Here it is Monday already! Hope the beginning of the week has been good for you. It was productive (and sweaty) for me. This week is about “tidying up” all the gardens and landscape. The rains have really sparked another major flush of weeds, so get out and pull, hoe, smother or whatever you do for weeds at your place. Today, I filled my small poly trailer three times with weeds, trimmings, and crabgrass that invaded the garden perimeters. It feels so good to have that done!
It’s also another week for deadheading. This time, it’s mostly for annual cutting flowers like zinnias, cosmos, snapdragon, salvia, pinks, and others that you have in the landscape or planters. Cut off the entire stem that has the dead flower. This will instantly tidy up the plant and encourage more flowers, if it’s a rebloomer. It’s time to deadhead hostas that have finished blooming. Cut those stems off low inside the plant, and they’ll instantly look fresh!
If you’re growing vegetables, it’s time to add some more compost at the base to keep them happy. All this heavy rain washes the nutrients through the soil. It feels like this year has me doing this more often than in the past. But, if it keeps the plants happy and productive, it’s worthwhile.
Are your tomatoes setting big fruits? Have you got more flowers coming on those tomato and pepper plants? If not, it’s time to give them some organic phosphorus to encourage flower and fruit production. Lightly scratch it into the soil under your plants and water deeply. With this and any calcium that you add (for blossom end rot), it’s important to water deeply to get the nutrient(s) dissolved in the water to allow the plant’s roots to take it in. Also, add more coffee grounds or crushed eggshells below your plants if they were washed out / driven into the soil by the heavy rain.
We’ve had some winds out here in the last week, and I’m now looking at our trees to see if any have heavy limbs that could be pruned to take some weight off and allow them to better withstand more wind. Our ‘Brandywine’ maple in front of the porch has a major upward growing limb that ripped away from the trunk and it is resting on a lower limb. That’s a lot of weight and a pretty big part of the tree. We, hopefully, will see someone here this week to carefully remove it. After looking at it closely today, that smaller limb has a stress fracture from trying to hold all the additional weight. Scott and I, along with the tree trimming company’s owner, feel like the wound will heal and we’ll do whatever we can to help that fracture heal, too. Go take a close look at your woody shrubs and trees to make sure they’re ok. The weeping willow here had the first pass of trimming and limb removal before the storms, so it did really well – only dropping a few small pieces. Now it needs the final haircut to pretty up the drip line and make mowing easier again. That’s for another day when my shoulders are ready.
Hope you and your gardens are doing well this season! If you have any questions or issues with your plants, reach out and I’ll help however possible. Hope to see you this Saturday morning when Jeff is here with potatoes, onions, and more! Looks like we may see some rain, but it’s still too early for me to trust the forecast. I know better. Hahaha! But, if it is raining or truly threatening rain, we will do a dual farmstand on the porch with the canopy set up right at the step.
One last note: If you want veggies this week, please let me know. There are probably zucchini and yellow squash, and maybe some cucumbers out there that could be picked Tuesday morning. I honestly haven’t looked at them yet today. My focus was on weeds before they took over or took off in the heat that’s coming tomorrow. Have a great night!!