 

If it's somewhere in between and it holds a form, but it doesn't have any water coming out of it. That's like that sweet spot where you're like, OK, I have enough water for now. I can come back tomorrow and check. So that's really the best way is to to look and use your hands as you're exploring your garden to make sure that it's well watered. Don't rely on appearance because a lot of times some of these garden products that we have can look wet or look dark compared to what the soil is and so it can be a little deceiving. So you want to always make sure you're checking with your hands instead of using your eyes to take a look. 

00:11:13 Stephen Thal 

OK, how about, uh, some of the insects like squash bugs and so on. Uh, are they helpful to the garden or harmful? 

00:11:23 Heather Zidack 

They are opposite, they are harmful to the garden, so they are coming. Squash bugs usually start coming out-Wanna say end of June, early July, there's squash bugs, there's squash borers, there's things like that. And with those, if you're growing squash plants, you wanna try to remove them as early as possible. 

00:11:44 Heather Zidack 

They are something the squash vine borer I'll start with is one that lives in the soil. Once that hatches, it crawls out and chews into the stem and the larvae lives in the stem. So if you see a squash plant that's wilting and doesn't look so hot, if you trace it back to the stem in the ground, you might notice it almost looks like...um..It's it's not, but it almost looks like wood shavings. You'll see where it like burrowed into the stem if you cut that stem open, you'll probably find some kind of Caterpillar in there and they move quick. They move like a foot a day, so that's one to watch out for. 

00:12:22 Heather Zidack 

The squash bugs are a little less dramatic, but you'll notice they're eggs on the underside of leaves, and what I recommend for people who are dealing with squash bugs to do is remove them by hand, take a piece of duct tape, wrap it around your hand backwards, and just stick your hands to the leaf. It's enough to pull those eggs off without having to use any chemicals or pulling the leaves off the plant. It's a really effective method. 

00:12:47 Heather Zidack 

If you want to go a step further and you're out in the garden and you're deciding to plant your squash, it's mid-June so you could maybe plant this weekend if you're doing that, you could put netting onto your plants. As long as it's not the same place it was last year and that will help the adults from flying in and getting onto your plants in the 1st place. So that's a really good thing to. 

00:13:12 Heather Zidack 

You there's other bugs out there as well. In the summer, there's a lot of insects. If you've had a garden, you know there's a lot of bugs out there. Usually you can't tell by just the damage left. You need to find an insect that it's in action to treat your plants. 

00:13:28 Heather Zidack 

Because what we recommend doing is, it's called integrated pest management, or IPM. They have-in using that method, you're using your targeted approach to get rid of a specific insect that you have identified using specific methods. That way we're not overusing any products in our garden. We're not going and over exerting ourselves to take care of the issue. It's a smart approach and a targeted approach to whatever your garden problems are. 

00:13:56 Heather Zidack 

With that being said, this is a little personal plug here for the Home and Garden Education Center, but we will be hosting a home gardener seminar for integrated pest Management in August, so it's a multi speaker event. We have tips to manage pest disease, and other things in your garden and that's going to be coming up in August. If you'd like to get information about that, you're welcome to either call or e-mail us and we can put you on the list to let you know when that releases. But it's something that helps make that targeted approach. Couple of other insects that are out there right now are things like the four lined plant bug that does a whole lot of damage. It's damage, looks like like little brown spots all over leaves. I've seen them on basil. Specifically, they have a bunch of hosts, but I know they love my basil at home. 

00:14:50 Heather Zidack 

There's this spittle bug which has little foamy...Nests will say they're not really nests, but they're little foamy structures that they put around the center of a stem. When they're there, they're a short-lived insect that just kind of does its thing and dives out in the environment, and we don't even need to treat it. There's aphids. There's all sorts of things, so that's when learning what you're looking at can guide how you're treating it so that you're not using as many products in the garden. 

00:15:19 Stephen Thal 

Huh. What are my mosquitoes? How do you deal with mosquitoes? 

00:15:24 Heather Zidack 

Mosquitoes are different, but very interesting in the garden, so they're definitely out. Like I said, I am near a wetland, and so I'm definitely experiencing them out in the garden frequently at this point. Best thing to do when you're dealing with mosquitoes in your yard is if you are out. 

