{"id":105,"date":"2008-07-31T04:07:02","date_gmt":"2008-07-31T12:07:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=105"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:33:01","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:33:01","slug":"midsummer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/midsummer\/","title":{"rendered":"Midsummer"},"content":{"rendered":"

MIDSUMMER<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Like many Americans, I am not quite sure whether I will get a summer vacation at all this year.\u00a0 That means that my “vacation”\u009d will probably consist of time in the garden.\u00a0 All things considered, that is not a bad thought.\u00a0 Maybe I will finally have the time to deal a death blow to the rampant Japanese barberry bushes on the south side of the property.\u00a0 These unwanted thugs have persisted in sending out thorny new shoots, even though I have repeatedly dug up entire plants by the roots.\u00a0 The barberries will be toast before the end of the summer, even if I turn into a puddle of sweat in the process.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Midsummer is a great time to attend to various chores–provided that you attend to them before ten in the morning or after four o’clock in the afternoon.\u00a0 At midday the sun is likely to be high, along with the temperature and often, the humidity.\u00a0 It takes lots of fortitude and gallons of sun block just to get out of the house.\u00a0 If I have to do chores during the middle hours of the hottest, stickiest days, I confine myself to fifteen or twenty minute outings and try to work in the shadier parts of the garden.\u00a0 I can get enough done in that time period to make a dent in my workload without collapsing from heatstroke.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you have some of the larger ornamental grasses in your garden, take a good look at them.\u00a0 Chances are they have grown tall and are flopping over.\u00a0 Unless you have a lot of space, it’s time to introduce some restraint.\u00a0 For years I used three large stakes and many feet of twine to create a corral for my miscanthus grass.\u00a0 Now I have dispensed with the stakes and merely tie the length of twine around the miscanthus clump, tightening the knot until the grass looks more upright and tidy.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 At midsummer it’s also time to deal with your annuals.\u00a0 If you grow annuals in pots, they are probably getting a little leggy by now, with long stems and smaller flowers that appear only at the ends of those gangly stems.\u00a0 Trim the stems back by one third to one half and feed the plants.\u00a0 Within a couple of weeks they will begin to look like they did when you paid full price for them at the garden center two months ago.\u00a0 Deadhead the annuals growing in the beds and borders so that they will flower again.\u00a0 Zinnias, in particular, are “cut and come again”\u009d flowers.\u00a0 If you deadhead or cut the fresh blossoms for bouquets, the plants will reward you with additional bouquet material.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Remove the corpses of garden annuals that have given up the ghost.\u00a0 Every year my upper back garden is home to scores of self-sown nigella and larkspur, neither of which is a “cut and come again”\u009d plant. \u00a0I pick numerous sprays of nigella seed pods, which look like striped balloons, to dry for winter.\u00a0 When I get tired of doing that, the remainder of the dying nigella goes to the composter. \u00a0Larkspur, while beautiful in bloom, is not useful for drying, so I pull up the browned out stems and toss them as well.\u00a0 I never worry about whether or not they have had time to seed themselves.\u00a0 They always do.\u00a0 <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As the once-blooming daylilies finish their flowering period, I divide them.\u00a0 This year I am dividing my favorite lily, the old-fashioned lemon lily or Hemerocallis flava.\u00a0 The lemon lily has tall, proud stems that are topped by soft yellow blooms.\u00a0 The best thing about those flowers is the scent–something that is relatively uncommon in daylilies.\u00a0 I will plant the divisions in places that I pass every day.\u00a0 If you have the common tawny daylily, Hemerocallis fulva, don’t bother to divide it.\u00a0 It will thrive no matter what you do.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It’s highly likely that those of you who grow blue, mophead-type hydrangeas have noticed that the petals have begun to dry out.\u00a0 This is sad, because during the peak of bloom they are such gorgeous shades of blue.\u00a0 But there is a silver lining in this blue cloud.\u00a0 When the petals have metamorphosed to a dusty blue-green color, you can cut the flowerheads for drying.\u00a0 While you trim the flowerheads you can shape the plant.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you happen to grow raspberries or blackberries and the harvest is over, cut the canes back to the ground.\u00a0 Most varieties fruit on new wood.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 If you have a composter or a compost pile–and everyone should–make sure that you keep turning or stirring it.\u00a0 Decomposition goes fastest in the summer.\u00a0 If your pile smells foul, it is probably too wet.\u00a0 Don’t add water for a week or so and keep turning.\u00a0 Be sure to use your finished compost.\u00a0 I put collars of compost around the roses and add some to each planting hole.\u00a0 I use it for mulch as well, though I always have to supplement with store-bought mulch.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And finally, if you have the time and a few extra dollars, drive to your local nursery or garden center and take a look at the “two for one”\u009d plant specials.\u00a0 You can pick up some great plants this way.\u00a0 Independent garden centers, in particular, will appreciate your business in these lean economic times.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Vacationing in your garden means you don’t have to experience flying cattle cars or summer traffic jams.\u00a0 You don’t have to pack or unpack.\u00a0 There will be other years to go to Paris; this year you have the unique opportunity to stop and smell the Hosta plantaginea.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MIDSUMMER \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Like many Americans, I am not quite sure whether I will get a summer vacation at all this year.\u00a0 That means that my “vacation”\u009d will probably consist of time in the garden.\u00a0 All things considered, that is not a bad thought.\u00a0 Maybe I will finally have the time to deal a death blow … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-summer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1677,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105\/revisions\/1677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}