| Garden To-do's
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Here's where to turn if you want to know what I'm doing in my gardens. If you're not interested personally, perhaps the cycle of chores will help you figure out what to do to make your garden more of a pleasant routine, and less of a pain. The best news is that I don't do it all alone. My husband and I try to spend an hour a day in the garden, more in perfect weather, less when it's awful out. And we get help from a crew of two or three when we need it for big jobs, like the clearing project on tap for June.
June: major project to remove mondo grass and shrubs from front yard to the back quadrant. By making a ground cover blanket for that quarter acre, we'll have much lower maintenance. It's just mow and go with that tough plant!
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| | | | Autumn | | Berry Beautiful | | For berries, plant these: pyracantha, beautyberry, strawberry bush, magnolia, mahonia. Rub the red off magnolias if you want to sprout them. | | Plant Herbs Now | | Truly perennial herbs around here: chives, upright thyme, rosemary, lemon balm, mints, spanish oregano, mexican tarragon. Half hardy herbs to grow in pots with winter protection include bay, creeping thyme, sage, lemon grass, greek oregano. For get-attention gifts, plant perennial herbs now with salad greens planted like a fringe around the chives and thyme. | | Water Right | | Homeowners with inground sprinklers, take note: if you water five minutes a day, shrubs and trees will grow only shallow roots and thus be suseptible to drought stress and other ills. Water deeply once a week instead. For berries, plant these: pyracantha, beautyberry, strawberry bush, magnolia, mahonia. Rub the red off magnolias if you want to sprout them. | | Which Herbs When? | | Truly perennial herbs around here: chives, upright thyme, rosemary, lemon balm, mints, spanish oregano, mexican tarragon. Half hardy herbs to grow in pots with winter protection include bay, creeping thyme, sage, lemon grass, greek oregano. For get-attention gifts, plant perennial herbs now with salad greens planted like a fringe around the chives and thyme. | | Pansy Power | | Transplant pansies everywhere: under deciduous trees with daffodils, lining the strip between your sidewalk and shrubs, in the perennial beds, and annual planters. Look for improved varieties like ?bingo? and ?crystal bowl?. Just cover sweet pea seeds with warm water. Soak them, changing the water a few times in the three days they?ll take to sprout. Then plant. | | Show All Tips | | | | | | Spring | | Wet Advice | | Homeowners with inground sprinklers, take note: if you water five minutes a day, shrubs and trees will grow only shallow roots and thus be suseptible to drought stress and other ills. Water deeply once a week instead. | | Prune and fertilize flowering shrubs after they bloom. Rejuvenate overgrown azaleas and nandinas by cutting down whole canes, not shearing the tops off. Select the biggest (therefore oldest) branches and remove them completely. More sunlight and water to their centers stimulates new growth.
Thin out quince, forsythia, and kerria to keep their natural vase shape. | | | Invest in a roll of 4"x4" welded wire, then make cages for tomatoes, trellises for cucumbers and beans. Put cages around eggplants and peppers, too, since plants loaded with fruit can topple easily in summer thunderstorms. For a big, tasty, heat loving tomato, try Goliath. Like spicy basil? Try AAS winner ?Siam Queen? with purple flowers. | | | Looking for ?Exotic Love?? Soak seed til sprouted for Mina lobata. Fine vine opens orange flowers, aging yellow and white. Our favorite summer annual, a narrowleaf zinnia named ?Crystal White?, is an All America Selection for 1997. Hundreds of quarter-size, white daisy flowers top fine textured mounds of leaves about a foot tall. | | | Five year old wisteria should bloom; try this before you give up: cut the top back by half and root prune, too. If coral honeysuckle has leaf miners, spray new growth with insecticidal soap. Best peonies for us will be early season; others burn up before they bloom. Look for Festiva Maxima, white with red hearts. | | Show All Tips | | | | | | Summer | | Tomato pests | | Early on, it's usually big fat hornworms chewing on the plants, but later, the most damage comes from stinkbugs. Pluck them off when you see them, or consider using a pyrethrin or to control. Be sure to check labels for waiting periods before harvest. If the pests are present in late season when plants are in decline, replace them. | | | Had enough of the winter meadow effect in your front yard? If you like the show of blooming winter wildflowers, but don?t want them to take over, now?s a good time to mow their little heads off. If more than half the lawn has gone to these ?weeds? (sorry, Bob), consider spraying now to control them. | | | Plant flats? worth of hardy ground covers: small plants will transplant more easily now. Select asian jasmine or vinca major for reliable performers in sun or shade. The more sun, the more blooms on the vinca.Plant on four inch centers, and work in slow release fertilizer, then ring each plant with one inch of compost. | | | Plant fruit trees to attract wildlife even if you don?t care to eat them. Persimmons, plums, mayhaw, and fruiting mulberry will nurture many birds. Brambles like blackberry will provide food and cover for nesting as well. But if you?re cultivating fruit for people food, put bird feeders and flower borders on the far side of the yard. | | | They used to be called perfect seeds for kids, but how about seeds that are easy to handle at any age: nasturtium, scarlet runner bean, morning glory, moon vine, hyacinth bean, zinnias, marigolds. If you need a reason to plant more flowers, remember that annual borders near vegetable gardens will attract more pollinators. | | Show All Tips | | | | | | Winter | | Rejuvenate Ground Covers | | Just before new growth starts, spruce up ground covers such as ivy and vinca by mowing the top growth and raking all the dead leaves and debris. | | | Time seeds sprouted indoors by the calendar; six or eight weeks from seed to transplant is about average. Fertilize overwintering annuals like pansies, johnny jump ups, larkspur, stock, and poppies with halfstrength solutions. Soak nasturtium seeds in warm water before planting, then press gently about one inch apart and one inch deep in loose soil. Check those seeds you saved last year and discard if moldy. | | | Cut back French hydrangeas late this month for June flowers on this spring's new growth. Root pieces about six inches long in a mixture of sand and soil. Use a flowerpot, a flat, or an old crate and stick the cuttings in about three inches deep. Put the rooting box outdoors in shade. Force forsythia stems in warm water. | | | Keep parsley, dill, and cilantro neat and encourage compact growth by harvesting small amounts throughout winter. Later this month plant onion sets, carrots, beets, and green peas. Make quick hot caps by removing the bottoms from gallon milk jugs to protect tender seedlings on frosty nights. Loosen or remove tops for ventilation on sunny days. | | | Take a look at coral honeysuckle, jasmine, and other nearly deciduous vines. Clean up their stems and rewind around supports now, while leaf cover is at a minimum. Spray with horticultural oil if leaves look twisted or mined, or if more than one third of the foliage has fallen off at once. Remove dead flower stalks from clumping perennials, but wait to cut back woody ones. | | Show All Tips | | | | |
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