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Hot and Humid
Greetings!
 It's that time of year when we gardeners tend to get lazy. So hot and humid. Who wants to go out into that steamy bug fest?
But
with all this rain and heat, the weeds are taking off with supersonic speed. So
don't get discouraged! Even if go out just 10 or 15 minutes before the insects find you, every day
or two, it makes a huge difference.
When I'm not weeding, I'm
trying to keep up with my raspberries and sour cherries. Twelve-year-old
Will, once again, is being recruited as sharecropper, picking enough for cherry jam, a cherry pie, freezer raspberry jam, and
several desserts of fresh raspberries with a dash of orange liqueur over ice
cream. Yum.
I
planted the cherry tree 17 years ago. It was just a "whip," that is, a mere
stick with roots. My daughter Kate helped me plant it and it she was bigger
than it was. Too funny; too cute. She came home from the University of Iowa a
few days ago, so she picked the cherries and I made her a pie.
Time
passes quickly, in life and in the garden. It makes me happy; it makes me sad;
but it always is fascinating--and when I'm lucky, it's also delicious.
Happy Gardening!
 Veronica Lorson Fowler |
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Pretty Flowers
From Your Garden
Take a few minutes to cut some flowers from your garden. It
will make you feel great--not only as you arrange them but also for days to
come as you enjoy the lovely blossoms, up close and personal.
Best
tips for good arrangements:
 Have a variety of vases on hands. Different flowers call for different types of
vases. Buy big ones and little ones, cheap at hobby stores and elsewhere.
Use all sorts of plant material. Just a few fern fronds in a vase looks cool
and elegant. Arrange some big hosta leaves in a low vase for something
exotic-looking. Harvest goldenrod growing in the ditch. Put branches of
beautiful autumn leaves in a large vase.
If y ou've simply been putting flowers straight into the vase, play around with
floral foam. It greatly expands what you can do. Get some blocks at your
hobby store or the florist's at the supermarket.
Strip the leaves off the lower parts of the stems. This makes them look nicer
in clear glass and prevents the leaves from decomposing and fouling the water.
Change the water daily. Also trim the very ends of the stems so they continue
to uptake water easily.
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Peeved About Purslane
 There's a Greek myth about the Hydra, a monster with many
snake heads. When a hero tried to kill it by cutting off one of the heads,
several more heads immediately sprouted in its place.
And
purslane is just like the Hydra. Thriving in hot, drier places, purslane is a
pain-in-the-patootey weed that must always be pulled, never hoed. If any part
of the plant remains in the soil, it will regenerate. Hoeing just chops it up
and spreads it around, so you're not weeding--you're propagating!
In
areas where many tiny purslane plants have sprouted, I resort to Round-Up, my new favorite garden chemical this yearl. Though I'm not
generally fond of chemicals, it does the job.
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Pinch Way More Than an Inch
If you hate how your tomatoes grow into a monster mass
that's hard to harvest, pinch off the suckers from the larger types.
Tomatoes
come in two types, essentially. The Roma and cherry-type tomatoes are usually
"determinate," nicely sized plants that seldom get more than a few
feet high.
The big, delicious beefsteak slicing tomatoes usually are on
"indeterminate" plants, which can grow as tall as a building.
Pinch
off the suckers--click here to see how--to
control size. One sucker, essentially, can grow into an entirely new tomato
plant. Pinching also improves circulation for the tomatoes, minimizing fungal
diseases. It also assures fewer but bigger tomatoes for easier harvest.
Another
tomato pruning tip: Trim off the bottom few branches of your tomato plants so no leaves touch the ground or even come close. This
will prevent diseases at the bottom of the plant, where many fungal problems
start.
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Pickle Those Weeds
Yup, it's true. Spraying vinegar on your weeds will kill
them. Use any kind of vinegar, as long as it's cheap. (No raspberry-flavored
balsamic for this project!) Use it full strength and do it when it's sunny and
dry. You'll probably need to reapply another time or two over the next few
days.
This
works on small weeds and is perfect for those tiny weeds growing in cracks,
etc. Just be sure not to get it on other plants--it will kill those, too!
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Garden Quote:
"
Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability."
- American author, professor, and philosopher Sam Keen
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Garden To-Do List
For a printable version of this list for July, click here.
 Weed, weed, weed! All this rain followed by warmer weather
is perfect conditions for weeds to take off. After weeding, mulch to prevent weeds from returning.
Keep up with the mowing.
All this rain makes grass grow fast, but as a rule of thumb, you shouldn't
remove more than one-third of the leaf blade at a time or you stress the grass.
And stressed grass gets diseases and weeds. Mow often for a healthier lawn.
You can divide perennials that bloom in spring now, as needed
or desired. Hold off on dividing those that bloom in late summer or fall. For
them, it's too close to show time!
Deadhead flowers on annuals, perennials, and some shrubs. It keeps
your garden more attractive and in many cases, it will encourage more flowers
longer.
Fertilize containers every
two or three weeks with a liquid fertilizer, such as Miracle-Gro. All that
watering flushes out nutrients. Use a "bloom booster" type for
flowering plants--it really makes a difference!
Continue to plant
container-grown or balled-and-burlapped trees, shrubs, and roses now. However, avoid planting bare-root roses and other bare-root lants. This late in the season, they'll struggle.
Time to practice tough
love. If a tree or shrub is still struggling with winter damage or overall
sickness, with significant amounts of dead wood, it's almost certainly time to
dig it up or cut it down.
Remove the browning foliage
of tulips and daffodils once it pulls away easily. Until then, the plant is
using it to rejuvenate for next year.
Harvest early and often for
the most tender, sweetest produce and to keep plants producing well. Pick zucchini, for example, with the
yellow flower still attached.
Most lettuce by now has
started to bolt, that is, send up tall, elongated stalks. At this point, it
turns bitter. Pull it up and pitch it on your compost heap.
Remove old raspberry canes
after the plants stop producing fruit.
Check out the bulb catalogs
and on-line sources. Ordering now assures the type and quantity you want this
fall, when supplies run low.
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Garden Events
Sunday, July 11
Garden Art Fair Reiman Gardens
9 am - 4 pm Dozens of artists will sell their wares and you
can tour the garden as well. Special one-day reduced admission. Saturday, July 10Summer Garden PartyCentral Gardens of North Iowa, Clear Lake 6 pm onward. Enjoy great food and live music in the gardens, as well as a silent auction. $40 per person. Saturday, July 10Gold Coast Blooms, A Garden Tour in Davenport, Iowa Tour seven private gardens in the beautiful Gold Coast historic neighborhood view new public landscaping. Events during the day in Gold Coast Park include gardening workshops, music, and vendors from the farmer's market. $5 ($4 if purchased in advance). Visit online,phone 563-326-2894 or email pjs312@q.com for more information. Saturday, July 17
Water Garden Tour
Central Iowa Water Garden Association
9 am - 4pm. Visit nine beautiful water gardens. $10. Tickets
available at the Earl May on South Kellogg in Ames, the Earl May on Douglas in
Des Moines, the Pond Store in Johnston, the Hy-Vee in Altoona, or online.
Click here for further listings of more garden events throughout the summer. |
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