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Gardening With Gutner: June Showers Bring Unwelcome Sights To Garden

BOSTON (CBS) -- They say April showers bring May flowers…so what do June showers bring?

Well most of the answers to that question are not pretty; fungus, slugs, weeds and many unwelcome sights in our gardens!

Mark Saidnawey from Pemberton Garden Services recommends that you be proactive in these wet times.

First, you will need to weed much more frequently. With all this rain you may think you got all the weeds, but just days later check again!

Next are slugs.

Mark gives us two options to combat these lawn and garden pests. First, you can buy a product called Sluggo and spread it around potentially infected areas. Or you can go with the home remedy and pour the slugs a beer!

That's right, slugs are attracted to beer. Put a small bowl imbedded in the dirt of your garden and fill it with beer (I would suggest the cheapest beer you can find, slugs are not picky), the slugs will climb in and be trapped.

You also need to be on alert for Aphids on your foliage. Two ways of combating these critters would be to spray them with an insecticidal soap or buy some ladybugs and spread them around your garden…they will eat the Aphids!

Finally, rain leads to fungus and with all the rain we have be receiving, chances are you will find fungus growing on many of your plants, especially rose bushes.

Again, you can buy a fungicidal spray, and it is best to prune away as much of the infected foliage as possible.

Be careful though, those metal pruners can actually spread the fungus from plant to plant if you don't wash them thoroughly between pruning!

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