{"id":53,"date":"2007-06-12T07:54:18","date_gmt":"2007-06-12T15:54:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=53"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:33:25","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:33:25","slug":"the-summer-of-our-discontent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/the-summer-of-our-discontent\/","title":{"rendered":"The Summer of Our Discontent"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE SUMMER OF OUR DISCONTENT<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Summer is almost here.\u00a0 The good news is that plants have gotten through spring’s frenetic growth orgy and slowed down to a more reasonable pace.\u00a0 The rampant growth of noxious pests like chickweed has ceased and it is finally possible to keep up with the weeding, pruning, mowing and mulching.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now is a good time to consider the best ways of accommodating Mother Nature’s summer caprices.\u00a0 No growing season is ever perfect, so it’s prudent to plan ahead for four different summer situations: hot and dry, hot and wet, cool and dry and cool and wet.\u00a0 Each requires different management tactics.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Hot and Dry–<\/strong>In some parts of the country, where hot and dry is the norm most summers, plant lovers have learned xeriscaping or the art of landscaping with drought tolerant plants.\u00a0 We can emulate them by choosing species that thrive in arid parts of the world.\u00a0 Lavender, catmint, Russian sage and members of the Artemisia or wormwood clan all excel at drought tolerance.\u00a0 When in doubt, look for silver-leafed specimens.\u00a0 The light-colored foliage reflects the sun’s strong rays, keeping the plants cool.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Most of us, however, have a number of water loving specimens, including much loved shrubs like hydrangea, rhododendron and azalea. \u00a0The key to sustaining them in hot dry weather is to keep the roots cool and moist.\u00a0 Mulch is an important tool in this fight, so make sure that the soil around plants is covered with a few inches of it.\u00a0 You can also use low-growing groundcovers as living mulch.\u00a0 Remember to mulch the soil surface around your potted plants, which are especially sensitive to drought.\u00a0 When you water, make it count.\u00a0 Try to water in the early morning hours, to give plants a good start on the day, and prevent immediate evaporation…<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Hot and Wet–<\/strong>This kind of weather can make you wish that you were a tropical plant, so, needless to say, it is very good for some of the potted tropical plants that are spending the summer outside.\u00a0 It is also conducive to the growth of fungal diseases.\u00a0 Roses come down with blackspot and many other specimens are afflicted with other fungus-related problems.\u00a0 Plants like nasturtiums and dahlias, that revel in hot dry weather, may give up the ghost altogether.\u00a0 There are compensations, of course.\u00a0 If the moisture is in the form of frequent rain, you won’t have to water.\u00a0 If high humidity is the source, watering will be much less important.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What will matter is air circulation.\u00a0 Plants that are overcrowded are breeding grounds for disease.\u00a0 It is time to divide mature stands of perennials and prune shrubs to thin out weak branches and eliminate branches that cross each other. \u00a0If plants do come down with fungal diseases, clip off the affected parts, and clean your clippers between cuts with a cloth that has been dipped in a bleach or alcohol solution.\u00a0 Don’t put the clippings in your compost pile–take them away and destroy them.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Cool and Dry–<\/strong>Cool, dry weather slows down growth.\u00a0 On the flip side, flowers last longer on the plants, and cool conditions make it much more pleasant to work in the garden. \u00a0<\/strong>Heat loving specimens may sulk and produce fewer blossoms or even no blossoms at all.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The same mulch that keeps things cool in hot dry weather helps to insulates roots and retain moisture under cool dry conditions.\u00a0 If you are adding color by installing annuals, put them in the sunniest possible spots.\u00a0 Potted annuals can be rotated from sunny places to less sunny locations as they go in and out of the flowering cycle.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Cool and Wet–<\/strong>This is the kind of weather that makes English gardeners nostalgic.\u00a0 It’s very good for your complexion, and may produce a lot of vegetative growth on your plants.\u00a0 Tomato growers hate this kind of weather because it tends to work against the concentration of flavor and may result in fruit that is low on taste and high in water content.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

Watch for signs of fungal diseases, including the gray, moldy-looking evidence of botrytis, and treat plants accordingly.\u00a0 Slugs also love cool wet conditions and may take advantage of the opportunity to make mincemeat of your hostas.\u00a0 Fight the good fight against slugs by luring them to their doom with shallow dishes filled with beer.\u00a0 Try to remember that gourmets all over the world eat snails, which are not so different from your back yard slugs.<\/font><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Of course, some of us will experience summers that combine two or more of the above climatic situations.\u00a0 This will keep things from getting dull.\u00a0 If conditions become extreme, you may lose some plants, which will open up space in the garden for new and different specimens.\u00a0 You may have to wait for next year for abundant roses, delicious tomatoes or bodacious dahlias, but they will be that much more wonderful when they finally do appear.\u00a0 This is precisely why gardening is so good for you–it challenges your ingenuity, forces you to be patient and promotes optimism with the eternal promise that things will be much better next year.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE SUMMER OF OUR DISCONTENT \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Summer is almost here.\u00a0 The good news is that plants have gotten through spring’s frenetic growth orgy and slowed down to a more reasonable pace.\u00a0 The rampant growth of noxious pests like chickweed has ceased and it is finally possible to keep up with the weeding, pruning, mowing and … 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-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-summer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53","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=53"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1725,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53\/revisions\/1725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}