00:15:44 Heather Zidack 

They come out at dawn and dusk, so being outdoors at those times, you want to wear bug spray, especially like when that's when they're most active. 

00:15:52 Heather Zidack 

If some people do wear bug spray throughout the day because in areas that are bad, they're always out there. So it really depends on what your yard is like. After rain, you can dump out any containers they've caught water because what they do is they lay their eggs and their larvae actually live in water before they go into the air. So you want to make sure that the air-that the water is dumped. You want to empty any of your bird baths and rinse them regularly for the same reason. 

00:16:24 Heather Zidack 

And one thing that's really interesting with mosquitoes is we see a lot of mosquito repellent plants that are sold and advertised to us and this is a big thing for a lot of people. One thing that I warn people about with this is that their job as a mosquito repellent plant is to keep the mosquitoes away from the plant itself. 

00:16:46 Heather Zidack 

So it's an immediate proximity. 

00:16:49 Heather Zidack 

What we do is we tend to harvest the oil from these plants and put them into repellent products. So like the citronella plant for example, or lemongrass or things like that, we extract those oils and then use them in our insect repellents. It's not necessarily going to protect you if you have a pot of lemongrass on your patio because it doesn't have an 8 to 10 foot range. It only has a few inches around that plant that really has that repelling effect, so. 

00:17:21 Heather Zidack 

That's how that works. They're great to have, but also just to keep in mind, with that, we never recommend crushing or rubbing any kind of plants on your skin without first consulting with a doctor or an allergist just to make sure that you're safe and you're doing what's best for your health. 

00:17:39 Stephen Thal 

This is Stephen Thal with another segment on Focal point and we're interviewing Heather Zidack from UConn Plant and Science Department up in Storrs. 

00:17:49 Stephen Thal 

And she's been leading us through the different weather patterns and also how some of the plants are impacted. And we also were talking about some of the oils that plants develop and how effective they may be in various stages. 

00:18:06 Stephen Thal 

It's very interesting and I think something else we got to take care of here is how do we, what kind of soil do we use and what kind of fertilizers we use, right, Heather? 

00:18:17 Heather Zidack 

Yeah. So soils are really important because that's the foundation of your garden. That's really where the not just your plants are taking root and and having their structural support, but also that's where the plants are gonna pull everything from nutrition, water and everything that they need. So whenever you have a garden, we always recommend calling our the soil Nutrient Analysis lab, either the one at UConn or the experiment station to have your soil tested. We recommend testing every two to three years and what they do is they look at the nutritional value of your soil. They don't look for anything else, but they will tell you what the nutrient levels are. 

00:19:00 Heather Zidack 

Are and I know with the UConn Labs specifically, what they look at is are specific values and how it would relate to your garden. So if you fill out a report that says I'm looking to grow vegetables, they'll kind of help you figure out what amendments you need to make for your garden to grow those vegetables. I can't speak. For what the experiment station does, but they are available as a resource for the public as well. And sometimes it just comes down to who's closer to you and how do you want to move forward and what information you want to get? 

00:19:35 Heather Zidack 

So that's really important. Get your labs and get your soil tested and figure out what your nutritional values are. Really important for, especially vegetable gardens, where nutrients are are kind of going through the systems a lot quicker than in established beds. 

00:19:55 Heather Zidack 

A lot of trees and shrubs and perennials that are established may not need fertilizer every year. They might need it every other year. It really depends on the species. There are some native species that rarely need fertilizer at all, so know what plant you have and then we can look into it a little further. 

00:20:14 Heather Zidack 

But like I said, those vegetables tend to have high demand and need more support because they're producing food for us. So what you want to look at are big three, our nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium or we say NPK. Your nitrogen is responsible for growing really lush leaves. Your phosphorus is really good for things like flower, fruit, a lot of your bloom booster fertilizers tend to be high in phosphorus, and your potassium is good for root growth, drought resistance, it helps to reduce some water loss, and they're still researching a lot of these things. 

