Gardening Corner

By: Museumlover

By now you are seeing the results of all of your hard work, growing herbs and flowers. Hopefully some veggies as well.

This is the time to take care of your blooming flowers so they will continue to give you pleasure. Deadheading (pinching or cutting off spent flower heads) will keep your plants blooming. This mostly applies to annuals. When the bloom is spent, remove the bloom at the next leaf joint. This will encourge the plant to produce more and new blooms.

Perennials are generally not deadheaded as they propogate from the seed found in the flower heads. This is particularly the case for purple cone flowers, daisies, and others with seeds in the center of the flower. Lillies, iris and other such plants propagate themselves from their roots. For maximum feeding of the plant, do not cut off the greenery until near the end of July. This feeds the roots of the plant. Many perennials are just beginning to bloom, especially flowers and plants that are indiginous prairie plants.

They will bloom quite a while and really look spectacular in a cutting bed, or just a bed to watch. You might find a few pests as well. I find that some of my plants have chews on the bottom from rabbits and chews on the top from deer! Oh the joy of living with wildlife!

If you put some humming bird feeders near some of your flowers, you should be well rewarded with these tiny, tiny birds at your feeder. No need to buy special nectar. Boil together 1 part sugar and 4 parts water to dissolve the sugar. Add a little red food coloring, if desired, and put in the feeder. Change often as the heat can cause a bacteria to form in the sugar water.

Some of you probably have impatiens growing in planters. They will begin to get leggy in July if not frequently pinched back. Pinching back at the leaf node will make them bushier and also encourage more blooms.

Some herbs are beginning to flower as well. Basil must have the beginning flower bud snipped off or it will stop growing. Pinching oregano and thyme will encourage bushiness. I also trim sage in a bush shape. Cilantro grows flowers which will eventually produce coriander seed, so to keep the cilantro growing for kitchen use, think salsa, the blooms need to be pinched off.

Vegetables also benefit from pinching off leggy shoots. Tomatoes will produce more and larger fruit if the leggy bits are pinched off, encouraging new bloom and a stronger stem.

You are probably already eating lettuce, radishes and green beans from your garden. And strawberries!. I don"t grow strawberries but I really like to buy them at farm stands and U-Pick farms. There is no comparison in flavor!

With all of the rain we have been having, be sure your plants are well-drained. Look around your area for any standing water or water sitting in pots and planters. These are mosquito havens! Empty containers of stagnant water. Moving water in fountains will not provide a breeding ground for the mosquitoes, but will give a nice source of water for the birds. They may drink the water or preen and bathe in the fountain.

Happy gardening. It is never too late in the year to plant. I have planted in August and September, but to enjoy more flowers, and quite often at the end of the season greenhouses are practically giving them away!