Sometimes pests can pester your pepper plant. Or perhaps your hibiscus or hydrangea seem lifeless. Or maybe your tomato seedling is scrawny. Should you keep it, compost it or cut it? In certain common gardening scenarios, it can be hard to know which direction to go.
Charlie Nardozzi runs through a few gardening quandaries and provides the proper path to take for each.
Keep it, compost it or cut it?
Gardening scenario #1: Cutworms cut off my pepper stem, but the remaining stem is still green. Keep it, compost or cut it?
Compost it! Cutworms can cut off certain plants like peppers, eggplants and other plant seedlings right at ground level.
These pests can even climb up and cut plants off higher on the stem. In either case, the plant is going to be very stunted and would take a long time to recover. So, the best thing to do is compost it and start over.
Gardening scenario #2: My hardy hibiscus shows no signs of life. Keep it, compost it or cut it?
Keep it! Patience is key, as sometimes plants like hardy hibiscus, rose of Sharon, clethra and butterfly bush can be very slow to leaf out in the spring. Give them until the end of May or early June.
Gardening scenario #3: Deer ate the bottom of my arborvitae hedge. Keep it, compost it or cut it?
Cut it! Hedge plants like arborvitae and cedars tend not to regrow after deer or other animals browse on evergreen needles on the hedge's lower branches.
This goes for other needle evergreens like pine, spruce, fir and hemlock. When animals have browsed from the bottom branches and there is no new growth, it's likely the needles will not grow back.
In this scenario, you've got a couple of options 鈥� cut it down and create another hedge using other evergreens that deer don't like 鈥� try boxwood or certain viburnum.
Another option is to plant some shorter evergreens in front of the one with the dead branches. Go for something that grows lower, like a juniper. That can cover the lower part of the hedge and keep the deer at bay.
Gardening scenario #4: My tomato seedlings are tall, leggy and flopping over. Should I keep them, compost them and buy new ones or cut them?
Keep them! Tomatoes have that unique ability to root all along their stem, so your tomato seedlings can be saved.
Here's how: Create a narrow trench in your garden, and put the root ball down in it. Next, run the stem horizontally in that trench. Bury the stem in soil but at the end of it, where the leaves are, curve the stem up and leave the top of the seedling unburied.
The tomato seedlings will then root all along that stem, and you should get a fabulous crop of tomatoes.
Gardening scenario #5: My has little life on the stems. Keep it, compost it or cut it?
Keep it! This is another gardening scenario that requires some patience. Arborescens hydrangea 鈥� even if it dies back to the ground 鈥� will actually sprout from the roots and the crown. It will also grow fast enough that you'll get flowers later in the season.
Red lily leaf beetles don't like chocolate mint
Q: Chocolate mint had crept to the feet of a group of "orienpet" lilies and the red lily leaf beetles never touched them. Asiatic lilies 15 feet away were decimated. I think the little buggers don't like to drop their eggs on mint. Whatever 鈥� It worked! Be very careful with mints in the flower bed, though, as they can be extremely invasive. My favorite is chocolate mint. - Sara, via email
A: It's true that you might want to avoid planting certain kinds of mint in a flower bed because it's too aggressive. However, some of the specialty mints, like chocolate mint, orange mint and banana mint may be less likely to be a bully in the garden bed.
And it sounds as though the red lily leaf beetle, which tend to be a major pest to all kinds of lily plants, may avoid laying eggs on those mint plants.
The red lily leaf beetle lays its eggs on the lily plant itself and not on the ground, but if it's working to have chocolate mint growing near your then go with it!
Unlucky crust on shamrock plants
Q: Last year, I emailed you about my shamrocks getting this weird leaf thing that looks a little crusty. You suggested I use rain water when I water them, which I did. You also thought it might be my liquid fertilizer. I keep them out of the sun and they get lots of indirect light, and I don鈥檛 let them dry out too much. But even though I try to do all the right things, they still get this crusty stuff on their leaves, which eventually will destroy the whole plant. It also seems to bounce to other shamrocks if they are close together. Any other ideas on what might be causing this creeping crud? - Alice, via email
A: In the case of your crusty shamrocks, it sounds like it's time for a stronger intervention 鈥� and a complete repotting might be at hand.
Begin by removing the plant from its pot, and remove the soil, too. Shake off any excess soil from the bulblets.
Clean the pot with a 10% bleach solution, add some fresh potting soil and replant the shamrock.
The issue might be due to a fungus that has over-wintered in the soil or on the pot and then it reinfects the leaves as they grow back.
Hopefully, by giving the plant a clean pot and fresh soil, you'll avoid the creeping crud and your shamrock will be able to grow strong and look beautiful.
In a no-dig garden bed, how much compost is too much?
Q: I am following your 鈥渘o-dig鈥� gardening method and have just laid a bunch of compost on my garden beds. You mention for both the Brussels sprouts and the nasturtium to not add too much compost. But that鈥檚 the whole top of my garden! What suggestions do you have in this case? - Anna, via email
A: You needn't worry too much, because with no-dig gardening, you're only putting maybe a 2- to 3-inch thick layer of compost on the top.
More from All Things Gardening: Step Away From That Trowel And Try 'No-Dig' Gardening This Spring
And if you're planting Brussels sprouts and nasturtium deeper into the soil below the compost, that compost is not going to have much of a nitrogen effect on your plants. They should grow just fine!
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