00:20:51 Heather Zidack 

But what you look at when you're buying a fertilizer for your garden is you look for there's three numbers on the bag a lot of times it's and it's a lot of times in increments of 5 but not always. So like a 5-5-5, 10-10-10, something like that. These are percentages by weight of those nutrients in the bag. And they go in the order of nitrogen and then phosphorus, and then potassium. So sometimes they can be comparable to each other when you're working with a product because they're balanced in ratio. It really depends on what you need to apply. 

00:21:25 Heather Zidack 

A lot of the tone products that we see and weekly fertilizer products are much lower concentrations. So I've seen some fertilizers out there that are like 3-4-3, very low, but just a little bit of food to keep them going because if you're over applying, you can actually cause damage by providing too much fertilizer. 

That's another reason going back to that soil test can be really important. 

00:21:50 Heather Zidack 

You always want to check the back of the bag. There is usually going to be not just those big three nutrients that we need, but also a lot of micronutrients as well, and that will vary in your soil as well. And when you get a soil report, you get all of that information. 

00:22:08 Heather Zidack 

Another really important thing is to stop fertilizing in August or September because-What we want to avoid is pushing any tender growth before frost, so if we start backing off in August and September, especially with some of these slow release fertilizers, we're not gonna continue feeding the plant and encouraging it to put out tender young leaves that then get bit by frost. 

I think that's pretty much most of the soil rundown, a crash course. 

00:22:38 Stephen Thal 

Yeah, that's important. Thank you. 

00:22:40 Heather Zidack 

Would you like the number for the soil lab? 

00:22:43 Stephen Thal 

Oh, definitely. 

00:22:45 Heather Zidack 

All right, so this is for the UConn Soil Analysis Lab and it's 860-486-4274. Again 860-486-4274. 

00:23:01 Stephen Thal 

Great. Now after all of this, what else should we do to keep the gardens going? 

00:23:09 Heather Zidack 

So there's a lot of things that you can do right now. In June you want to be cutting back your perennials for sure that anything that has already flowered for your perennials you want to try to cut back. If you cut back some of these early flowering perennials at this point in the year, it may encourage them to push out new flowers. This happens very frequently in things like Salvia and Nepeta, which is known as Catmint as well. So if you cut back things that have already bloomed. 

00:23:43 Heather Zidack 

It will help encourage new growth and new flowers where you potentially. A lot of plants are in production mode right now. So they're producing fruit or flour for you. So water is going to be incredibly important. I went through all of the details with you before of like how to check your soil, but make sure that you can be checking your soil to see if there's enough moisture in there. 

00:24:05 Heather Zidack 

We don't recommend watering in the evening if you can avoid it. Early morning is going to be best because you're going to saturate that soil. And then it has the day to dry out instead of saturating at night, getting dark and cool. And then that's when there's a lot of rotten things that can happen. 

00:24:23 Heather Zidack 

You also want to avoid water on your leaves. You want to add water to the soil because if you have any droplets on the leaves, it can actually burn the plants a little bit. Believe it or not, plants can get sunburn, so you want to be careful. 

00:24:37 Heather Zidack 

It's also a good time to prune spring flowering shrubs immediately once the flowers are gone, so a lot of shrubs out there are like, again, I go back to rhododendrons, lilacs, things like that. They're gonna start to set their buds in this summer or during the fall. So if you prune too late, if you prune in the fall, when you're doing all your other cleanup chores or you prune over the winter like you do with your summer blooming shrubs. You could lose your seed-your 

00:25:05 Heather Zidack 

Lose your flowers. The next thing is that you can still plant from seed right now, so there's a lot of things out there that you can do. Radishes, beans, squash, carrots are all pretty quick to come up, so you could put those in the garden. Just check the back of the seed packet to see how many days till maturity we have and if it falls within, you know from here too. Let's say October, you've probably got a good shot in getting a crop. I know radish is an example only goes about 21 days in between seed to days to harvest. So that's really cool. I've even planted sunflowers in July after I've harvested. 

00:25:45 Heather Zidack 

My garlic needed to throw something in the bag, so there's a lot of really good plants out there that you can still plant in June. It does. It's not too late. 

00:25:54 Stephen Thal 

That's great. 

00:25:55 Stephen Thal 

We have about 6 minutes left. Anything you'd like to cover in the last 6 minutes? 

00:26:02 Heather Zidack 

Yeah. 

