Nicholas Alexander

Common Garden Pests And How To Get Rid Of Them – Pests are a common occurrence in a garden. The problem with many pests is that they are present all year. In the winter, many of them sleep cozily, waiting for the cool rains and sun to wake them up. Knowing which ones you are dealing with is key for how they can be controlled. As bylaws limit the availability of pest control poisons on the market, following do-it-yourself suggestions are worth considering.

Aphids – Typically found on plant stems and on the undersides of leaves during wet and cool springs but also in dry summers, are tiny pear-shaped insects. Aphids use their piercing mouth parts to suck the sap from your plants leaving a sticky mess which in turn attracts other problems like sooty mold or ants. Aphids occur in a variety of colours from brown, black to gray and green. The insects often spread rapidly over plants forming large colonies. Damaged plant leaves shrivel and curl.

Controlling Aphids – A sharp spray of water can blast them off the plant, the of use sticky-paper bug traps also works. Another option is to use insecticidal soap sprays that you can make yourself or purchase. Just make sure to read product labels and instructions. Ladybugs released on the plant are also a good option as they will start to reduce the aphid population over time.

Slugs & Snails – There are many ways to control slugs and snails. During the day, slugs and snails hide underneath objects, at twilight and at night they feed on your plants. Slugs and snails exist in a variety of shapes, colours and sizes and all are sticky and slimy.

Controlling Slugs & Snails – Control has to be to practiced regularly. Wear gloves to remove them from your garden. Going out with a flashlight in the dark will maximize your picking harvest. Less physical options are traps. Deep containers filled with beer are very effective as thirsty slugs and snails fall in and drown. Spraying slugs with a 50-50 Ammonia / water solution or sprinkling them with salt also works well. Slugs and snails have soft underbellies and they dislike crossing anything sharp. Sprinkle coffee grounds, sharp sand or use a product known as Diatomaceous Earth.

Earwigs – Earwigs do not crawl into people’s ears as old folks tales suggest. They do however have two long pincers protruding at the end of their body, which is where they get their nickname, the “pincher bug”. Earwigs are long, black or brown coloured and they chew holes into leaves causing them to brown and shrivel. Earwig season typically takes place in late spring and early summer. In the colder, winter months, earwigs will stay underground until the ground begins to warm.

Controlling Earwigs – Earwigs are drawn to damp and wet, dark places. Place damp, rolled up newspapers on the ground and dispose of these traps in the morning. Traps made from vegetable-oil filled tin cans placed at ground level are another option. Diatomaceous earth and insecticidal soaps are also effective controls. Wildlife such as toads, frogs and birds will also eat earwigs and control their population.

Caterpillars & Cutworms – Caterpillars are hairy, multi-legged crawling bugs about 1-2 inches, typically found on stems and under leaves. Cutworms are notorious for chewing on leaves and stems of new seedlings at soil level. They feed on foliage leaving large and irregular holes. The gray, green or cream coloured cutworms are often found under leaf debris or in the soil. When disturbed they often curl into a “C” shape.

Controlling Caterpillars and Cutworms – The least environmentally invasive method of controlling caterpillars and cutworms is to cultivate your soil in the fall. This kills overwintering eggs. As both pests are larger, they can also be removed by hand. An old-time method of protecting new transplants with a newspaper or cardboard collar still works well today. If available, you can also spray with products that contain BT or Bacillus thuringiensis. Just make sure to read product labels and instructions. Cutworms and caterpillars are also preyed upon by certain wasps and flying insects.

Spider Mites – Spider Mites are tiny, almost invisible, sucking insects of green, yellow or red colours. They favour plants in warm and dry areas. Yellow dots on leaves and fine webbing are indicators of spider mites presence. They are often found on the underside of leaves and within the interior of the plant.

Controlling Spider Mites – The first line of defense is to increase humidity or moisture. Spray water onto the insides of plants and mist occasionally. You can also release ladybugs or spray with organic horticultural oils and insecticidal soaps.

Ants – Ants can be nuisance but they don’t harm plants directly. They often build their underground nests in dry, sandy soils. Ants farm aphid populations in order to harvest the sticky sap for their own benefit.

Controlling Ants – If ants are a pest in your garden, change sandy soils conditions or lay out ant bait. Pour several jugs of boiling water into accessible nests or sprinkle baking soda around your plants to ensure ants will stay away. You can also use coffee grounds, chili powder, cinnamon, peppermint or black pepper – all deter ants. If the ants in question are large or are finding their way into your home, they may be carpenter ants that require a call to a pest control company.

