Bacterial or Fungal...doesn't matter, my plants are dead

This struck the Asters, Spirea and Daisies in mid-spring. Threw them away and started trying to find an answer as to what it is. Nothing else seemed to be infected until late last month, I started noticing the yellow spots starting on other plants then overnight the Cardoon looked like it had been toasted.

Any ideas as to what it is? I talked to someone at a local nursery, she suggested it could be Leaf Spot. Bacterial or Fungal I am loosing pretty much everything in the bed I made last spring on the north side of the driveway.

Beginning of the disease ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden )

Dead Cardoon ( photo / image / picture from toni's Garden )

Maximillian Sunflowers, the Cardoon, Cosmos, Lemon Verbena, Obedient Plant, Lemon Balm, Glads, Indigo Spires Salvia, Vervain, Blanket Flower, Milkweed, Snapdragons, Malva, Mexican Mint Marigold all need to be pulled up and thrown away. The Rosemary, Rock Rose, Canna and Artemesia don't appear to be infected......yet and I am really afraid that it will hit the Hollyhocks too.

Pulling them up will happen soon, but scraping off the mulch and digging in horticultural Cornmeal will have to wait until the weather cools off and we have some rain to loosen up the hard black clay. I think after that I am going to cover the area with black plastic and new mulch and let it solarize for a few months, maybe not plant in it until fall of next year.

We got some NEEM oil to spray everything else with, including the main garden, in hopes of preventing it from showing up south of the driveway where the main garden is that I have been working this year.

_________________
Mortals must do what they are here to creatively do or they will become cranky.

If you can't stand the heat, don't tickle the Dragon

kaseylib wrote:

Sure sounds like it could be something in the soil of that new bed. You don't have any Black Walnut trees nearby do you (they emit toxins into the soil that kills a lot of plants)? Or possibly the soil is contaminated with an herbicide or ??? You say it's near a driveway...do you salt in the winter? If so, that will kill oodles of plants. Please let us know if you find out the culprit.

Walnut trees don't grow down here. We have lived here 22 years and have never used an herbicide, neither have our neighbors. We don't get any winter weather that warrants putting ice on the driveway, if it gets icy we don't go anywhere Wink

From what I have read the bacteria or fungus can come from just about anywhere, blown in, brought in by birds or squirrels and can be transmitted from there to other parts of the garden even on the bottom of my shoes. Which means, great I just might have a major problem. Mad

I figure I had best put any fall plant ordering on hold until I see how the rest of the plants fair over the next couple of months.

_________________
Mortals must do what they are here to creatively do or they will become cranky.

If you can't stand the heat, don't tickle the Dragon