00:26:03 Heather Zidack 

Couple of really important things too. Looking at your house plants, so if you grow house plants and you want to put them outside, I think we finally hit that point where they can go out on the patio and be pretty comfortable for the rest of the summer. 

00:26:18 Heather Zidack 

Temps have stabilized for tropical and exotic plants that usually thrive indoors. So like I said, we look for that 50° at night and we're definitely there. It took a while, but we got there. If they haven't been outside yet and you're just putting them out soon, you want to start slow. 

00:26:36 Heather Zidack 

If you put them in a sheltered, shaded kind of outdoor space for a few days before you move them to full sun into the high heat of the day. So you wanna make sure that they have a couple of steps to take in between going from inside your office, let's say, from out to your patio. So that's something really important that you want to make sure that you're doing. The other thing that's really, really important, and I emphasize this with all gardeners at this point in the season is get yourself into the habit of making observations you really want to go out into your garden and take a look at the leaves. Take a look at the undersides of the leaves. 

00:27:16 Heather Zidack 

Take pictures. This is a great way to monitor so that if something does look a little different or disease develops or insects start showing up, you know early enough to do something. 

00:27:29 Heather Zidack 

I see a lot of times gardeners necessarily don't see what's happening in their garden, and then we hit a point where we're overwhelmed with disease or pest or weeds, even because of all the rain we've had. So if you can go out and get yourself in the habit of just looking at your plants, seeing what the leaves actually look like. Seeing what's normal and what's not normal. 

00:27:52 Heather Zidack 

That's really important to do so that when something abnormal happens, you're right on top of it and you can do something to save your plants instead of losing your fruit or your tomatoes or whatever the case may be. 

00:28:05 Heather Zidack 

If you do notice anything, it's really important to know that our office is here to help you with the UConn Home and Garden Education Center. We can always look at photos via e-mail. That e-mail is ladybug@uconn.edu again, ladybug @uconn.edu. Or you could call us at any time. Our number is 860-486-6271 again 860-486-6271 and we can help with plant disease as well as insects and environmental things that just look weird in the garden. We can help get you pointed in the right direction so. 

00:28:49 Heather Zidack 

That's definitely something that I I remind everybody is just be observant, be out in your garden, you know, be present with what you're doing. If you're out there watering, don't just go looking around at everything else around you go get the plants that you're watering and see what's going on. 

00:29:05 Stephen Thal 

Ah, that's great. 

00:29:07 Stephen Thal 

So we have to hope this is good information for our listeners and we have the phone numbers and we'll have them have you give it to them one more time. 

00:29:18 Heather Zidack 

So give you a couple of phone numbers, so I'm with the UConn Home and Garden Education Center. Again, my number here is 860-486-6271One again 860-486-6271. There's also the soil lab that I had mentioned earlier. Their number is 860-486-4274, again 860-486-4274. Between our two offices, we can definitely help gardeners get a handle on what they need to know. 

00:29:55 Stephen Thal

Well, we thank you for coming into focal point. We always appreciate the invaluable information to help our listeners enjoy their garden, not only a garden if they're doing or house plants or combination thereof.

00:30:13 Stephen Thal 

This is Stephen Thal with another segment on Focal Point. 

00:30:13 Heather Zidack 

Thanks for having me. 

00:30:17 Stephen Thal 

We hope you enjoyed today's program. 

00:30:20 Stephen Thal 

Two quick items for you. Please wear sunglasses and a hat when you're outside with the bright sun, and also to do a emergency plan for your home or for your business or whatever. And practice it very important to involve the people in case there is an emergency. People. Everybody knows what to do and that's the key piece. 

00:30:47 Stephen Thal 

So again, enjoy the Summer. 

00:30:50 Stephen Thal 

Stay safe and stay healthy, Steven Thal saying thanks to our guest speaker, Heather and all of our listeners that tuned in today. 

 

Put in the Work Now for Lasting Garden Beauty 

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By Heather Zidack, UConn Home & Garden Education Center 

If you’re planning to do some landscape renovations this summer, you will often hear the suggestion of doing certain tasks “until the plant is established.” If you’ve heard this phrase and wondered what the pros mean, you’re not alone. It’s crucial to understand that the first year of growth is one of the most critical to ensure the success of trees, shrubs and perennials in the landscape.  

