Daily gardening tip · Northern hemisphere · Sunday 23 August 2026 · late summer
Clean up spotted leaves
Late summer humidity brings fungal diseases, but removing infected leaves now stops the fungus from invading next year's soil.
15 minuteseasydiseases
Walk through your garden and look for leaves with white powdery spots or dark yellow patches.
Cut off these damaged leaves using clean hand pruners.
Wipe your pruner blades with rubbing alcohol between plants to avoid spreading the fungus.
Put the infected leaves directly into the trash rather than your compost pile.
Why it works
Fungal spores can easily survive the winter on dead plant debris left on the ground or in cool compost piles. Removing and throwing away infected foliage now breaks the disease cycle so your plants start next spring with cleaner soil.
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