What am I doing wrong? Course corrections in the mid-summer garden

Mid-summer brings plant disease and moisture issues to gardens across British Columbia.

Luckily, it's not too late to fix brown tomatoes and mouldy cucumbers, according to master gardener Brian Minter.

"Keeping your eyes on your fries is the best thing you can do," he said. "Just get out there everyday and watch and check it."

Minter joined Michelle Eliot, guest host of CBC's B.C. Almanac to talk gardeners through some preventative measures before any hard-earned veggies go to waste.

Blight

The Ides of July bring an ominous visitor to the average garden plot: blight.

Blight is a plant disease usually triggered by over watering and incorrect watering techniques.

The most important thing you can do to prevent the unsightly brown spots from beginning to form on your tomatoes is to never water the foliage, according to Minter.

Instead water near the base of the plant, preferably in the mornings.

"If you haven't done so, let's get lime around our tomatoes right now," he suggested, adding a handful around the base of the plant should do.

By mid-August, gardens will face the dreaded "late blight" said Minter. To prevent that lightly mist the plants with a copper spray every ten days after August 15th, he said.

Bad butterflies

Those little white butterflies you enjoy so much while sipping a cold beverage on the garden patio? They can be a gardener's worst nightmare in their caterpillar form.

"Count to 10 and all of a sudden all your brassicas; your beautiful kale, your cabbage, your cauliflower is being chewed to pieces," said Minter.

"They lay eggs, the larvae quickly hatch and chew them to pieces."

Minter suggested two organic methods to ride a garden of cabbage loopers: one is to use the bacteria BTK as a spray about once a week.

If you don't want to spray the plants, draping a cloth on top of them will help tremendously, he said.

Squash are desert-like plants

Congratulations, you've been diligently watering your cucumber, squash and zucchini for months. The plants are boasting beautiful plump flowers and you're imagining the bounty of cukes you'll be pickling in mere months.

Unless you've overwatered them.

"Stop watering your squash and your pumpkins, really they need to dry out. They are desert-type plants."

The next step is to check for mildew. If you do have mildew already, pick off the leaves where you can. Minter suggests using either sulphur or an organic bacteria called Natura which will eat the mildew.

Much as with tomatoes, Minter said the best course of action is to ensure any water that is given to the plants goes at the root and goes deep.

'Oh my gosh there's these blotches all over'

Swiss Chard, beets, kale, spinach and all of your leafy greens are at risk of a subsection of garden pests known as leafminers.

Leafminers are larvae of insects that hatch and feed from inside the structure of the leaf. They leave unsightly tracks and can be quite damaging to a plant.

"Quickly pick off those bits, pick of the leaves if it helps," said Minter. "Get cloth over top; that will stop them from laying eggs [which] can ruin your entire crop."

Right now, the most important thing is to pay attention to what the garden is telling you.

"All of these things can happen overnight," warned Minter.