The “establishment period” is when a newly transplanted plant pushes roots beyond the original root ball to anchor itself into the surrounding soil and adapt to its new environment. Establishment happens in as little as 2-4 weeks for your veggie starts and other annuals. However, if you are installing woody ornamentals or perennials, it is recommended to provide support for their first year in the landscape. Some species, especially fruiting plants may need longer attention to ensure establishment and landscape success. 

Keeping the plants properly hydrated is going to be your first line of defense in preventing transplant shock. Using sprinkler systems for supplemental water can be problematic for trees, shrubs and perennials. These systems, especially those designed for lawns, maintain moisture in the top 1-2 inches of soil. Our non-turf plants need much more.  Providing adequate water will help new plants acclimate by providing sufficient hydration, but it will also encourage the root system to expand. Roots pull moisture and nutrients from the soil but also act as an anchor to keep the plants upright. Keeping only the top few inches of soil moist will encourage roots to stay in that shallow layer instead of expanding deeper into the soil, hindering the development of that anchoring system. Additionally, watering demand tends to be more frequent with shallow root systems, as the first few inches of soil are more susceptible to drying out on sunny days. Lastly, the shallow roots need to compete with established turf for resources at a 1-2-inch depth. 

While in this establishment period, the standard watering recommendation is 1-2 inches per week, depending on the species of plant. An inch of water is equivalent to 0.62 gallons per square foot of garden area. Watering the plant at this rate encourages it to stretch its roots downward into the soil.  With deeper roots, plants can find moisture even during times of temporary drought deep below ground. This is a huge contribution to drought tolerance, as opposed to the common belief that the plant will just “live longer without water.”  

If the forecast does not predict an inch of rain within the week, gardeners should be out checking the soil for moisture a few inches down and providing supplemental water if necessary. Always check the soil before watering, especially if you are new to gardening. Squeeze the soil in your hand. If the soil particles stick together easily, it is likely that there is enough moisture. If soil clumps fall apart between your fingers or the texture is dusty, the soil is too dry and more water is needed. If you can squeeze water out of the soil like a sponge, there is too much moisture, and you should come back and check in a day or two. Overwatering can lead to root rot and other diseases and finding the balance is a fine-tuned skill developed over time.  

Monitor your new plantings for the first year and watch for signs of transplant shock, pests and disease so that you can adjust quickly and keep your plants healthy during this time. While transplant shock is a normal response to being planted in a new location, the symptoms can be startling to gardeners.  Remember that the UConn Home & Garden Education Center is here to help you determine if you are looking at transplant shock, disease, or possible pest damage. It’s easier to catch and treat issues earlier than it is to react at the end of the season. If you’re vigilant, we can help you find your way to solutions much more quickly! 

Staking should only be done as a temporary measure for young trees where the environment or the species of tree requires extra support. In most cases, trees should be perfectly capable of supporting themselves. Exposure to the elements, like the occasional strong breeze, can help to strengthen them as they adjust. However, temporary staking can help take some of the stress off the young trees if they are establishing in harsher environments. While there are many situations that may be appropriate, consider staking newly planted trees when they are in open areas, have high wind exposure, or are in an area that risks mechanical or physical damage. Staking may also be appropriate if the root ball is significantly smaller in relation to the tree’s size, or if the tree has a top-heavy canopy. 

Once your plants are well anchored into your landscape, they will be able to find water and nutrients on their own while standing tall in the face of our New England climate. Putting in the attention and care to help plants establish in their first year or two in the landscape will reward you with many years of enjoyment to come.  

The UConn Home & Garden Education Center supports UConn Extension’s mission by providing answers you can trust with research-based information and resources. For gardening questions, contact us toll-free at (877) 486-6271, visit our website at homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu, or reach out to your local UConn Extension center at cahnr.uconn.edu/extension/locations. 

 

 

This article was published in the Hartford Courant June 7, 2025

Spring Showers Bring Flooded Gardens

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By Amelia Martin, UConn Plant Science Graduate Student 

Rain gauge showing half an inch of rain on a cloudy day
Photo by H. Zidack, UConn HGEC

You may have noticed the heavy rains and chilly temperatures last week’s nor ’easter brought to Connecticut. Maybe you were one of many who checked their back window to see their gardens had flooded and their plants are looking worse for the wear. If this sounds familiar and you are curious what garden flooding means for your plants and want to know how to protect them- you found the right article! 

