With summer just around the corner (and summer-like heat already here) it’s time to:

Plant

• Container-grown trees, shrubs and vines. Keep new plantings well-watered during the summer months.

• Palms. Water regularly through summer and fall.

• Tropicals including allamanda, amaranth, bougainvillea, caladium, clerodendrum, copper plant, croton, desert rose, hibiscus, lantana, mandevilla, plumbago and plumeria.

• Summer bedding plants including ageratum, balsam, celosia, cleome, cockscomb, coleus, dusty miller, dwarf dahlia, gazania, impatiens, marigold, morning glory, ornamental pepper, pentas, periwinkle, heat-resistant petunia, portulaca, purslane, salvia, strawflower, sunflower, verbena, wax begonia and zinnia.

• Flower seeds in open ground, including alyssum, balsam, cockscomb, late cosmos, marigold, periwinkle, portulaca and zinnia

Prune and pinch

• Remove faded flowers on annuals, roses and other flowering plants to encourage re-bloom.

• Remove blooms on caladiums for better foliage.

• Groom azaleas by cutting long suckers back to the stem. Do not prune as the plants are setting their buds.

• Continue to pinch back 3 to 4 inches, as needed, on begonias, chrysanthemums, coleus, copper plants and other leggy plants.

• Remove stems of irises and amaryllis after bloom, retaining healthy foliage. If desired, foliage of Louisiana irises may be cut back in June or when it begins to droop. Mulch rhizomes heavily to avoid sunscald, and water regularly.

• Cut poinsettias back about one-third in late June or early July to encourage branching.

• To encourage a second or third flowering of crepe myrtles, remove flowers after the first bloom has peaked. Flowering will cease when seed pods are allowed to form.

• Prune freeze damaged citrus trees. Remove water sprouts.

Fertilize

• Palms with balanced fertilizer such as 12-12-12

• Summer-blooming perennials, bulbs, tropical plants and bedding plants monthly with a granular product or twice-monthly with a water-soluble fertilizer such as 20-20-20. If using Osmocote or other timed-release granular product, apply somewhat more frequently than package label states.

• Flowering plants in hanging baskets and other containers weekly or twice monthly with a liquid fertilizer such as 20-20-20. Dilute the product for ferns.

• Shrubs, trees and vines in outdoor containers monthly with a liquid fertilizer

• Established roses monthly with commercial rose fertilizer or other recommended products

• Blackberries and strawberries with bone meal and cottonseed meal

Pest control

• If needed during humid weather, continue a regular spray program every 5 to 7 days to prevent black spot, powdery and downy mildew, and botrytis on hybrid tea roses, using a non-toxic product such as Safer Garden Fungicide. For severe fungal disease, spray with a fungicide such as Funginex every 7-10 days. Alternating weekly with a second or third fungicide is also recommended. Most old roses do not require this kind of spray. Many modern roses are disease and fungus resistant and do not require spraying.

• Cultivate soil only when foliage is dry to reduce spread of disease.

• Inspect ajuga and violets for crown rot. To control, remove diseased plants and surrounding soil. Before adding new plant material, drench soil in bed with Terraclor or a similar product according to label directions.

• Inspect roses weekly (or daily) to remove and collect in a zip-lock bag leaves affected by fungal diseases. Burn the leaves to prevent spread of disease.

• Treat chlorosis (yellowing between the veins of new foliage due to iron deficiency) in azaleas, camellias, gardenias, etc. by applying a chelated iron compound according to label directions.

• Control slugs and snails by sprinkling commercial bait at the base of tender plants.

Doing some grilling

• For the closing class in the Know to Grow spring series, a representative from Weber Grill will be demonstrating the grills today, beginning at 8 a.m. Keep in touch for the new upcoming series of classes. For information, contact Lindsey at 264-1418.

