Neem Seed Meal

Bird netting can keep the feathered friends from eating the blueberry crop

Most of the time when I'm out working in the garden, I'm accompanied by one or two amiable robins who follow me around hoping I'll dig up a fat worm, spook a moth out of hiding or expose some other gourmet snack. Much as I like them, I draw the line at allowing them to eat my blueberries.

Blueberries are filled with health benefits, and even if it's a little fattening, there's flat out nothing better than blueberry pie a la mode!

Bird netting is inexpensive, and covering blueberries is easy. Do it now before the berries begin to ripen. Robins often eat blueberries just before they ripen, and if you don't get your netting on in time, the only ones who will get chubby from the harvest will be those friendly robins.

Don't let black

spot ruin roses

If the leaves on your rose develop spots, then turn yellow and fall off prematurely, your plant is infected with black-spot disease. Serious infections can leave plants bare and unsightly, and repeat attacks can severely weaken the plant, so take steps now to prevent the disease from strengthening.

Remove any infected leaves as soon as you see them. Once the disease is in a leaf it can't be cured, and if you don't remove it, the disease within will sporulate and infect other leaves, including those on neighboring rose bushes. Don't compost infected leaves. Instead send them off in the yard waste to facilities equipped to destroy the spores in the composting process.

As soon as possible, spray the rose with environmentally friendly neem oil (available at nurseries) that can help prevent spread of the disease to healthy leaves. Before you spray, move any ladybugs on the rose to another plant, as neem oil will suffocate any insect it hits (including aphids).

Finally avoid wetting the leaves when you water your rose. Black-spot spores can only germinate if they land on a wet leaf surface. If we luck out and get dry sunny weather for the rest of summer, your plant should remain black-spot free until rains begin again in fall.

Keep your

plants blooming

Here are some steps you can take that will help your repeat bloomers such as roses, dahlia, scabiosa and delphiniums flower profusely all summer long. Start with a good location.

The above plants are all sun lovers that won't bloom well in shade.If they are growing less than optimal circumstances, make a note to move them to a better place when they are dormant this winter.

neem seed meal and fungus gnats - THCfarmer

Cool thanks for the feedback! I got air pots its almost impossible to let it dry enough to kill the gnats its there wet dream the whole pot acts as a fungus gnat hive. I dont have a problem with the big pots I can let them dry out for days at a time, but these little ones blow the roots up so I was really hoping I could benefit from adding it into my soil feeding my plants and killing them at the same time. The specific product that you are asking about is from Dyna-Grow which distributes a very fine neem seed oil and this seem meal is the residue from the manufacturing. Dyna-Grow imports the seed meal (aka 'cake') and distribute it through a license agreement with Down-To-Earth. I used this brand for 3 or 4 years and would do so again if the organic product became unavailable. If you want you can also use organic aloe vera juice and I add 1.5 ounces (3 tablespoons) to each gallon of the neem/karanja and water mix. George's is a good product and certainly inexpensive enough. It's organic and has NO preservatives. 90% of aloe vera products do use one of the following or all of them: sodium benzoate, citric acid and potassium sorbate. Cute, eh?

Poultry guide

The neem tree, Azadirachta indica A. Juss. and other meliaceous plants : sources of unique natural products for integrated pest management, medicine, industry and other purposes

Focus on phytochemical pesticides

Neem, The Ultimate Herb

Monograph on neem (Azadirachta indica A. juss.)