Several ideas have surfaced for columns during the past few weeks, so here are those ideas expanded into one or two paragraphs for each. Summer is finally here; time to enjoy the hard work of the spring in the garden.
The moisture and cooler temperatures of the spring have produced astonishingly lush growth in the garden. I’ve never seen so much foliage in my garden, to the point where I’ve had to use the pruners, lopping shears and even the pruning saw more than ever. If plants are growing together it’s not a bad thing to separate them now with a few well-placed pruning cuts.
That sweet fragrance you smell right now in gardens is that of Philadelphus, or the Mock Orange. They are just one of many flowering shrubs that have produced an abundance of blooms this spring. The pure white blooms are single, semi-double or fully double, depending on which variety you choose. Philadelphus lewisii is the native species, just as fragrant as any developed cultivar and blooming now on a dry hillside near you.
With all of the attention that the hosta garners, with its three thousand new cultivar introductions each year (just kidding) it’s easy to overlook another shade-loving perennial that performs admirably. Astilbe throws out its colourful plumes in late spring, above handsome foliage. It’s virtually trouble-free, extremely hardy and can be divided after a few years to produce more plants. All they want is an organic-enriched soil that is kept evenly moist, with some shade from the hot afternoon sun. A grouping of astilbe in full flower is an impressive sight.
If you have lilacs in your garden it’s time to get the pruners out to remove the spent flowers. I haven’t done this for a few years on my five lilac shrubs and I’ve got a big job ahead of me! Removing the old flowers keeps the plants from putting energy into seed production and allows them to start budding for next year’s blooms, and the plants look much better for the rest of the growing season.
We’ve hardly had to irrigate in the garden this spring, with all of the well-timed rainfalls we’ve had. But you know that July and August will require you to apply water, in compliance with your community’s water regulations of course! Have you ever measured just how much water your irrigation system actually delivers? If not, it’s time for an irrigation audit.
Start holding back empty tuna tins or yogurt containers from the recycling bin. When you have enough place them out into the garden and on the lawn. Turn your sprinklers on for one hour, and then measure how much water is in each container. Lawns and garden plants need about one inch of water a week, from your sprinklers or from the sky.
If there is an inch of water in the tuna can after an hour you can figure out how many times and for how long that sprinkler needs to run. Remember, one inch applied once a week is much better for landscape plants than a seventh of an inch applied daily. Mulch, grouping low-water use plants together and good old rainfall will help to lessen the time the sprinklers run in your garden too.
