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Monthly To-Do
 Weed, weed, weed! Get them now while they're small and prevent big problems later. Click here for tips on how to wipe out max weeds in minimum time.
After weeding, continue to finish off your work with a nice layer of wood bark mulch (never fresh wood chips.) It conserves moisture, prevents weeds, and eventually breaks down and feeds the soil.
Grass is growing quickly right now. To maintain it, mow often enough that you never need to remove more than one-third of the grass blade.
Go ahead and buy plants on clearance, but buy only those plants that look healthy. Avoid runty, dried out, or otherwise tired-looking plants. They're unlikely to rally.
Avoid buying bare-root roses at this point in the season, no matter how cheap they are. It's just too hot and most bare-root roses are way past their prime in containers at this time of year.
Deadhead flowers on annuals, perennials, and some shrubs. It keeps your garden more attractive and in many cases, it will encourage more flowers. Check out our videos on deadheading flowers by clicking here.
Continue to plant container-grown or balled-and-burlapped trees, shrubs, and roses now. However, avoid planting bare-root roses and other bare-root plants. This late in the year, they'll struggle to get established and may well die.
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.
Pinch mum buds until the 4th of July. This helps them produce larger, bigger flowers on stronger stems.
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.
Check out 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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Even with all this flood-inducing rain-not to mention 
It's easy for me to remember that true lilies peak around the 4th of July. With their brilliant colors and signature flower shape, they seem to be an explosion of color in mid-air.
With all this rain, many plants are suffering from fungal diseases. 
My sweetie got tired of my bamboo rods and garden stakes sliding and skittering all over the place in the garage. So he created this clever organizer by sliding a length of PVC pipe into a PVC flange and setting it upright. Fast, easy, and about $15.