Start an orchid collection

• See hundreds of fascinating orchids submitted by members for judging and offered for sale by venders when the Acadian Orchid Society presents the 2014 Orchid Show and Sale June 14, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and June 15, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., at the Ira Nelson Horticulture Center, 2206 Johnston St., Lafayette.

• The orchid family is one of the largest and most diverse plant groups in the world. Judges from the American Orchid Society will be present earlier in the week to judge the array of orchids submitted by area members for the event. Members will be available to answer questions on orchid culture and to assist buyers in selecting plants. The event is free to the public.

Build a garden from the ground up, easy as 1,2,3

• Hear Tina Jumonville present a lecture on the basics of landscape design June 14, 10 a.m., at the Second Saturday Gardening Class, Green T. Lindon School Cafeteria, 603 Avenue B, Youngsville. Tina is licensed as a Landscape Horticulturist and Certified Professional by the Louisiana Nursery and Landscape Association. She is also a Master Gardener. Her presentation will cover the basics of gardening from planning site, soil, drainage and irrigation to actual garden design. For further information, please contact Jackie Carlisi at 337-277-0027 or Sherlyn Larrison at 985-513-2777.

Clean Streams series begins June 10th

• The Bayou Vermilion Preservation Association announces “Clean Streams”, a three-part free monthly lecture series for the summer. The first of three important topics to be covered is Vermilion Water Quality and How We Test It, June 10.

• The second two topics, of particular interest to gardeners, are Plants That Soak Up and Slow the Flow, July 8;, and Right Fertilizer, Right Rate, Right Time, Right Place, August 12. Reservations are requiredat BayouVermilionPreservation.org

Stormy weather Thursday morning followed with high winds across parts of Northeast Kansas causing damage to homes and property from falling trees and power lines.

Kansas State University horticulturist Ward Upham provides tips for pruning damaged trees and assessing and helping garden plants survive the weather.

Storm-Damaged Trees

“If a tree is damaged, you often will have to decide whether it can be saved or not,” said Upham, who is the coordinator of K-State’s Horticulture Rapid Response Center. He provided five tips for the care of storm-damaged trees.

1. Be safe. Check for downed power lines or hanging branches. Don’t venture under the tree

until it is safe. If large limbs are hanging precariously, a certified arborist has the tools, training and knowledge to do the work safely.

2. Cleanup. Remove debris so you don’t trip over it.

3. Decide if it is feasible to save the tree. If the bark has been split so the cambium – the cell layer underneath the outer and inner bark – is exposed or the main trunk is split, the tree probably will not survive and should be removed.

The cambium is the growing part of the tree trunk. If so many limbs are broken that the tree’s form is destroyed, replacement is the best option.

Topping, where all the main branches are cut, leaving only stubs, is not a recommended pruning procedure. Though new branches will normally arise from the stubs, they will not be as firmly attached as the original branches and are more likely to break in subsequent storms. Also, the tree must use a lot of energy to develop new branches, leaving less to fight off diseases and insect attacks. Often, the topped tree’s life is shortened.

4. Prune broken branches to the next larger branch or to the trunk. If cutting back to the trunk, do not cut flush with the trunk but rather at the collar area between the branch and the trunk. Cutting flush with the trunk leaves a much larger wound than cutting at the collar and takes longer to heal.

Middle-aged or younger vigorous trees can have up to one-third of the crown removed and still make a surprisingly swift comeback.

5. Take large limbs off in stages. If you try to take off a large limb in one cut, it will often break before the cut is finished and strip bark from the tree. Instead, first make a cut about 15 inches from the trunk. Start from the bottom and cut one-third of the way up through the limb. Make the second cut from the top down but start 2 inches further away from the trunk than the first.

The branch will break away as you make the second cut. The third cut, made at the collar area, removes the stub that is left.

“Pruning can be dangerous,” Upham said. “Consider hiring a trained arborist to do major work such as this.”

He noted that a good arborist knows how to prune trees so that storm breakage is less likely to occur. Preventing damage is better than trying to fix it once it has happened, he said, noting that the Arbor Day Foundation maintains a website http://www.arborday.org/media/stormindex.cfm with detailed information.

