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Garden Life: Are you maintaining your maintenance routine?

By Robb Rosser
Published: July 22, 2015, 5:00pm

Most of the garden work required at this time of year involves watering beds, borders and lawn areas as well as routine maintenance tasks. This is also the time of year to continue deadheading spent flowers. Carry pruners with you as you travel the garden and cut out wayward branches on roses, shrubs and hedges.

Ideally, we use a drip irrigation system for vegetable gardens, where you put one plant into the ground exactly where the water will drip from an outlet. Tomatoes and peppers, eggplant and zucchini all love a well-watered root zone. If you are watering each plant individually, water well; long and deep. If you haven’t done so yet, add an organic mulch to hold in moisture and retard weed growth.

Strawberries grow ripe in summer heat. The best way to protect strawberries from birds is to eat them before the birds do, right off the stem. As summer perennials begin to fade, I like to add another planting of nasturtium seeds. Nasturtiums fill the upcoming gap between summer and fall. Their flowers will add such a bolt of energy to the garden with bright, golden-hued yellows, reds and oranges.

Blueberries produce such a large crop at one time that it pays to invest in bird netting. Drape the netting over stakes that hold it at least a foot from the plant so birds can’t reach in and pick fruit through the netting. Harvest blueberries early in the morning for your muffins and pancakes.

Now is the time to prepare an area of the vegetable garden for an upcoming crop of lettuce and spinach as well as cauliflower and broccoli for fall harvest. Try a mixed planting of leafy vegetables in an array of colors and leaf textures that will impress garden visitors and dinner guests alike. Remember to add nasturtiums to that salad.

Get in the habit of harvesting vegetables and herbs as a part of your evening meal preparation. The quality of home-grown vegetables is invaluable and there is simply something right about eating food grown in your own garden. A freshly picked head of lettuce, a tomato, cucumbers and zucchini, a sprig of parsley or thyme will not only enhance your meal but give you one more chance to putter around in the garden.

Variety of vines

For those of you who are ready to grow up and add vines to the garden, take the time to decide exactly which vines will fit into your current garden design. Different vines cling and climb by different means. Some vines such as the Boston ivies (Parthenocissus ssp.) are self-supporting, producing suckers that cling and emit a gluelike substance to assure they hold fast.

Clematis and honeysuckle use tendrils to wrap around a support and to hold the plant in place. Climbing or rambling roses fall into the category of scramblers. Their long flexible stems may look like vines but they are unable to climb on their own. Most vines look best when trained and pruned to some degree.

Wisteria needs to be cut back in summer before it gets out of hand. Stay on top of pruning or it will get away from you. This one requires a commitment to regular pruning, not only for form but for maximum flowering. Ivy climbs almost any vertical surface by aerial rootlets which bury their way into cracks in siding and can destroy most painted surfaces. Be aware that those who have grown ivy in the Northwest garden invariably come to revile its aggressive, invasive tendencies.

Some vines look great in summer and awful in winter. Keep this in mind if you are planting a vine in a highly visible part of your garden. The honeysuckle (Lonicera ssp.), so exquisite in bloom and scent, can look like a gnarled version of Medusa’s head in winter. These plants are worth growing but need to be strategically placed in the garden. Plant these vines on a strong support, off to the side of flowering beds and borders.

Clematis vines fall into distinct groups which require different pruning techniques. If you have lost the tags on vines you have planted, monitor the plant through the year to see when it blooms. Spring bloomers flower on the previous year’s growth. Summer and fall-blooming clematis bloom on wood produced in the spring.

One vine I heartily recommend is Parthenocissus “Henryana.” Also known as Silvervein Creeper, this restrained version of the native Virginia creeper is self-supporting, has stunning deeply veined foliage with vibrant fall color and highlights. Inconspicuous flowers develop into dark blue fruit. Best of all, it is easy to control and won’t outgrow its garden space.


Robb Rosser is a WSU-certified master gardener. Reach him at Write2Robb@aol.com.

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