White: the new orange for Halloween and more on Asian lady beetles

 Every fall, we stop by the last farmers market at Noelridge Park in Cedar Rapids for our pumpkins. Last Friday as we drove up, we watched a flatbed truck with pumpkins drive away – Noooo!!!!  With few customers out on a cold day, almost all of the vendors packed up and left early. Fortunately, we found a pumpkin vendor the next morning at the last Eighth Street farmers market. We went with the traditional orange, but Claire Smith, Linn County Master Gardener, offers ideas for white pumpkins and much more from the master gardeners Hort Line:

     Answering calls on the Hort Line is one of my favorite Master Gardener projects.  The plethora of calls received in any time slot is amazing.  We answered 22 questions in two hours one day this week.  The office is lined with shelves filled with reference books, file drawers jam packed with informational handouts and a direct phone line to Iowa State University. 

      Today someone asked how many times each year a yard needs to be fertilized.  ISU says three times; once in the spring and two times in the fall, preferably September and November.  Another gentleman recently planted a grape arbor:  should he protect it from rabbits.  Yes, during a hard winter animals will devour anything edible so we suggested a chicken wire fence surrounding the arbor.  Someone dropped off an evergreen branch whose needles were brown and falling.  A goodly amount of fungus is appearing in Evergreens, probably a result of excessive moisture during the past two summers.  While the evidence is appearing now, a copper based fungicide applied twice in the spring is the recommended treatment.

       Linn County Master Gardeners provide unbiased research based answers Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to noon during winter months.  Hours are extended into afternoons in the summer.  Call (319)447-0647 or stop at the Extension Office at 3279 7

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Ave., Marion with any horticulture based question or problem.

       Have you carved your pumpkins yet?  Did you know white is the new orange……….in terms of pumpkins anyway.  Somehow a white one creates a really eerie ghostlike expression when lighted from the inside.   You can actually design a multicolored palate when you paint on a face. (Look for ones with smooth rinds and few blemishes.)  White pumpkins are spectacular when coupled with any color Mum, an interesting contrast for decorating.  They may be a little more expensive than their orange cousins, but the inside is edible.  If kept cool and in indirect light, all pumpkins should last for several weeks.  You may want to move them to a protected area overnight if there is a threat of a hard frost, however.    

      Hordes of Asian Lady Beetles and Box Elder bugs invaded my house during a recent warm spell.   The good news is, it forces me to vacuum more frequently. They are not harmful, just annoying like the occasional spider that creeps in.  Spiders need to be cold and inactive to survive the winter.  Your home is too warm, too dry and your food supply will not suffice for them.  Two most likely candidates to wander in are grass spiders and wolf spiders which are not poisonous and do not reproduce indoors.  The critters that generate a real distaste are those wasps that are still hanging around.    Wasps want to move inside.  They relish your warm surroundings.  Sprays and dusts are not of much use. Patience and a handy fly swatter are the best plans of attack.  Mother Nature and Jack Frost will ultimately resolve the problem for you.  So, yes, there are some advantages to winter.