By Tamara Galbraith

Northern gardeners have all heard the old saying: "A good corn crop should be knee-high by the Fourth of July." Okay...but that still doesn't tell us when we should actually harvest our corn.

Besides, many new hybrids allow corn to grow quicker, so yours might be ready in time for that mid-summer barbeque, thus turning the "knee-high theory" into fiction anyway.

It's pretty common knowledge that corn loses more than half its natural sugars within 24 hours after being picked, so ideally, you should harvest your corn at the time you are ready to cook it. Here are a couple of easy tips for telling when your cobs are ready:

Look for silks that have turned brown but are damp-feeling, not dry. They may still be a little green where they connect with the corn.

Pull back the husk just a tad and puncture a kernel with your fingernail. If you get a clear liquid from the kernel, the corn isn't ready. If a milky liquid squirts out, start boiling that water! If no liquid emerges, the corn is past its prime, and you've just become the best friend of every squirrel in a 5-mile radius.

By Tamara Galbraith

Many years ago, when my brother and I had a couple of mowing jobs as kids, a guy hired us to remove the tent worms from his trees. His idea was to light a gas-soaked torch on a long pole and burn them off.

Uhh...not the safest method, for sure, or the most environmentally friendly. We've come a long way in caterpillar control since then, thank heavens.

Tent worms, bag worms, army worms...call them what you like, but we all know them as the unsightly, caterpillar-filled webbing that appears in tree branches in mid- to late-summer. A couple of tents in a tree will not do a lot of damage, but a whole colony of them certainly can.

Spraying with Bt or Btk (Bacillus Thuringiensis Kurstaki) is the best method for getting rid of these unwanted campers. Another good spray you can use is Green Light Spinosad. The trick is tearing the tent or bag open first so you can get the spray onto the worms. This is sometimes difficult when webs are high in the trees, so you may need to get a long pole and an industrial-strength sprayer for a big job. Bt is completely safe around humans, pets, your plants, beneficial insects and other wildlife.

Speaking of wildlife, if you've only got a minor problem, tear open the bags and just let the birds munch out.

By Tamara Galbraith

Americans are renowned for pampering their lawns. We are obsessed with our turf's height, thickness and green coloring.

Unfortunately, such fussiness can lead to problems, especially during the summer months. You may think excessive watering and fertilization will give you a greener lawn when in fact, it can get you a nasty case of brown patch.

Caused by the fungus Rhizoctonia solani, brown patch commonly attacks St. Augustine, Kentucky Bluegrass, Centipede Grass and ryegrasses during the warm, humid months of summer. Brown patch looks just like what the name suggests: large brown patches appear in the lawn and gradually spread outward in a dark, wilted circle or horseshoe pattern. Sometimes the middle of the circle will start to recover a little, resulting in a doughnut-shaped brown and green area.

So what should you do? Here are a few tips:
* If you water your lawn in the evening, stop. Early morning irrigation is best.
* Cease the use of all high-nitrogen fertilizers.
* Set your mower to cut a little higher.
* Have a lawn service company perform a core aeration.
* Apply a natural fungicide, such as a corn gluten meal-based product, and finely sifted compost , like Gardner & Bloome Planting Mix, after aeration.

Brown patch tends to shut down when temperatures rise above 90, so gardeners in hotter areas of the country may have to wait until early fall before applying fungicide, as it won't have any effect on a dormant fungus.

And finally, the good news is that brown patch fungus attacks the base of the blade but does not kill the roots. So if you can get a handle on it, your grass will most likely recover...it's just a matter of adjusting your grass pampering methods a little.