Scale – Scale are small, oval and flat, immobile insects that suck away plant juices from under the safety of a waxy, usually brown coloured shield or scale. They are also found on houseplants and on tropicals. Scale insects are sometimes hard to identify and often mistaken for natural deformities like galls.

Controlling Scale – When in their protected stage they are generally immobile and can be treated with horticultural oil or insecticidal soap. Heavily infected sections can also be pruned off. Ladybugs and certain types of wasps are their natural enemies.

Insecticidal Soap – Insecticidal Soap products utilize the power of potassium salts of fatty acids that weaken the insect’s waxy protective outer shell. Exposed insects dehydrate and die. For use on vegetables, fruits, shrubs, trees, and greenhouse plantings. Controls aphids, mealybugs, spider mites, whitefly, soft brown scale, psyllids, rose or pear slugs, earwigs, and elm leaf miner. Apply every 7-10 days when insects are present or as needed to prevent further damage.

At Nicholas Alexander Home and Garden Centre, the friendly and knowledgeable staff will be happy to assist you with identifying and addressing your garden’s pest problems. Visit Vernon’s New Garden Center of Choice today!

Grow Your Own Christmas Tree This Fall and enjoy it year round. There are several advantages of growing your own Christmas tree: A conifer is an excellent feature plant that greatly enhances your property. Choose a smaller specimen or slower growing variety to start with so that you won’t need to climb up a ladder too soon when it comes to decorating your tree. Planting trees of any kind will create some welcomed shade for hot summer days and help reduce the carbon footprint. Planting your Christmas tree takes only little time and effort to complete.
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The 5 Most Popular Choices Of Christmas Trees – Spruce and fir trees grow in conical shapes along with dark-green leaves, which make them perfect choices for those looking for a traditional Christmas tree to plant. The annual growth rates between the species however varies. While most spruce trees grow an average of 6 to 11 inches per year, fir trees can grow between 13 and 24 inches in height. Evergreens should receive abundant moisture in fall before freeze up as they lose water from their foliage in winter and are unable to take up replacement moisture from the frozen soil.

Norway Spruce (Picea abies) – The Norway Spruce is probably most recognisable as the traditional Christmas tree with its beautiful pyramidal shape and weeping branches, bright green coloured, four-sided smooth leaves and its pleasant fragrance. Matured, this tree can reach heights up to 60 feet high.

Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) – Described and heralded by botanists and tree experts as “one of the most striking and truly graceful objects in nature” and as “one of the noblest forest trees.” The Douglas Fir has a beautiful, iconic, pyramid shape with dark green leaves, grows between 13 and 24 inches in height annually and it emits a powerful fragrance that is one of the richest among Christmas trees. If you want to make a strong statement in your yard, this tree is you best bet.

Blue Spruce (Picea pungens) – The Blue Spruce with its powerful spicy scent features silver-blue coloured branches that grow in a dense conical manner with needles which tend to curve upward at the end. Regarded by many as the Blue Spruce that is perfect for Christmas trees. The branches of this tree are strong and they are widely used for Christmas decorations. This conifer grows 12 to 24 inches annually and can reach a height up to 75 feet at maturity.

Balsam Fir (Abies balsamea) – Balsam firs look very similar to spruce trees. The difference is that their cones stand straight up while spruce cones dangle. The Balsam Fir is one of the most popular Chritmas trees due to its dark green colour, heavy density foliage and short soft needles. It matures to a height of 70 feet and can live at elevations up to 6,000 feet above sea level. It is hardy to temperatures reaching -40 degrees Celsius.

Black Hills Spruce (Picea glauca) – The Black Hills Spruce is a small to medium height tree of up to 60 feet in height. Originally from the Black Hills of South Dakota, this conifer is a good addition to residential landscapes and it makes not only for an great windbreak because of its with a broad, pyramidal form, dense habit and slower growth rate, but also for an ideal Christmas tree.

At Nicholas Alexander – Vernon’s New Garden Centre of Choice, you can find a great selection of suitable conifers for your outdoor Christmas tree planting project. Visit us today and our friendly staff will be happy to serve you!

Shade! That’s what many homeowners crave during the hot summer months in Vernon and elsewhere in the Okanagan. Growing a big tree fast requires the right space and species with tolerance to climate and soil conditions. Check our selection of Fast growing Shade Trees For Vernon BC.

Autumn Blaze Maple (Acer x freemanii ‘Jeffsred’)
The Autumn Blaze maple tree is a hybrid comprised of a half red maple and a half silver maple. A combination that has been popular for decades in commercial and residential settings due to gorgeous fall colour, rapid growth and it’s ability to adapt to a wide range of climatic conditions.

