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My husband keeps asking me what I want for Christmas. I reply, "How about 8
yards of Cedar Grove Compost in February?" "No, really," he says. "What do
you want for Christmas?" Folks who don’t garden just don’t understand, do
they? I would love a card that promises to help pay the gardener for the
spring cleanup, or 50 bags of steer manure, or a pint of Banner Maxx™,
or Compass™.
Santa did bring me my favorite sprayer 2 years
ago, the Black and Decker™
battery-operated 3-gallon sprayer. I love, love, love this sprayer! Two
years ago I also made the big dollar leap and bought a pint of
Banner Maxx™,
OK, I love this stuff, too, for several reasons:
-
It cost around $60.00, but I still have most of
a bottle left, way cheaper than other fungicides, in the long run.
-
I only have to use it every 2 weeks, not every
week.
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You only use 1/3 to 1/2 tsp per gallon.
This summer I decided to rotate the Banner Maxx™
with Immunox™,
which costs $20.00 a bottle. With one spraying, I had used up almost the
whole bottle of Immunox©.
I tried two other new products last year -
Indicate 5™
and Silwet L-77™.
Both of these are spreader stickers. In short, they make the water you mix
with wetter and it will stick to the foliage better. I found that I
actually used less fungicide when I mixed a spreader sticker in with the
regular spray mix. Needless to say, I was pretty excited about that.
This
summer I also started adding liquid seaweed extracts to my spray mixture. I
have always added some kind of water-soluble fertilizer like Miracle Gro™
or Peters™.
I used Response™
and one from Mike Peterson (can’t remember the name). Both worked well; the
foliage and blooms seemed deeper in color without any burn.
I have yet to make alfalfa tea.
Although I apply alfalfa meal to each bush, I just have not made the tea
yet. But if you wanted to make it, wouldn’t it be wonderful for Santa to
bring you a 32-gallon can with lid and all the ingredients? Oh yea!
Gosh, you know the Christmas list
could go on and on. How about a pH testing kit, a soil testing kit, leather
gauntlet gloves, and just regular leather gloves, Felco™
pruners and big loppers, gift certificates to your favorite nursery or
Edmunds or Jackson and Perkins. Let’s not forget the automatic
watering system.
I almost forgot! You probably need
a digital camera so you can take pictures of all your roses and e-mail them
to everyone you know. You might need a computer to go with the camera, or
if you have a computer, maybe you need a new one! And how about a printer so
you can print all those wonderful digital photos! See? The list can go on
and on. |
