How Does Your Garden Grow? Local Gardening Expert Answers Questions From Readers

With April comes bushels of garden questions and concerns. There always seems to be an urgency to get landscape plans finished so trees and shrubs can be purchased before they’re picked over. Not to worry. Most nurseries and garden centers are just beginning to stock their floors and they will continue to stock for months. There will be plenty of choices available all season long.

If you do purchase plants before the planting bed is ready, set the plants out of direct sunlight and keep them watered. Better yet, heel them into the garden, container and all, until you’re ready to plant.

Question: How do worms get into apples and cherries? - Del, Coeur d’Alene

Answer: The worm that invades apples is called the codling moth. The adult is a brownish-gray moth that lays eggs singly on the foliage or the fruit. In about 12 to 14 days the egg hatches. A small, transparent worm bores into the apple, usually at the blossom end. The little worm will eat its way into the center of the apple where it will feed on the core and seeds. When the little fellow is plump and mature it will tunnel out, leaving behind sawdust-like material.

Once out of the apple, the little worm quickly moves under the bark of the tree or into other sheltered areas. There, it forms a protective cocoon around itself and pupates into the moth. This whole process only takes about 10 to 14 days. Therefore, several generations can mature over the growing season.

The codling moth overwinters as mature larvae (worms) in waterproof cocoons under the bark or in the ground at the base of the tree.

Begin control spraying 10 days after full petal fall and repeat every 10 to 14 days until harvest. The codling moth is becoming resistant to home orchard insecticides, thus becoming more difficult to control. Special sticky traps can be used to collect the adult male before he mates. Use a number of traps per tree for best results.

The little worm that invades the cherries is called the cherry fruit fly. The tiny fly spends the winter as a pupae buried in 1 to 5 inches of soil. Usually toward the end of May, the flies emerge to mate and to lay eggs.

The eggs are inserted through the skin of the fruit and into the flesh. The eggs hatch within 5 to 8 days. As the nasty little worm gorges itself, it pokes holes through the skin of the cherry for breathing. Beware if you spot holes. The thought of eating a worm is not very appetizing.

When the worm matures, it drops to the ground where it will pupate until next spring. There is only one generation of these critters a year. If this is the case, why can’t we just spray once? Because the fly takes her sweet time emerging, thus requiring more than one spraying.

We must control the female flies before they deposit eggs. Begin spraying toward the end of May and every 10 days until harvest.

Question: Is there an easy way to plan a perennial garden? - Mary, Spokane

Answer: The secret is to have color moving through the garden at all times. It does take planning, but, boy, is it fun.

Materials needed: A good perennial book with color photos, five pieces of notebook paper, a pencil and a rainy day.

Make the following heading on each piece of notebook paper: Early Spring, Late Spring, Early Summer, Late Summer and Fall. Divide each paper into three categories - tall, medium and short. Now we simply fill in the blanks.

Begin at the beginning of the perennial book, jotting down every plant you like. When you are finished, you should have a few plants under each category.

Here are a few suggestions when it’s time to plant.

Obviously we want the tall plants toward the back and the short plants toward the front. But try to avoid the strict stairstep look by mixing the tall plants with the medium plants and the medium plants with the short plants.

Don’t plant all of the same plant in one spot. If your pocketbook can afford it, purchase plants in sets of threes or fives. Plant one plant in one area of the bed and two plants staggered close together in another area of the bed. This way, when one plant is blooming, our eye moves through the bed, catching the same plant blooming in other areas. If you can’t afford that many plants, simply fill in with annuals for this year. By the third year, you will be dividing perennials and giving them away.

Caution: A garden planned on paper can look much different in real life. Be prepared to shuffle and add plants for many years. Of course, this is half the fun of flower gardening.