By Hank Smith | March 2005
Summer
Garden Vegetables and Fruits
Green beans are a good temporary groundcover, easy to eliminate when a permanent use of soil takes place. They also enrich the soil.
If building a garden in a grassy area, it’s important to cultivate so your crops roots can penetrate. Aerate using a spade, pitchfork, or hoe. For a large garden area, you may want to rent or borrow a motor-driven cultivator.
Eggplants need full sun all day.
Do your replantings as soon as early crops are harvested. Keep ahead of the weeds with a hoe or cultivator.
If you preserve figs, gather them several days before they fully ripen to reduce splitting and souring damage.
Trees and Shrubs
Butterfly shrub (buddleia) is difficult to successfully transplant. The best bet is to do root cuttings.
Apply heavy mulch to shrubs during the hot, dry days of summer.
Long periods without rain can stress trees. Water deeply and provide more mulch to keep roots cool and provide moisture. To conserve water, irrigate in early morning or late afternoon.
Flowers
Plant fragrant flowers near your patio or deck. Among the most odoriferous: scabiosa, petunia, calendula, candytuft, ten-weeks stock, ageratum, snapdragon, and sweet sultan.
Cut delphiniums back after blooming to prevent seeding. A second bloom will be encouraged late in summer.
When the kids are old enough, kid-sized garden tools and a defined plot of their own teaches responsibility.
Annual sunflowers are drought-resistant and sun loving. When seedheads dry out, they’ll even provide food for birds. A very large selection is available, both in size and color.
For a longer blooming period, keep faded blooms of annuals pinched off.
Lawn
Heavily compacted soil is most easily aerated with a mechanical device that looks a bit like a lawn roller with hollow tubes attached.
Weed young crabgrass plants by hand if the area is small. Maintain lawn at sufficient height so that young crabgrass seedlings cannot gain a foothold.
Variegated liriope, easily transplanted at any time of year, creates a good groundcover for narrow, confined areas. Secure container grown or separate existing with a sharp knife. An established clump usually yields four clumps.
Treatments
Your kitchen garbage makes plants thrive. Banana peels contribute potassium to help roses form big blooms. Chop peels and add around base of plants once a month during summer. Acid-loving plants like azaleas, gardenias and conifers get a helpful fix from coffee grounds. Sprinkle around plants before watering. The grounds also repel slugs. Eggshells contribute calcium, which helps all plants build strong stems. Pulverize eggshells and sprinkle around plant bases once a month.
Aphids
have ruined many plants, but so have chemical treatments to remove
those tiny pests. Try spraying the leaves with a mild solution of biodegradable
soap, using two tablespoons of soap to a gallon of water.
Indoors
Houseplants tend to revitalize if moved outdoors in the summer. Move them to dappled shade for a few days, then to a spot shaded from noonday sun.
Flowers for indoor decorations should be cut early in the morning. Cut at an angle to insure long vase life and place in container of tepid water. Among good cut flowers are zinnias, sunflowers, crinums, dahlias, rudbeckias, and Mexican sunflowers.
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