A flooded garden is not a unique problem, especially during periods of heavy rainfall, but there are some factors that may contribute to the severity of flooding. Having minimal or poor drainage can amplify the problem, especially if planting in garden boxes with closed bottoms. Soil compaction can contribute to flooding if you are planting directly in the ground. Compacted soil can happen if there has been too much tillage, if wheels or machinery have been over the area, or even from excess foot traffic. Lastly, the layout and landscaping of a yard can contribute to flooding as well. If you placed your garden at the bottom of a hill or there are minimal drainage angles surrounding your garden, water may be pooling up faster than it can drain.  

To prevent flooding, check your gutters and make sure they are free from debris and directed to a drain or storm barrel. Put down gravel and mulch to help prevent surface flooding. Avoid cutting your grass too short to maintain strong roots which help to absorb water. Maintain healthy soil to allow for the best water absorption. Dig out a shallow drainage channel if you have the space for it. Consider switching to raised beds with drainage rather than in-ground gardens in easily flooded areas. Try adding native plants to your garden. Native plants have deep roots which helps them absorb excess water and prevent runoff. While handling these issues would be preventative measures, let’s talk about what to do if your garden has already flooded.  

Assess the drainage situation and take note of where the water is pooling the most. If flooding is unusual in your garden- there may be something blocking the normal drainage route, which may be a quick fix. If not, knowing where water is likely to pool may help in future garden planning, or help you determine where to make improvements.  

Stay off your garden beds.  If you step on your soil while it is saturated, it will compact it, ruining the soil’s tilth. Instead, if you need to access your garden beds consider putting a wooden board down to walk on to distribute your weight better. 

Re-fertilize your plants. Heavy rain can wash away nutrients out of the soil through a process called leaching. Check the forecast to make sure no more extreme weather is immediately approaching before fertilizing- or you may have to do it again. 

Add supports to your plants. The wind and rain may have led to plants falling over. Add in some additional supports to get them upright again and give them a better chance for the next time heavy rain comes.  

While having a flooded garden may be a bummer, there are some gardening activities that are actually easier to do in saturated soil! Once the rain stops and the ground is still wet, use this time to weed. The soft ground will make weeds especially easy to pull up- just try not to step on the garden beds. After a rain or a flood, re-mulching is always a good idea. The rain might wash away some previously placed mulch, use this as an opportunity to locate any spots barren of mulch and in need of a re-fill. After a couple days when the soil is soft but not sodden, the ground will be the perfect consistency to dig and put stakes.  

Lastly, check for any young plants that didn’t survive the water or any seeds that haven’t come up. Take this as an opportunity to plant new seeds, as seeds do better in already moist soil where they have less chance of being displaced when watered.  

At the end of the day, while having a flooded garden may not be the best for your plants, it is not the end of the world. There are a handful of preventative measures that can be taken ranging from backyard renovations to quick fixes- it is about finding what works best for you and your garden.  

The UConn Home & Garden Education Center supports UConn Extension’s mission by providing answers you can trust with research-based information and resources. For gardening questions, contact us toll-free at (877) 486-6271, visit our website at homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu, or reach out to your local UConn Extension center at cahnr.uconn.edu/extension/locations. 

This article was published in the Hartford Courant May 31, 2025

Spring Landscape and Garden Issues in 2025

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By Pamm Cooper, UConn Home & Garden Education Center This spring has been a dramatic one as ornamental trees and shrubs are putting on quite a colorful floral display. Many deciduous ornamentals including redbuds, forsythia, crabapples, fruit trees, quince azaleas and many others were not adversely affected by last summer’s drought and the cold, windy winter and frozen soils that followed. A lesser noticed but significant drama is the negative effect these same environmental conditions had on ornamental and native evergreens. 

