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Summer gardening tips

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Summer is such a busy time for those of us who enjoy working outdoors and the fruits of our labor, whether that be the food we enjoy or the beauty of the flowers, trees and shrubs we care for. Hopefully some of us have jump started our yard work and are finished with some of the chores that can be done early, such as mulching. The following are just a few things to keep in mind as you plan your yard work.

If you started some of your plantings from seed, remember to harden them off for a week or two by setting them outside for a few hours a day before you plant them. If not, wait for the soil to warm before you direct plant seeds. Cool weather plants such as lettuce, spinach, swiss chard, etc., can be replanted now if you have a shadier spot in your garden. If not, you can wait until cooler weather.

When your asparagus spears get spindly, it’s time to stop harvesting. Don’t continue to pick the spindly spears. If you do, next year’s plants won’t be hardy or abundant. Let the asparagus grow to fronds and fertilize and keep it mulched and weed free. Mow it down in the fall when the fronds turn yellow and remove the fronds from the asparagus patch as they can harbor disease and insects.

June is a good time of the year to inspect your landscape. Any empty spots can be filled in with colorful annual flowers either in pots or in the ground to round out your look. If your landscaping is in need of perennials, June is a good time to plant them. It’s so nice to have them come up year after year with no planting involved. Herbs can be planted in pots as accents. Herbs that are container-planted near the kitchen door are really handy – much easier than trekking out to the garden in the middle of dinner preparation, and they look pretty too. Also, after the foliage on your spring flowering bulbs dies back, you can remove it.

Routine summer maintenance includes watering, weeding, feeding and deadheading:

Watering – Container plants will need to be watered on a daily basis once the hot, dryer weather arrives. They dry out much more quickly than those planted directly into the soil, but be careful not to over water, as they have a very shallow root system. Mulching your flower bed helps with water control.

Weeding – Mulching helps with the weeding and makes flower beds look neater and well cared for. Keeping a constant eye on weeds and pulling them out when they are small and there aren’t too many of them on a regular basis also helps.

Feeding – Roses need monthly fertilization. Fertilize flowering shrubs after they’ve finished flowering to encourage more blooms next year. Do not feed them late in the season as new shoots will not be able to handle the cold weather to come. Evergreen flowering shrubs and trees such as azaleas, holly, dogwood, viburnum, rhododendron, etc., are acid-loving plants, so be sure to use the appropriate fertilizer for your plant. Container plants also need to be fertilized, unless you used a planting soil which contains long-lasting fertilizer or you used a continuous feed plant food.

Deadheading – Both annuals and perennials benefit from deadheading which results in fuller, healthier plants and more blossoms. Chrysanthemums will be bushier and have more blossoms if you pinch them back.

Some plants like Chrysanthemums and certain types of Sedum tend to fall over as they grow larger. You can make a cage out of fencing. The plant will grow through the holes in the fence and maintain its shape. I like to use a green color fencing, as it blends in well with the plants.

When choosing plants, be mindful of the plants preferred zone. We are Zone 6 (b). Some of the preferred flowers are just not practical due to pest problems. There are multitudes of pointers regarding keeping pests at bay including planting marigolds and geraniums, scattering human hair, strong smelling soap, etc. Some of these methods may work for a while; however the most reliable way is a deep fence for rabbits, groundhogs and other small pests, which is also tall enough to keep the deer out. This method works well for the veggie garden. Keeping the flower gardens beautiful sometimes means sticking to the plants the deer and other pests do not like. I have given up trying to have tulips because of the deer damage. Daffodils are a welcome sight in spring and are deer resistant.

Lastly, the Cicada season last year damaged some flowering trees and shrubs as well as fruit trees. Continue to monitor your trees for tell tale signs of the Cicada damage. A badly weakened branch will break as the apple, peach of other fruit grows and becomes heavier. There is nothing you can do about that other than cut off as much damage as you can without killing the tree. Thank goodness we won’t see them again for 17 years.

Contact the Greene County Extension office at 724-627-3745 with any questions you may have for the Penn State Master Gardeners.

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