Gardening: Controlling garden problems begins with identifying bugs, disease

OK, take a deep breath folks, the garden season is in full swing. After several weeks of cool and rainy weather the plants and the weeds are waking up and so are the bugs and diseases.

So, what do you do when you find potato bugs munching on your potatoes and eggplant – they actually like that better than potatoes – or white butterflies around your broccoli? The first thing you should do is get some accurate information to control the problem.

“We’ve had several calls from gardeners who have been applying several chemicals to control problems without really identifying the problem first,” said Anna Kestell of the WSU Spokane County Extension Office. “As a result, they have caused some plant damage by guessing and applying the wrong chemicals.” Controlling garden problems begins with properly identifying the bug or disease that is attacking your plants. To do that properly, you need to contact the experts. Here are our best local contacts.

The WSU Spokane County Extension’s Master Gardener Program is still taking questions from the community albeit under COVID-19 rules. Their walk-in clinic at the Extension Office is closed but a team of about 30 volunteers is taking questions by email and phone. You can take pictures of your insect or plant problem and send it in. Be patient as it might take a couple of days to get an answer. If you do send in pictures, try to send several including close-ups of the issue. The website is also full of free, downloadable research-based fact sheets on popular gardening topics and plant problems. You can make contact by leaving a message on the Master Gardener website, extension.wsu.edu/spokane/master-gardener-program/home-lawn-and-garden or by phone at (509) 477-2181.

A second source of good gardening information particularly in the how-to department is Susan Mulvihill’s “Susan’s in the Garden” website. There she shares videos of what she is planting and growing in her garden and well as her newspaper columns from The Spokesman-Review. Because her gardens are in a bit of a cold spot, her experiences with different plants particularly vegetables are valuable to Inland Northwest gardeners. She also shares pictures of the wildlife that visits her garden and orchard. Check her out at susansinthegarden.com.

As part of the COVID-19 response, the WSU Spokane and Stevens County Extension offices and the Spokane Conservation District have teamed up with the Spokane County Emergency Management Agency to create a Facebook page called Inland Strong Victory Gardens. The page is focused on information particularly useful to beginners who have taken up gardening in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. The site will have links to the Master Gardener fact sheets and information for Northeast Washington. The Spokane Conservation District is providing information on soil management and some children’s activities you can do with your kids in the garden. Each week the agencies will create a new post on what to expect in the garden in the coming week, especially helpful if you are a beginning gardener. Check it out at facebook.com/victorygardenstrong/