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 Garden/Landscaping Tips from Ken Morgan
Tuesdays, 7am
Sponsored by Robin's Nest Floral & Garden Center, rt. 50 in Easton  May Gardening Tips
WEEK ONE:
1. As tulips finish blooming, apply Espoma’s Bulbtone. This will help to perennialize newly planted bulbs. You will also have bigger and more blooms next year. Apply 4 to 6 pounds per 100 square feet and repeat again in early September.
2. To deter deer and keep them away from desirable plants, spray with a new and different deterrent, every month. We recommend Liquid Fence one month and Bonide’s Repels-All the next month.
3. The classic way to sow vegetable seeds is in shallow furrows, created by dragging the edge of a rake or hoe handle along the planting line, then dribble the seeds at package recommended spaced intervals.
4. When sowing fine seeds, such as lettuce, broadcast the seeds over damp well worked soil. Cover the seed mix with burlap to help maintain the moisture during germination.
5. Mow the lawn often enough so you never have to cut off more than a third of the grass in order to maintain the recommended height. Always keep your mower blades sharpened.
6. Try to get all your perennial plants into the ground before the hot weather sets in. This will give your plants time to root and become ready for the long hot summer.
7. If the weather has been rainy, check your Hostas, Astilbes, and other shade plants for chewed leaf edges. You will also see shiny mucous trails which are signs of slugs and snails. We recommend Sluggo for this problem or use a pie pan and beer to rid the area of the pests.
8. Prune and shape up crape myrtles you wish to grow as trees before they bloom. Remove any dried flower clusters or seed pods. To encourage a canopy to form, remove the branches a third of the way up the trunk. Always remove any branches rubbing across others and any growing into the center of the canopy. Always prune unbranched limbs back to an outward facing bud. Also remember crape myrtles are slow to wake-up in the spring. If you feel that your plant has died, wait until late next month before deciding to dig it up to replace it.
9. Prune back forsythia by taking older branches right back to the ground. If you leave a stump, new branches will develop there in a direction that crosses other branches.
10. Fill gaps left by the passing of the spring-flowering bulbs by planting flowering annuals. Many annuals will bloom all summer, especially if they are dead-headed and fertilized with Jack’s Classic Blossom Booster every two weeks.
WEEK TWO:
1. Many types of herbs, vegetables, and small fruits do very well in containers. Container gardening helps to solve space problems, and proper locations can help to utilize better light and temperatures. Here are some suggested ideas:
A. Low-growing herbs like parsley, arugula and other small vegetables do well in window boxes.
B. Rosemary thrives in containers and be trained as a topiary ball or tree. They make wonderful gifts for the holidays.
C. Squashes, beans, and melons can be planted in containers with teepee, pyramids, or trellis, and trained to grow up.
D. Tomato varieties do well in containers, small varieties like cherry tomatoes, can thrive in hanging baskets or small 8-inch pots. Bigger varieties will need larger pots with cages or stakes to allow them to grow upwards.
2. Rust may appear in new lawns with a high percentage of ryegrass. If rust does show up spray immediately with Bonide’s Infuse Fungicide.
3. Prevent Dogwood bores by applying 2-3 teaspoons of moth crystals around the base of the tree and recover with mulch.
4. Scribbled tracings on columbine foliage is a sign of leafminer. When the flowers are finished blooming, cut the foliage to the ground and it will regrow again and make a nice full green filler all summer long. Be sure to dispose of the infected stalks and do not compost.
5. Begin a spray program with Bonide’s Fungoil, Liquid Copper, or Infuse to help stop and save susceptible perennials and roses from blackspot, powdery mildew, rusts, and bacterial diseases. Spray at recommend intervals usually every
10 to 14 days, depending on the weather.
6. Check fruit trees now for an oversupply of tiny fruits. In the next few weeks thin apples, pears, and peaches so that the fruits are no closer than 4 to 6 inches.
7. As azaleas finish blooming, clip or prune 2 to 3 inches off the branch tips that have finished flowering. To lower an azalea or rhododendron that is getting too tall, prune no more than a third of the total plant mass. To create a layered look, prune the bottom and side branches appropriately.
8. For all newly planted or transplanted in-ground trees, pour two or three 5 gallon buckets of water around the roots once a week throughout the spring and summer, unless rain is present.
9. Be sure to control grass and weeds growing into your water garden from the edge of the pond. Take care not to get lawn chemicals and grass clippings into the pond, especially when mowing the lawn. Add mosquito dunks to kill mosquito larvae.
10. Begin a regular fertilizing program for hanging baskets and container plants. They will benefit from bi-weekly application of Jack’s Classic Fertilizer.
WEEK THREE:
1. At every second watering, include a half dose of fertilizer in the water for all your potted annuals and perennials.
2. If you intend to plant gladiolus for cutting, start now by planting sets of six or eight gladiolus and repeat at three-week intervals until early August.
