In serious need of help here DGers!Neighbor's yard is dying!

I just got back from giving my neighbor some cayenne peppers I grew & everything at her house has some sort of whitish dust like covering on it & is dying! I mean it started at her holly hedge ( no berries on it ) & has spread to her sister's next door varigated holly hedge & is taking out a small climbing rose bush & all the hedges & looks like it is spreading to her 15 yr old improperly planted shumardi oak also - it appears to windborne as her sheltered rose bush,holly hedge & hardy hibicuis near the area but out of the wind show no signs of this & a hydragena (sic) has a few leaves showing it but is over all healthly. PLMK if you have any ideas as to what she is dealing w/ because I'm right in the path of it - I have a immature shumardi oak (planted right but still a baby - only 1- 1 1/2" in width) & a whole lot of MGs & other plants that could be affected by this. Prefer to go organic as possible due to the large amount of animals in the neighborhood (we live in the country about an hour north of Dallas as the crow flies). Help DGers - I know somebody knows what I'm dealing with here! Sorry no pics but camera is broke(never garden w/ cell phone in pocket - they are not waterproof...LOL learned the hard way!). Thank you for your time & effort & may your gardens be as beautiful & as bountiful as your hearts, Carol aka Catss

Does the neighbor with the problem maybe have a camera you could borrow? Maybe if this is something that's common in your area someone will know what it is without a picture, but a picture is worth a thousand words! Cell phone camera pics tend to be such poor quality that it's hard to diagnose or identify anything so ideally you'd want to track down a regular digital camera if you can.

Thanks ecrane3 - posted it on my local thread & bingo w/o pics they knew what it was - powdery mildew (very common in this area ) & I know what to do now to save my garden & save what's left of hers. Thanks for your help & suggestions & Have a Great day gardening y'all, Carol aka Catss

Glad you figured it out! Powdery mildew might look ugly but it usually doesn't kill things, it's mostly just unsightly. So don't worry too much if it does wind up in your garden. Some plants are also more prone to it than others, so depending on what you have planted you may not get much of it anyway.

milk and water sprayed on will kill it, as will neem.

What is the best way to get rid of powdery mildew? I have it on a few of my crape myrtles. In the past I just left it alone but I have a lot more crape myrtles and I don't want it to spread.

Husband would be unhappy if I bought milk to spray on flowers instead of him drinking it.

trackinsand mentioned that neem works on it too so if you don't want to use milk I'd try that. But if you've had it on these crapes before and it's never spread to the others before it most likely won't now either--some of the newer cultivars have been bred to be resistant to powdery mildew.

you don't have to buy expensive milk. buy a box of non-fat powdered milk and add a couple of tablespoons to a gallon of water and as ecrane mentioned, some cultivars are more resistant than others, so if you do have others, they may not be effected.

Thanks ya'll. I can handle powdered milk. I assume putting it in a hand sprayer is the best way. I will try that.

1 cup of powered milk,1/2 cup of molasses & 2 tbsp.of baking soda in the toe of an old nylon & 2 gallons of warm water - let the mixture soak for 2hours to 24 hours (I do mine overnight)& spray everything down. Works like a charm!