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.
|
TIMELY GARDEN TIPS FROM OVER THE GARDEN FENCEJULY 6, 2002 Occasionally
nearly every garden could use some extra blooms. For all the planning we green
thumbers do, there are still times our gardens are not as brilliant as we might
wish. Do you have some bare, colorless
spaces in your garden you would like to fill in? How about the spaces
where the oriental poppy plants have gone dormant? Fill in with some annual flowering salvia. Now that peony plants have finished
blooming, plant some medium height zinnias.
Does your succession of perennial flowers have a gap in the bloom
times? There are hundreds of perennial
plant varieties that can be tucked into any garden now to fill in the bloom
time gaps. And
don’t forget the beauty that rose bushes will add to any garden. Hybrid tea, floribunda, old fashioned shrub
types, grandiflora, and groundcover roses can be most enjoyable even during the
warmest weeks of summer. 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 or Holly-Rhododendron Tone after
pruning. 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 my corn plants. This not only smothers and controls weeds,
but the mounded soil provides for better support and stronger stalks because
corn air roots grow into the added soil.
“Hill up” or mound sweet corn about every two weeks. Garden
mums should be pinched back now. Tall,
ungainly 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. Continue
to spray rose bushes with Orthonex every 10 days. Keep roses blooming all summer with monthly feedings of Espoma
Rose Tone, through August. Start
your Japanese Beetle control program on valuable plants before major damage is
seen. Japanese Beetles are very
attracted to the odor of damaged leaves and tend to fly towards plants that are
being fed on. To repel Japanese Beetles,
use Surefire Neem spray. To kill
beetles, set out traps away from valuable plants and spray with Pyrethrin or
Sevin. Rabbits,
rabbits everywhere, the whole world seems to be plagued with rabbits this
season. So many, I’m sure, that there
is at least one for every garden that they seem to be interested in eating our
favorite plants. Almost all ornamental
and vegetable plants are favorite fare for these new, young bunnies. There are several ways to deal with them. Ropel spray repels almost all animals from
eating valuable ornamental plants.
Blood meal protects the vegetable garden. For critters that don’t seem to get the message, try a Havaheart
trap. These products are all very
effective and are much easier than installing a fence! George Wedel |
Timely Tips
Archive
09/21/02 |