3. To keep herbs and certain flowering annuals from becoming to leggy, pinch the tips back to keep them bushing out. Most herbs, snapdragons, basil, and cosmos respond well to this technique.
4. When nighttime temperatures stay steady at 60 degrees Fahrenheit and above, start moving your houseplants outdoors. Place them in indirect light in a sheltered spot for the first week. Check water requirements as air temperatures rise.
5. Woolly Adelgid can attach Canadian Hemlocks and can do severe damage. Spraying twice a year with horticultural oil is the preferred control of these insect pests. You can also use horticultural or Bonide All Season oils to control aphids, cankerworms, leafhoppers, leaf rollers, mealybugs, mites, psylids, scale, tent caterpillars, and webworms. CAUTION: Using horticultural oils can temporarily remove the blue pigment in Colorado Blue Spruce and certain blue Hosta. Never use this spray during periods of drought and always be sure to water deeply before spraying.
6. Prune anemone clematis (Clematis montana hybrids), immediately after flowering to control its direction and to reduce the bulk and size of the plant.
7.Remember when you go to the garden to inspect plants always carry twine with you to tie up new shoots of vining plants, like wisteria, clematis, honeysuckle, and even roses, to direct in the way you want them to grow.
8. To keep roses looking good and producing flowers, deadhead religiously, especially hybrid tea roses and grandifloras. Always prune to down the stem to a five leaf segment, and cut at a 45 degree angle.
9. Make sure roses and most other blooming plants receive 1½ inches of water every week to keep them healthy and blooming. Use a water soluble fertilizer monthly if you are using organic blend fertilizers such as Rosetone by Espoma. Rosetone feeds for about six weeks, so repeat during the growing season.
10. Weeds take up water and soil nutrients, so get them early before they are allowed to develop a big root system and establish weed seeds. If you have not done so, apply a product called AMAZE. Amaze prevents grassy and broadleaf weeds from sprouting.
WEEK FOUR:
1. Remove the flowering stems of orchids as soon as they finish blooming, and consider repotting if they are crowding their container. They can summer outdoors in a shady area, protected from the wind. Be sure to keep them out of direct sun.
2. Apply post-emergent controls to the lawn if dandelions, plantain, chickweed,
bindweed, ground ivy, wild violets, clover, and other nuisance weeds are present. We recommend Jonathon Green’s Weed and Feed. This must be applied only when the grass is wet.
3. Good plant growth is essential to the development of a healthy root system. When planting new plants use Espoma’s Bio-tone starter which has living microbes that have been enhanced with humates and a synthetic nitrogen source. If a good soaking rain is not present every week to ten days, water planted beds gently and slowly, long enough to allow 1 to 2 inches of water.
4. Gypsy moths are now emerging. Spray all trees with signs of infestations with
BT (Bacillus thuringiensis). You can also use liquid Sevin, Malathion, Rotenone,
or any product containing pyrethrins.
5. If lawns need watering, it is recommended that early morning watering is best. It washes away early-morning dew from the grass blades, preventing outbreaks of many types of lawn diseases.
6. The first generation for lacebugs are starting to arrive on azaleas. Lacebugs are microscopic and invisible to the naked eye, and left untreated, can siphon off so much sugar that the leaves of your azalea will turn grey-white by fall. Use Bonide
Systemic Insecticide or liquid Cygon now. Two other applications will need to be done in mid-July and then again in mid-September. Use the other type of spray for the second application and the first type of spray for the last application.
7. Tropical Hibiscus are beautiful tropical plants with funnel shaped flowers about 4 to 6 inches in diameter. They are great plants for the patio, around the pool or around the deck. They do well in full sun (but will require daily watering), or partial shade. Do not over-water, or the foliage will turn yellow and drop. Finger pinch spent faded blooms to encourage reblooming. Fertilize every two weeks with Jack’s Classic Blossom Booster to encourage bigger blooms.
8. Overgrown lilacs can be made new again by careful pruning. Immediately after flowering, identify the oldest canes or limbs and prune a third of them to the ground. Removal of old limbs opens up the shrub to greater sunlight and will invite new shoots to rise up from the soil. Continue to prune in this way each spring after flowering over the next three to four years. This will renew your lilac to invigorate new healthy growth.
9. Rhododendrons should be pruned after the flowers have faded. You will find a host of thin stalks on which seedheads are in the process of forming at the top. Go below the seedheads an inch or so and you will see the new growth. Prune the stem a quarter-inch above the new growth, no matter how short or long it may be. The new growth stays behind and everything above this is removed. Check the pH which should be between 4.0 to 5.5.
10. Whenever it rains, insect pests go into hiding, when the rain stops, bugs begin feeding again. The best time to attack insects is when they are feeding on plants, generally from sunrise to about 10 am, after which they go into hiding.