Rhododendrons and ‘Green Giant’ arborvitae seemed to suffer the most damage followed by cherry laurels and hollies. Last year’s drought conditions that extended into late fall combined with very windy winter conditions and frozen soils were tough for some evergreens. Winter desiccation injury on broadleaved and needled evergreens causes foliage browning when plants cannot take up the water needed to keep foliage healthy. Damage to many rhododendrons and some azaleas could be seen during the winter and is still evident this spring. Buds may provide new leaves by June if branches are still alive.  

In contrast, 'Green Giant’ arborvitaes suddenly showed symptoms after warm weather began this spring. This was evident especially in trees on windy sites. Needles are brown or off color and time will tell if they are able to recover. If branch tips are flexible and show new buds, growth may resume. Prune any dead branches that show no signs of recovery. 

Large tent like structures with little caterpillars inside them in the crotch of a tree branch.
Eastern Tent Caterpillars in a Black Cherry Tree. Photo by Pamm Cooper

Eastern tent caterpillars have hatched from overwintering egg masses on native black cherries. Silken nests are evident located in crotches of these trees. Caterpillars feed outside the tents at night and hide in them during the day. There is only one generation, and feeding is generally finished by late June. Trees have time to leaf out again to remain healthy during the growing season. Birds like cuckoos and vireos will rip tents apart to feed on the caterpillars. 

If you have Oriental lilies, be alert for the lily leaf beetle. This bright red insect can severely defoliate these lilies. Adults overwinter in soil close to the plants they were feeding on the previous season. They appear as soon as lilies begin new growth above the ground. Leaf undersides should be checked for eggs and larvae and crushed when found. Leaves can be treated if needed with a product that larvae will ingest as they feed on the treated leaves. Never spray flowers with any insect control product and always follow directions as written on the product label. 

Snowball aphid feeding damage is noticeable on the new leaves of European cranberry bush and snowball viburnums. As the aphids feed on the new leaves and twigs, leaves curl and twigs twist in response to aphid feeding on the sap. Aphids can be found by uncurling the leaves. Treatment is difficult as they are not out in the open where contact control products can reach them. Feeding should end within two months of egg hatch. These aphids overwinter as eggs laid on the branches of host viburnums. 

Viburnum leaf beetles, Pyrrhalta viburni, are another significant pest of ornamental and native viburnums. They’re active soon after viburnums leaf out. Damage will be seen as larval populations grow and they skeletonize leaves. Some viburnums may suffer complete defoliation. This pest prefers arrowwood, European cranberry bush or American cranberry bush viburnums. Try switching to resistant varieties such as V. plicatum and Korean spicebush viburnum V. calesii if leaf beetles are a chronic pest. 

If anyone has small St John’s wort shrubs or certain weigela cultivars that seem to be dead, wait and see if new growth resumes as it gets warmer and sunnier. The smaller St. Johns’ wort shrubs die back in fall, leaving brown stems with withered fruit. Prune these back almost to the ground as basal growth appears. Some weigela cultivars are just slowly getting started, while others are already full of leaves. Do not give up these plants but wait and see what happens in May. 

As always, our UConn Home and Garden Education Center office staff welcomes any questions gardeners may have concerning landscape and garden plants problems. Across the New England region, people are having much the same problems as we are having in Connecticut from the winter weather, but we can hope that plant recovery be swift and complete. Enjoy the growing season and stay alert- scout for pests and other problems before they get out of hand.  

The UConn Home & Garden Education Center supports UConn Extension’s mission by providing answers you can trust with research-based information and resources. For gardening questions, contact us toll-free at (877) 486-6271, visit our website at homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu, or reach out to your local UConn Extension center at cahnr.uconn.edu/extension/locations. 

 

 

This article was published in the Hartford Courant May 10, 2025

A Gardener’s Guide to Planting by Hardiness Zones

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By Marie Woodward, UConn Home & Garden Education Center

Map of Connecticut USDA Hardiness zones as of 2023. Most zones in the state are either zone 6 or zone 7.
USDA Hardiness Zone Map for Connecticut, 2023

If you are wondering whether that shrub, flower, or tree that you saw in a magazine or catalog will grow well in your garden, using a hardiness zone map is your best bet to ensure success.   