Storm-Damaged Gardens    

High winds, excessive rainfall and hail can wreak havoc in any garden. Upham provided tips to assess damage and help fragile plants recover.

 Heavy rain: The force of rainfall pounding the soil can result in a thick crust that prevents seed emergence and partially blocks oxygen from reaching roots. A light scraping after the soil surface has dried is all that is needed to correct these problems. Be careful of deep tilling as it may damage young, tender roots.

Standing water: Standing water cuts off oxygen to the roots, which can result in plant damage if it doesn’t drain quickly enough. Most plants can handle 24 hours of standing water without harm. Hot, sunny weather can make a bad situation worse if the water becomes hot enough to ‘cook’ the plants. In this case, there isn’t much that can be done unless a channel is cut to allow the water to drain.

Hail damage: Plants should recover quickly as long as the leaves only were damaged by the hail as leaves regenerate quickly. The situation becomes more serious if the stems and fruit were damaged. Plants can recover from a few bruises but if it looks like they were mowed down by a weed whip, it’s time to replant with new ones.

Leaning plants: Either wind or water can cause plants to lean. They should start to straighten after a few days. Don’t try to bend them back as they often break easily.

More information about growing and maintaining landscapes is available on the K-State Research and Extension horticulture website: CLICK HERE

Related YouTube Video

Login Now

Subscribe

Haven’t signed up for All Access yet? Get started here…

Need more information about All Access? Get all of the details here.

If you are a current subscriber and haven’t signed up for All Access yet, get started here.

Need an account? Create one now.

Haven’t signed up for All Access yet? Get started here…

Need more information about All Access? Get all of the details here.

If you are a current subscriber and haven’t signed up for All Access yet, get started here.

Login Now

Subscribe

Haven’t signed up for All Access yet? Get started here…

Need more information about All Access? Get all of the details here.

If you are a current subscriber and haven’t signed up for All Access yet, get started here.

Need an account? Create one now.

• 
  Discuss

• Print
  
  

Are you considering taking the plunge to add a pool or update an existing one?

Do your homework before you dive in to making a hot summer’s daydream come true. Our team recently interviewed top-rated pool pros and gathered the following trends and tips to help your project go swimmingly:

Cost: The average starting price for installing a pool made of concrete or similar materials, such as shotcrete or gunite, is $50,000. The cost of additional pool components can range from $20,000 to more than $100,000.

Finishes: A pool’s interior finish material will make the biggest design statement. Popular choices include basic white plaster or quartz. Other options include pebbles and crushed abalone shells. The pool finish alone can cost $8,000 to $10,000.

Features: Options include sun decks, tanning ledges, waterfalls, bubblers, fountains, water arcs and zero-entry. When it comes to the pump, which can cost $1,000 or more, consider a variable-speed type that you can program.

Shape: At a 5 to 10 percent increase in cost, a pool can be custom-shaped to reflect your property and lifestyle.

Automation: Systems are available that automatically provide water-chemistry readouts and control temperature, lights, music, the pool cover and more. Automation features cost from $500 to several thousand dollars.

Lighting: LED lights in white or other colors are popular. They cost more initially than other bulb types, but can last at least six times longer.

Decking: The material surrounding the pool can be as simple as brushed concrete, at an average cost of $5.50 per square foot installed, to something more upscale, such as flagstone, which averages $26 a square foot.

Travertine tiles, at $8 to $11 a square foot, resist mold and heat and are slip-resistant. But because they’re soft, they need to be sealed annually if you have a saltwater pool.

Saltwater: Saltwater pools are popular because they offer high water quality and are relatively gentle on eyes, skin and hair. But be aware that saltwater can damage softer decking materials. If you want a sandstone pool surround, for instance, it will need to be sealed.

