Fluctuating temperatures can cause a lot of stress to both plants and gardeners. It’s tough to determine exactly how much to water plants when the temperatures are in the eighties, or warmer one week and then cool and damp the next. One of the worst things you can do during times like that is overwater. Most plants are still young and don’t yet require consistent, heavy watering, and some plants like fuchsias will wilt in the heat even when they have plenty of water. Because of this it’s very important to check the soil and make sure the plant needs water before you give it any. Something else to remember when it’s cool and damp or muggy with cloud cover is that plants don’t want to be moist for long periods of time without drying out. This can cause disease. Allow the plants to dry out between watering.
Early summer is also a great time for earwigs to be at their worst. They can eat a freshly planted plant down to nothing overnight. The best methods to control earwigs are with Sluggo Plus or a home-made earwig trap. You can make earwig traps out of many different types of containers. I prefer a yogurt cup. Using a hole-punch, I punch 4 holes around the top lip of the container. Fill the container about half an inch to an inch full of soy sauce and top it off with about a tablespoon of olive oil. I then take a small piece of saran wrap to cover the top of the container and use a rubber band to secure it, making sure not to cover the holes around the lip of the container. The earwigs are attracted to the soy sauce, climb in through the holes, and can’t get back out due to the oil. The saran wrap is there to prevent water getting in the container when the plants are getting watered. Set the traps inside containers or around areas in your flowerbeds.
