Turn left before you get to . . .

Have you ever gotten that advice? By the time you get to the tree (or gas station or Safeway), you've missed the turn!

Well, we do that in the garden, too. OSU Extension Plant Pathologist, Jay Pscheidt, says, "The phrase is 'spray before the fall rains'. Folks always ask when that occurs. The time would be now!"

As we get these last days before the rain starts in earnest, use a copper spray (Lilly Miller Microcop or Kop-R-Spray) for shothole fungus and brown rot on apricots and for apple anthracnose (sunken dead spots on branches and bulls-eye spots on fruit).

There are some other clean-up tasks to do before fall rains make gardening a soggy affair. Don't leave diseased fruit or leaves on the ground. This just allows the disease spores to blow or splash around the garden all winter. Get them out of the garden now!