Common Name: Autumn Blaze Maple – Bloom Time: Spring, insignificant – Bloom Colour: Green – Exposure: Full sun to part shade – Height: 12.0-17.0 m (40-55′) ft – Spread: 9.0-12.0 m (30-40′) ft – Water: Average to moist – Hardiness Zone: 3-8 – Deer Resistance: Occasional damage – Drought Tolerance: Good once established – Characteristics: Fast growing and adaptable hybrid of silver maple and red maple. Tolerates both wet soil and dry soil. Excellent orange, scarlet and deep red fall colour. Good shade and street tree.

Pin Oak (Quercus palustris)
The Pin Oak tree is one of the faster-growing species of red oaks which provides great fall colour, with leaves turning shades of scarlet and bronze. Best known for its low maintenance and fast growth, it is popular due to the attractive pyramidal shape and straight, dominant trunk. Tolerates wet feet and requires acidic soils but is adaptable to drier and urban conditions.

Common Name: Pin Oak, Swamp Oak – Bloom Time: Spring – Bloom Colour: Dark green – Exposure: Full sun to part shade – Height: 60-70′ ft – Spread: 25-40′ ft – Water: Average to moist – Hardiness Zone: 4-8 – Deer Resistance: Very deer resistant – Drought Tolerance: Less than other oaks – Characteristics: The Pin Oak is shallow-rooted and easily transplanted. The crown is pyramidal to oval. Acorns are not produced before the tree is about 20 years old. Requires regular watering. Tolerates heat, air pollution and compacted soil.

Quaking Aspen (Populus tremuloides)
Quaking Aspen is an extremely cold hardy, fast growing, narrow-oval to pyramidal tree. It features a beautiful white bark, its deep green foliage that quakes in the slightest breeze and its golden yellow fall foliage colour. This tree grows well in acidic, loamy, moist, sandy, well-drained and clay soils with abundant moisture.

Common Name: Quaking, Trembling Aspen – Bloom Time: Spring – Bloom Colour: Deep green – Exposure: Full sun – Height: 40-50′ ft – Spread: 20-30′ ft – Water: Moderate – Hardiness Zone: 2-7 – Deer Resistance: Occasional damage – Drought Tolerance: Moderate once established. – Characteristics: Quaking Aspen is one of the most widely distributed trees in North America. The white bark also carries out photosynthesis which is usually reserved for tree leaves.

London Planetree (Platanus × acerifolia)
The London Plane Tree is a very large deciduous tree that is quite resilient in air polluted urban conditions. This hybrid tree resulted from a cross between two sycamore species: Platanus occidentalis (American sycamore) and Platanus orientalis (Oriental plane). A fast-growing tree, the London plane typically gains several feet in height per year.

Common Name: Bloodgood, London Planetree – Bloom Time: Spring – Bloom Colour: Bright green – Exposure: Full sun or part shade – Height: 70-85′ ft – Spread: 50-70′ ft – Water: Moderate – Hardiness Zone: 5-9 – Deer Resistance: Occasional damage – Drought Tolerance: Good.

Characteristics: London plane trees have been popular urban specimens for nearly 400 years, and with good reason. They are remarkably hardy and tolerant of a variety of conditions. The mature bark is a stunning pale grey with exfoliating brown bark and the leaves resemble the look of a maple having a palmately lobed leaf. Grows in acidic, alkaline, loamy, moist, sandy, well-drained, wet and clay soils.

Shademaster Honeylocust Tree (Gleditsia triacanthos var. inermis ‘Shademaster’)
A thornless and seedless, dappled shade tree with a classic rounded shape. It is highly adaptable, tolerant, hardy, and pest and disease-free. A highly adaptable and durable tree species that grows anywhere and in all sorts of soil conditions – from perfect to poor. It thrives in hot, cold and even in salty climates.

Common Name: Honeylocust, Shademaster – Bloom Time: Spring – Bloom Colour: Green – Exposure: Full sun – Height: 30-70′ ft – Spread: 30-70′ ft – Water: Moderate – Hardiness Zone: 3-9 – Deer Resistance: Occasional damage – Drought Tolerance: Excellent – Characteristics: The Shademaster Honeylocust tree tolerates just about any soil condition. Whether the soil is wet, dry, alkaline, acidic, clay or sandy – this tree grows anywhere.

Come and see the shade tree lineup at Nicholas Alexander Home and Garden Centre. Our knowledgeable staff will be happy to assist you in finding the right tree for your yard.