The cost to convert an existing system to saltwater ranges from $1,500 to $2,000, about the same price as including a saltwater system with a new pool. Be aware that the quality of a saltwater system’s cell, which converts salt to chlorine, can vary. The metallic coating on some cells may erode, requiring replacement that can cost about $900.

(Angie Hicks is the founder of Angie’s List, a resource for local consumer reviews on everything from home repair to health care. Follow her on Twitter @Angie_Hicks.)

How can you get the most yield from a garden where space is limited, and water is, too?

Plant smart, and pay attention to the soil.

“Your garden is only as good as your soil,” says David Salman, chief horticulturist at High Country Gardens, a Santa Fe, New Mexico, catalog that specializes in native and low-water plants.

Find out what nutrients your soil has — and what it’s missing — with a soil test, available through local cooperative extension offices at a nominal fee (home soil-test kits are less reliable).

Encourage plant health by fertilizing with natural, organic fertilizers, which include fish emulsion and liquid seaweed, says Salman. Limit the use of chemical fertilizers because they don’t help build the soil.

“You will have more nutritionally complete vegetables if you have healthy soil,” he promises.

One trick Salmon recommends, especially for gardeners living in new housing developments, is adding a soil inoculant called mycorrhiza, a beneficial fungi. It’s found naturally in healthy soil, but often needs to be added to a new garden.

“New gardens in new subdivisions, their soil is scraped off as part of construction,” says Salman. “You need to put beneficial fungi back in.”

Peas, beans and soybeans could benefit from legume inoculants, which are species-specific (a soybean inoculant cannot be used to improve peas’ growth). Read product labels carefully or ask your gardening center for assistance.

“Your beans will do OK (without it), but if you really want to crank out the beans, you can do that with the inoculant,” says Salman. “It’s kind of a ‘grandma’s secret’ to growing great beans.”

Plants that can offer high yields with low watering include leafy vegetables such as kale, lettuce and spinach; beans, snow peas and sugar snap peas; and some varieties of cucumbers and squash, he says. Plant vining beans and peas if you have space or can grow them up a fence or trellis; plant bush beans and peas in large pots if space is limited.

Sarah J. Browning, an extension educator for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, suggests planting radishes, carrots, peppers, zucchini and summer squash for summertime bounty. Peppers grow well in dry conditions, says Browning, and root crops don’t need frequent watering.

Plant radishes early in the season or in part shade, and mulch them and other plants to retain moisture and combat weeds.

Browning recommends the cherry tomato cultivar Sun Gold and the slicers Big Beef and Celebrity as great-tasting high producers. Also look for disease-resistant tomato varieties, which are easier to grow.

Browning refers tomato lovers to Pennsylvania State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences Extension’s “Tomato Report 2011,” which lists the best varieties in its tomato trials.

Melissa Ozawa, a features editor for gardening at Martha Stewart Living magazine, recommends growing okra and Swiss chard; both are heat- and drought-tolerant. Melons also can handle less water once established because of their deep root systems, she says.

Prolific, water-wise herbs include basil, oregano, parsley, thyme and rosemary, says Browning.

Salman offers space-saving planting tips for herbs: Plant lavender and oregano along the dryer edges of your garden, since they’re the most heat-tolerant, and plant Greek oregano and dill, plus annual herbs such as basil and cilantro, among the root vegetables.

Try growing perennials such as rosemary, English thyme, tarragon and lavender in your ornamental beds. They don’t require your vegetable garden’s mineral-rich soil, says Salman.

Drought-tolerant flower varieties include coneflowers, hummingbird mint, salvia and blanket flowers, according to Ozawa. Other cutting-garden winners are cosmos, zinnias, sunflowers and larkspur, says Salman.

While Honeybee Colony Collapse  Disorder (CCD) is relatively uncommon in West Virginia, bees and pollinators are still threatened in the region and all across the country. About a third of all of our foods (and beverages) come from crops pollinated by these insects. There’s growing concern that pesticides and certain farming practices are at the heart of the crisis, so more and more gardeners are stepping up to support pollinators in their own yards and fields.