Guide for Harvesting Roses
1. Harvest roses early, before the sun bakes them. (Before 10 am).
2. Take a five gallon bucket with floral preservative and clean sharp shears.
3. Choose stems whose buds have not fully opened.
4. Make the cut just above the first five segment leaf set.
5. Immediately place the stem in the water bucket, being sure to remove the foliage below the water line. Be sure buckets are cleaned with ½ teaspoon of bleach .
6. If possible, condition the roses in fresh preservative water overnight in a refrigerator away from citrus.
7. Place stem in clean vase with floral preservative.
Submerged & Oxygenating Plants
Submerged plants are included among pond plantings to gobble the nutrients feeding undesirable algae and to add oxygen. Growing in sand-filled pans set on the pond bottom, they quickly develop stems 2 to 3 feet long. Allow 6 square inches of container surface for every bunch of submerged plants, and use a separate container for each variety. To plant, gently press the ends of each bunch 2 inches into the sand. Add sand to within an inch of the rim, and top that with rinsed gravel. Water the containers to displace trapped air. Never fertilize; their job is to take nutrients from the water.
Koi and goldfish can nibble the submerged plants to death. Cover the pans with plastic mesh domes; the plants grow through the mesh and the fish graze without harming the roots.
Pruning Guide for Evergreens
1. Dead or damaged wood on evergreen conifers can be removed at any time.
2. Flowering broadleaf evergreens that bloom on new wood, like abelia, should be pruned in late winter or early spring before growth begins.
3. Flowering broadleaf evergreens that bloom on old wood, such as azaleas and rhododendrons, should be pruned immediately after they bloom and before they initiate new growth to avoid cutting off buds being initiated for the following season.
4. To slow or dwarf a broadleaf evergreen, after its main spurt of growth, remove up to a third. You can cut the main stem back to the first side shoots, but do not take off more than has grown the last year or two.
5. To encourage dense branching in evergreens whose growth is initiated by candles, cut the candles back by half when growth is complete. Prune the tips of yews, junipers, and hemlocks lightly any time during the growing season.
6. To establish a shape, prune evergreen shrubs and hedges when they are 3 to 5 years old.
Thatch & Dethatching
Grass clippings left on the lawn are returned to an elemental state by microorganisms in the soil and recycled as nutrients. A quarter-inch layer of clippings is good; more is not. Clippings build when overdoses of pesticides kill the soil microorganisms, and when soluble high-nitrogen fertilizers and excess watering push grass growth. Your lawn could need dethatching if it feels spongy to walk on. Cut a pie-shaped plug of turf that includes dirt with the roots. If the spongy layer between the grass and the soil measures more than ½ inch, dethatch. The best time to dethatch a cool-season grass is in early fall. A convex rake with short knife-like blades in place of tines can be used to dethatch a small lawn. For a big dethatching job, a gas-powered vertical mower and power rake attachment is needed. If the thatch is thick, make two passes at right angles to each other.
To avoid thatch buildup do the following:
A. Remove less than 1 inch of grass blade when you mow. Use a mulching mower to double-cut the clippings, which makes it easier for the microorganisms in the soil to break them down.
B. Avoid excessive dosing with pesticides that kill the soil microorganisms.
C. Avoid soluble high-nitrogen fertilizers and excessive watering.
D. Aerate every 2 or 3 years. Aeration helps avoid a big thatch buildup although it is not enough alone to solve one.
E. Beneficial insects speed the breakdown of thatch, so be conservative in your use of pesticides.
Caladiums
Start caladium tubers indoors about 8 weeks before nights will stay above 60 and day temperatures reach 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
1. Fill a flat with 2 to 3 inches of moist peat moss or sterile soilless potting mix.
2. Set tubers about 8 inches apart with the knobble side up and the little straggle of roots down.
3. Keep the growing medium damp. The tubers are slow to start but well in a grow light stand or in a sunny glassed-in porch.
4. When they sprout, transplant them to containers filled with improved soil fertilized with Plant-tone. A container 8 to 10 inches in diameter can take 4 to 5 caladiums. Cover the tubers with 2 inches of fertile soil mixed with humus or peat moss.
5. When daytime temperatures reach 70 degrees Fahrenheit and nights stay above 60 degrees, move the caladiums outdoors in their pots, or transplant them to the garden. They do best in a semi-sunny or a lightly shaded location.
6. When temperatures drop below 70 degrees in the fall, harvest the tubers, allow them to dry, and store them at temperatures between 70 and 75 degrees.
Be warned: deer are very attracted to caladium Have a flower/plant/landscaping question? Email Ken at studio@wceiradio.com! If your question is used on the air, you'll win a $20 Robin's Nest Gift Certificate! |
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