Plant-ID Apps, Bee Balm, and Japanese Beetles
The Plantrama team presents farmed and foraged edibles for the end of June, and discusses how to tell if your plant-ID app has given you a correct identification. We celebrate The Year of the Monarda, and why beebalm has a place in most gardens. Plus Ellen and C.L. and talk about Japanese beetle control.
:37 What’s for dinner: End of June foraged food and the first crop of broccoli.
6:35 Insider Information: Ways to check accuracy of plant-identification apps.
11:03 Eat/Drink/Grow: It’s the year of the Monarda!
20:50 Love Letters and Questions: Kim wrote about a problem with Japanese beetles.
Check out the Mt Cuba Monarda Trials: https://mtcubacenter.org/trials/monarda/
See the National Garden Bureau’s Year of the Monarda information: https://ngb.org/year-of-the-monarda
You might be harvesting the first broccoli right now – don’t worry if the head is small! Pick it anyway, and leave the plants to produce side shoots.
Bees, hummingbirds and people all enjoy Monarda, aka beebalm.
This is Rasberry Wine Monarda. It will get mildew in areas where it’s humid, but in C.L.’s garden, she just ignores it. Once the flowers are gone, this clump gets cut to the ground.
Japanese beetles tend to go to the same plants every evening. Once you spot one, either crush it by hand or knock it into a jar of oil. Then look at that same flower or plant the next night and you’ll probably see (and smash or smother) more.