I was pleased to hear a fellow gardener comment on our recent weather by referring to last month as “Junuary.”
It really was cold enough to earn that title and it’s good to know I’m not alone in questioning my weather-induced sanity. However, I refuse to believe that we will not have summer this year. I will go one step further by declaring my desire for summer to last through September and my hope that autumn stretches into the winter months.
Due to the weather, my peonies were pitiful this year. The flower show was half-hearted and short-lived due to chilly temperatures. When the flowers were finished blooming, the remaining leaves were tattered and blemished from too much rain and not enough sunlight. I cut off all misshapen foliage.
This alone improves the look of any garden plant. Most durable perennials will sprout new, fresh leaves if you cut back spent foliage at this time.
When the sun does arrive, dry, hot weather will increase the garden’s dependence on time-consuming irrigation. Drip irrigation is good for vegetable gardens where plants are spaced well apart and the purpose is to deliver water only to the roots of a specific number of plants. A separate bed with four tomato plants can be set up with exactly four drippers delivering a gallon of water an hour to each plant. Connect small soakers and spray heads to this system for a strawberry patch, berry bushes or a raised bed of asparagus.
This system also works for the gardener who wants a neat, organized appearance to a front yard. While many gardeners appreciate the abundance of a cottage garden, not everyone wants to make the maintenance commitment that this style of gardening requires. I suggest a smaller selection of flowering trees, shrubs and perennials in your garden.
Whatever plant selections you have made, the most important job of the season is maintaining the elements that your plants need to perform at their peak. Water, nutrients, friable soil, air and sunlight are essential to a plant’s well being.
Now is the time to fertilize roses, flowering perennials and annuals.
It takes energy to produce flowers. A balanced, organic (such as 5-5-5 or 16-16-16 or 20-20-20) product will release essential elements evenly into the soil over the remaining summer months.
Consistent deadheading on any plant will directly affect the duration of that plant’s bloom period. If you do not cut off old, spent flower blooms, the plant has no reason to produce more blossoms.
Pincushion flowers (Scabiosa x hybrids), coreopsis and many perennial geraniums will also bloom again before the season is out if deadheaded consistently.
While you are out deadheading, carry a debris bag along so you can add the cuttings to your compost pile. Remember to remove and destroy diseased leaves as you find them, do not add them to your compost.
The quality of next year’s bloom depends on the plant’s condition today. Deep watering will assure the plant’s ability to absorb nutrients.
You can still pinch back fall-blooming asters and chrysanthemums as long as they have not set bud. Your goal is to hold back flowering until late summer or autumn.
One additional job that I recommend around this time every year is a midseason evaluation. Do it now and it will increase the chances of your garden’s future success.
Take a tour of your garden with a critical eye. Pause and reflect on areas that please you and make a note of areas that do not quite work.
Is there a group of plants that just aren’t performing? Can you move them? How about a bed that fails to draw your eye or catch your interest? Do you need a focal point such as a statue, pergola or water feature to bring an area together?
This is the garden equivalent of soul searching. Be honest and you will get what you want in the end.
Even the wonderful world of gardening is not all bliss and transfiguration. Flowers bloom and flowers fade. Despite our best efforts, the perfect lawn will sometimes get red thread, crane fly and crabgrass.
Very rarely, summer will not even begin until the first week of July.
By the time we figure all this out, we have made the commitment. Part of the process of gardening is an acceptance of the way things are. Tonight, after dinner, take a cup of whipped cream out to the garden and dip fresh-picked strawberries.
We cannot stop the rain but we can always keep an eye out for the rainbow.
Robb Rosser is a WSU-certified Master Gardener. Reach him at Write2Robb@aol.com.
