A Master Gardener's Journal

By Joe Daniels, Delaware County Master Gardener

Vegetable Gardens:
1. Continue to plant heat resistant vegetables like beans, chard, and cucumber.
2. Provide shade to lettuce, radishes, and spinach to discourage bolting (stretching and flowering).
3. Watch for tomato hornworms; hand-pick these large caterpillars off.
4. Prepare for your fall garden with potatoes, broccoli, carrots and other fall crops.
5. Continue to weed your vegetable garden and apply fertilizer as needed.

Lawns:
1. Be careful not to cut grass too short--most should be around two to five inches to avoid drought damage problems.
2. Leave nitrogen rich clippings on the lawn to keep it greener.
3. Water your lawn in any week where there is less than an inch of rainfall.
4. If using herbicides, be cautious about applications during very hot days, injury to desirable plants increases then.
5. Aerate lawns to improve drought resistance. A step-on plug aerator is okay for small areas.

Perennials, Biennials, & Annuals:
1. Continue pinching mums and asters so that plants can flower in late summer and fall (but not after mid July).
2. Echinacea, some sedums, and astilbe produce decorative seedpods which you may want to cut for dried arrangements, or leave them on the plants for winter garden enjoyment.
3. Deadhead (remove) dying and dead flower heads from flowering plants, unless you want them to reseed the area. Columbine and foxglove are among the many plants which will re seed.
4. A mid-summer application of liquid fertilizer will help to keep your flowers coming through the remainder of the summer.

Trees & Shrubs:
1. Native trees and shrubs may require additional watering if there is not at least 1" of rain per week.
2. When you shear hedges, remember to shape them so that the bottom is wider than the top if you look at the plants from the side. This will help keep growth full to the ground.
3. Many shrubs can be propagated from cuttings in July and August. Most will take five or more years to reach the size of the plants you usually find in nurseries, however, producing your own plants can be very satisfying.
4. Remove dead, dying, or hazardous tree limbs.
5. Remove sucker growth from trees.
6. Keep plants mulched to conserve water and keep the soil cool
7. A report from Michigan State University indicated that in 50 years a healthy tree can produce $31,250 worth of oxygen, recycle $37,500 in water, provide $62,000 in air pollution control, and $31,250 in soil erosion control. Consider adding a tree to your landscape this fall.

Compost:
Keep the compost pile moist, but not wet. Comfrey is an excellent compost addition. The large succulent leaves help break down "browns".

If you've kept up with your gardening chores so far, you'll have earned a chance to relax just as the weather starts to heat up. Take some lemonade into the garden and take mental or written notes of what to change or do differently next year. Relax, stay cool and drink of plenty of water. Have a great summer of gardening and remember all the fun plans you have for your landscape this fall when the weather cools off.

Do you have a gardening question? In Delaware County, call our Master Gardeners hortline at 610-690-2671 on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 AM-12 NOON.

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