Master gardener John Hethrington works year-round on his 20 different gardens. His advice for all gardeners is this: there's always work to be done.
With the summer sun comes plant growth, and weeds are no exception. While July is a great time to sit back and enjoy the garden, it's also a busy month for "actively" enjoying the garden with some of these tasks.
Watch for the Japanese beetle on your Asiatic Lilies, Roses, Rose of Sharon, Dahlias, Hollyhocks, and numerous other plants. Handpicking and squeezing, combined with a beetle trap, are the most efficient ways to limit these ravaging critters. Luckily, the little red devils don’t eat Day Lilies (Hemerocallis).
Watch for earwigs and spongy moth caterpillars. Spray plants with a 40:1 mixture of water and dish soap.
Ants can also be a problem. The ant powder does not seem to work for me. Maybe the ants didn’t read the instructions to take it back to their nest.
Trim evergreens, cedar hedges, etc., now as needed, not later in the summer.
Stake straggly and/or tall annuals and perennials, or pinch them back to promote new growth and make them bushy.
Raise lawn mower blades for summer mowing. Grass should be at least 5 - 7.5 cm (2 to 3 inches) high to stay healthy and weed-free.
Prune spring flowering shrubs like forsythia and spirea after blooming. If you really want to be picky, remove individual spent lilac blooms.
Water flower beds deeply and try a second round of weeding. Add mulch again to keep the weeds at bay.
Mulch your tomato plants. When a ripe tomato drops, it won’t split or get muddy. Mulch holds moisture too!
Thin, hoe, weed and water vegetables as required. (This is why I stick to flowers.)
Water lawns and beds as deeply as you can.
Tackle weeds now before they go to seed. Save yourself from weeding their offspring next year.
Turn compost regularly and check the moisture level – not too wet, not too dry, just right, like Goldilocks.
A big thank you to everyone who turned out for the Giant Plant Sale at St. George’s, the Anglican Parish for the Blue Mountains, in Clarksburg.
First, thanks for the generous plant donors who potted 2,059 plants for us. Then to the many eager buyers who got fantastic bargains, and finally for the many St. George’s volunteers, and the 599 Garden Club plant experts. It was the biggest sale ever See you next year.
