Garden Tip 98: CULTIVATING THE SOIL After weeks and weeks of hot, dry weather, the topsoil and mulch in the garden becomes baked to a crust. This is why we often see summer rains running atop and off the garden. It is a good practice to cultivate the top few inches of any open areas in the summer garden to lesson runoff and aid in the absorption of the much needed rain. I find the long-handled four-pronged cultivator or the u-shaped hula hoe to be the perfect tools for this type of work. There are many enriching mulches available [...]

Garden Tip 97: DEALING WITH THE DROUGHT The extreme drought continues and that calls for some extreme action in the garden. Normally I start cutting back perennials mid to late September. This year I have already started cutting back those perennials that are so adversely affected by the dry conditions that no amount of watering or rain will bring them back. Phlox, salvia, peony, and comfrey are just some of the varieties that have been cut to the ground with the hope that any available water will strengthen the roots for next season’s growth. I have even started removing [...]

Garden Tip 96: A WONDERFUL DROUGHT-TOLERANT PERENNIAL The hot dry weather has taken its toll on garden perennials. Some have weathered the drought better than others, and it is interesting to take note of those that have come through in good condition. One in particular, in my garden, is Persicaria ‘Firetail.’ It stands today as it did in June, strong, clean, and still in flower, seemingly oblivious to the lack of rain over the past eight weeks. This plant is a clumping perennial that grows to three feet tall and can spread over time to six feet wide. Red [...]

Garden Tip 95: EDITING YOUR SUMMER GARDEN We have a term at our house that we use to describe an important garden activity that we do during this time of year– garden editing. Starting in March we do all that we can to promote and encourage vigorous growth in the garden and landscape. Come July and August, that effort is reversed and our work is focused on controlling, containing or removing what we have grown. Garden editing is just that– changing or removing that which does not add to the picture. An important bit of garden editing involves daylilies. [...]

Garden Tip 94: FERTILIZING YOUR CONTAINER GARDENS The lush, colorful hanging baskets, window boxes and planters of May often become drab and tired-looking come July and August. Many believe it is the heat that causes this decline of plant quality when, in actuality, it is caused by lack of food. With constant watering in the heat of summer any slow-release fertilizer that we, or the grower, added to the soil at planting time will be depleted. A quick remedy to this situation, and a means of keeping these plantings looking great into October, is a regimen of feeding using [...]

Garden Tip 93: HAND WATERING YOUR SUMMER GARDEN July and August are typically very dry months here on the Cape, making watering one of the more important garden chores to be done this time of year. Plantings of this season, last year, and even the year, before should be watered two to three times a week if they are not watered by a drip irrigation system. Hand watering is most effective when one waters using a water breaker. Water breakers are water nozzles with three to four hundred holes that break up and spread out the water coming out [...]

Garden Tip 92: SEDUMS ARE A GREAT ADDITION TO YOUR SUMMER GARDEN The latter part of July and the month of August are typically dry months here on the Cape. This year, to date, we are already running a deficit of nearly five inches of rain, making gardening a bit challenging during these summer months! Sedums are a group of plants to consider using for these dry times. They are dependable, versatile, drought tolerant, showy and attractive to pollinators. I have established a sedum garden in our front bed that is in poor soil, full sun and right next to [...]

Garden Tip 91: TIP PRUNING HYDRANGEAS Most discussions about pruning hydrangeas are about cutting them back before or after they bloom, or when they are dormant. There is a bit of pruning that can be done now, when they are in flower to help improve their appearance and encourage branching and flower production for the following season. This pruning is called tip pruning and should be done during the first two weeks of July. Tip pruning applies mainly to the macrophylla (ball shaped flowers) and lace cap (flat flowers) varieties of hydrangeas. Growing tips of these plants that do [...]

Garden Tip 90: TIPS FOR DISEASE FREE HOLLYHOCKS A lot of good gardening comes from one gardener sharing a gardening tip with another. I have received a good tip from a gardening friend that I want to share with you. Growing up in New Hampshire, there were always bright, beautiful flowering hollyhocks outside our kitchen window. As a kid, these plants seemed to me to be ten feet tall and quite magical! I have tried hollyhocks here in my garden on the Cape and have always had a problem with hollyhock fungal leaf disease. Like most fungal infections, this [...]

Garden Tip 89: TIPS FOR EDITING YOUR GARDEN There is a dramatic change in the garden from the spring months of planning, planting and coaxing to a sudden burst of growth in the warmer, longer days of summer. Summer months in the garden are a time for constant maintenance, or as I refer to it, garden editing. It is a constant activity from now until fall cleanup, looking with a critical eye and removing anything that doesn’t add to the picture. Deadheading and cutting back perennials and biennials, shaping the giant hosta and pruning flowering shrubs after bloom are [...]