Timely Tips from Over the Garden Fence
You can catch George Wedel on Over the Garden Fence, 9:05 am Saturdays on AM 590 WKZO.
And return here each week at www.wedels.com for the latest in Wedel's timely tips.
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TIMELY GARDEN TIPS FROM OVER THE GARDEN FENCE JULY 5, 2003
What a great week this has been for gardening! About an inch of rain last weekend, lots of sunshine this week, and an extra-long holiday weekend all contributed to many enjoyable hours in our gardens. I hope all our "green thumb" friends will be able to squeeze in some more time today soaking up some great summer sunshine and drinking in the wonderful sight, sound, and fragrance of their gardens. I find myself commenting on how beautiful gardens are many times of the year; spring-flowering bulbs provide the "greatest show on earth" in April and May, and May is show time for so many flowering trees and shrubs. In June, poppies, peonies, lupine, and their companions light up the gardens, and now comes July. July is such a great month for garden beauty. Not only are perennial beds blooming well with daisies, hybrid lilies, astilbe, coreopsis, delphinium, daylilies, and Blue Hills Salvia; but most annual flowers are beginning to really shine, the Korean Dogwood is still covered with snow-white flowers, and summer blooming spirea shrubs are at their peak. Each day, month, and season, our gardens provide so much beauty and enjoyment. Has yours reached its full potential? For help adding more colorful plants to your landscape and garden, visit Wedel's Nursery, Florist, and Garden Center where ideas abound and a vast array of plants are anxious to move to your home. Soil conditions at this time are great for planting. Potted perennials that can be planted now and will blossom immediately include: Gloriosa Daisy, the nine varieties of yarrow, daylilies, the 15 colors of hybrid lilies, the 20 colors of astilbe, Shasta Daisy, pink and yellow evening primrose, and hollyhocks. More great summer choices include bright gold helianthus, delphiniums in white, pink, and blue, the four varieties of coreopsis, any of the 50 varieties of hostas, and ornamental grasses for both gardens and landscape. There are tall and short grasses, green, blue, and variegated foliage grasses, and grasses with plumes of all sizes. Wedel's stocks over 25 ornamental grass varieties. Possibilities abound for folks who want to use summer flowering shrubs to liven up their landscape. Wedel's selection of summer shrubs is now in bloom and ready to move to your landscape. Some summer bloomers include; hydrangea, the 9 varieties of spirea that bloom from June through August, pink, white, and yellow flowering potentilla, butterfly bush, and blue flowering caryopteris with either green or gold foliage. The possibilities for garden and landscape improvement are truly endless and so very enjoyable and it's never too late to start. Join with the millions who make gardening America's number one leisure time activity. With the onset of warm summer temperatures and high humidity, be alert for lawn disease problems. We have seen samples at the garden center this week of Rust, Melting Out, Leaf Spot, Patch, and Fusarium Blight. If any of these are showing up in your lawn, be sure to apply Scotts dry Lawn Disease Control or Daconil 2787 spray to stop lawn diseases in their tracks before they do even more damage. If in doubt about what might be causing brown spots in your lawn, bring in a 6-inch by 6-inch by 6-inch size turf sample to Wedel's diagnostic center for identification and a prescription for cure. Remember, keep lawn mower cutting height at 3 to 3 1/2 inches. Scalping lawns with a low cut now will encourage poor turf density, stress, and conditions for more crabgrass and broadleaf weed problems. Mowing turf at the highest setting will encourage deeper grass roots, which conserves moisture and discourages weeds. Bacterial Speck, Bacterial Leaf Spot, Early Blight, and Anthracnose are showing up on tomato plants. Tomato leaves, stems, and fruit can all be affected. Keep plants sprayed with Daconil 2787 to control these tomato diseases. Colorado potato beetles are very numerous this season. Check your potato plants daily. When Colorado potato beetles are present, spray plants with Pyrethrin to control them. Check cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and other cole plants often for cabbage worm damage. Sevin or Pyrethrin will control cabbage worms. For homeowners, there is no registered weed control for sweet corn. I have found that the "old timer's" method works quite well in my garden. I continually mound up loose soil at the base of corn plants. This not only smothers and controls weeds, but the mounded soil provides for better support and stronger stalks because the air roots grow into the added soil. Hill up or mound sweet corn about every two weeks. Now that spring flowering shrubs have finished blooming, it is time to shape them up. By shaping up, I mean it is time to prune them to the shape you desire for the plant. Many folks hesitate to prune for fear of harming a favorite shrub. I've always felt that pruning never harms, but only improves plants. Pruning will make all shrubs more compact and produce more blooms on a stronger plant. Always fertilize with Plant Tone after pruning. Some perennial flowers will bloom more than once a season if spent flowers are dead-headed. Cutting of the flower stems will, of course, enhance the beauty of the garden, but it will also encourage some perennials to have a second burst of blooms. To encourage a second bloom time on perennial flowers, be sure to scatter Flower Tone under plants and soak foliage and root zone with Bloom Plus. The same techniques apply to annual bedding plants; trim off old flowers, feed every ten days with Bloom Plus, and keep them evenly moist. Fall flowering garden mums and asters should be pinched back now. Tall, ungainly asters and mums in our autumn gardens are seldom an asset. By pinching or pruning mums back now to about eight inches tall, they will grow more compact and be more attractive this fall with many more blooms. This week I have seen a huge population build-up of red spider mites on many needled evergreens. Spruce, juniper, and arborvitae in many landscapes are infested. Check plants by shaking a branch over white paper; if mites the size of small pinheads begin to scurry around on the paper, control measures are in order. Control red spider mites with sprays of Pyrethrin with Canola Oil or Isotox. I've noticed the top leader stem on many white pine trees are curved and bent over. As white pine weevil feed under the bark of the leader stems, they will bend over into a shepherd's crook shape and usually die, thus changing the tree shape. Infested trees should be noted and sprayed next spring. Control white pine weevils with a spray of Esfenvalerate in late April and again in mid-May. When the central leader of a pine or spruce tree is deformed, a new leader can be encouraged to develop by tying the next lateral shoot in an erect position with a bamboo stick and stretchy plant ties.
George Wedel
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