Emilie and Bill Johnson of Morgantown are Master Gardeners, meaning they’ve been trained and either volunteer or teach horticulture through a national Master Gardener program. They have become passionate, quite accidentally, about supporting pollinators. Here are five tips to help you do the same:

1. Pollinators come in many shapes and sizes.

What started as a desire to encourage more butterfly visits became an interest in encouraging visits from all sorts of pollinators including honey bees and native bees, dragonflies, mayflies, and even humming birds and bats.

“We love the beautiful garden, too,” Bill said, “so it’s not just about gardening for insects. It’s about gardening for people as well!”

Bill also points out that a butterfly is only an adult butterfly for a small portion of its total lifespan, and many early incarnations of butterflies require very specific plants.

The Johnsons grow milkweed for Monarch Butterfly larvae, for example. Monarchs are the big black, orange, and white migratory butterflies in grave danger of disappearing because of loss of habitat and other factors.

2. Keep it wild—or as wild as you can handle.

In fact, the Johnsons grow a variety of milkweeds as well as other native and wild plants because, apparently, bugs love the native stuff.

“Find a part of your garden that you can let go wild, or as wild as you can stand it and put native plants in or plants that people might think of as weeds,” Bill said. He cautions others about introducing plants that might be (or become) invasive.

3. Don’t keep a lawn, keep a “clipped meadow.”

While the Johnsons won’t claim coining the phrase, “clipped meadow,” it gets to the point. From about 20 feet away, you might be able to discern some clover or a dandy lion in the yard, maybe. Johnson shrugs when he says he’s given up a monoculture-grass lawn.

“Clover is a legume and legumes are the only plant family that I know of that actually fixes nitrogen out of the air and puts the nitrogen into the soil. So there’s a synergy between the clover and the grass. Why put chemical nitrogen on your lawn when you can have clover do the job,” Bill said.

The Johnsons admit that they aren’t organic gardeners. But they, like many, are worried about pesticide use. According to a recent study by Harvard’s School of Public Health, pesticides are at the heart of colony collapse disorder (CCD). And the Environmental Protection Agency indicates that there is data to implicate one of the most commonly used pesticides, called neonicotinoids. The agency reports that residues from the pesticide, “can accumulate in pollen and nectar of treated plants and may represent a potential exposure to pollinators.”

4. Pollinate your own food.

Thirty percent of our food effusively depends on honeybees alone. The value of their pollination services is often measured by farmers and economists in billions of dollars. And the Johnson’s have come to learn that they, too, can take advantage of this free service to grow their own apples, blueberries, raspberries, and lots of herbs, too.  The Johnsons report that pollinators love herbs like thyme, lavender and basil.

5. Anyone can do it.

Emilie said, as more and more information is being circulated on the subject of pollinators and gardening, Farmers Markets are a good place to get educated. And you don’t need a green thumb to grow some pollinator-friendly foods and plants.

“Anybody can help,” she said. “Anybody can plant a few things. Everyone can get in on this. It’s a fun thing, especially for kids! Kids love bugs!”

From a community garden, to a box of herbs on your deck or in a window box, Emilie said, the pollinators will find you.

No place for a garden bed? No time or energy to work up the soil? Buy bagged potting soil and grow right in the bag! You don’t even have to buy the pots. It’s cheap, easy, and can be done on any sunny spot, patio, balcony, or porch.

Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and all of their many relatives attract tiny, hopping, black beetles called flea beetles that chew millions of tiny holes in the leaves. Young seedlings of radishes, turnips, mustard greens and kale can be destroyed before they even get started if these pests aren’t controlled. Find out what you can do to save your crops.

Spring asparagus season is almost over but it is still important to control asparagus beetles that can reduce next year’s harvest.

You can head to the Milwaukee County UW-Extension Horticulture page for more gardening information.