A hardiness zone map is a tool that divides a geographical area into distinct zones based on average annual minimum winter temperatures. These maps are used by gardeners and farmers around the world to determine which plants are most likely to thrive in a particular region. Each country has its own hardiness map that correlates to their climate. In the United States, the USDA publishes a hardiness zone map, which covers all fifty states and includes Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. It uses climate data collected over many years from weather stations throughout a specific region. Then the data is analyzed to determine average minimum winter temperatures from different areas.  

The concept of hardiness zones was first introduced in 1927 by Dr. Alfred Rehder. Rehder worked at Harvard's Arnold Arboretum as a botanical taxonomist. He wanted to address the challenges gardeners and growers faced in selecting plants suited to their local climate. Prior to Rehder’s map, there was no standardized system for categorizing plants based on their ability to survive winter temperatures. His hand-drawn map featured eight hardiness zones and was based on the lowest winter temperatures recorded in various regions across the country. Rehder aimed to provide a practical tool for gardeners and growers. His map made it easier for them to choose plants with the best chances of survival in their region, ultimately contributing to more successful gardens and agricultural endeavors. Rehder’s innovative approach recognized the importance of adapting agricultural practices to local climates. In the 1960s, the USDA adopted and adapted Rehder's concept, creating the first official USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.  

Since its initial release, the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map has been updated several times to reflect changes in climate and the availability of more accurate data. The latest update of the USDA hardiness map was released in November 2023, jointly developed by the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Oregon State University's PRISM Climate Group. This update incorporates data from 1991 to 2020, covering a broader range of weather stations than previous versions. One of the key findings from this update is that the contiguous United States has become approximately 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit warmer on average compared to the previous map. As a result, around half of the country has shifted into the next warmer half zone, while the other half has remained unchanged. The updated map still consists of 13 zones, but now offers more detailed information on temperature ranges within each zone, including 10-degree zones and 5-degree half zones. Connecticut has two hardiness zones each of which is divided into half zones; (6a,6b); (7a,7b), to better reflect the temperatures in the state over the past few decades.   

The importance of hardiness zones lies in their ability to help gardeners and farmers choose plants that will thrive in their specific region. By selecting plants appropriate for their zone, growers can reduce the risk of frost damage and increase their chances of a successful growing season. However, due to unexpected temperatures outside the average range, there is no guarantee that a plant won’t suffer but it does reduce the risk of plant damage. In addition to gardeners, researchers use hardiness zones to study the spread of insects and exotic weeds, while the USDA Risk Management Agency uses the map to help determine crop insurance rates for commercial growers.  

While the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is an invaluable tool, it is important to note that it is not the only factor gardeners and farmers should consider when selecting plants. Other factors, such as soil type, precipitation, and local microclimates, can also impact plant growth and survival. Gardeners should use the map as a starting point and supplement it with local knowledge and research to make the best plant selections for their specific needs. 

The development of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is a testament to the importance of adapting agricultural practices to local climates. Since its inception nearly a century ago, the map has evolved to reflect changes in climate and incorporate more accurate data. Today, the map remains an essential resource for gardeners and researchers alike, helping them to better understand and navigate the complexities of plant growth in the diverse regions of the United States. Knowing a plant’s hardiness zone when selecting that shrub, tree or flower will help you grow the garden of your dreams. 

 The UConn Home & Garden Education Center supports UConn Extension’s mission by providing answers you can trust with research-based information and resources. For gardening questions, contact us toll-free at (877) 486-6271, visit our website at homegarden.cahnr.uconn.edu, or reach out to your local UConn Extension center at cahnr.uconn.edu/extension/locations. 

USDA Hardiness Zone Map 2023

A map of the united states color coded to display the USDA Hardiness zones across the country as of 2023. Lower numbered zones are colder and each increment is based on 5 degrees Farenheit.

National USDA Hardiness Zone Map, 2023

USDA Hardiness Zone Map 2012

A map of the united states color coded to display the USDA Hardiness zones across the country as of 2012. Lower numbered zones are colder and each increment is based on 5 degrees Farenheit.

National USDA Hardiness Zone Map, 2012

USDA Hardiness Zone Map 1990

A map of the united states color coded to display the USDA Hardiness zones across the country as of 1990. Lower numbered zones are colder and each increment is based on 5 degrees Farenheit.

National USDA Hardiness Zone Map, 1990

This article was published in the Hartford Courant May 3 2025