Page 10 - JULY 28, 2016 - martensviLLe messenger
GARDENING
gardening During the Dog Days Of summer
Submitted by Erl Svendsen
Now’s not the time to slack
off if you want to continue
to enjoy the beauty and
bounty that you’ve worked
so hard for up to now. So
here are a few essential
tasks (some would say
chores, but that’s such an
ugly word) for the hottest
time of the year.
First
and
foremost,
continue to give your
plants adequate water.
Thundershowers
notwithstanding,
late
summer can be dry and
hot. Like people, plants can
struggle along with
poor nutrition for
some time, but without
water, death can occur
within a few days.
Water is essential
for
photosynthesis,
cooling, and nutrient
uptake. This latter
occurs
somewhat
passively as water,
loaded with dissolved
nutrients, is absorbed
through
the
root
system. What may
appear as nutrient
deficiencies (yellow
or purple leaves, poor
fruit
development,
stunted growth, etc.)
may simply be a lack
of adequate water.
If your plants have just
started to wilt, they will
recover if you water
them
immediately.
Left too long, they
may recover only
partially,
appearing
permanently wilted,
with flower buds,
blossoms and fruit
dropping off. Damage
to tomatoes can appear
long after the plant
has recovered: fruit
that established during
even a brief drought
can develop blossomend-rot. The fruit may
appear normal from
the top, but the bottom
will be brown and
mushy. Other plants
like peppers can be
affected as well. To
prevent this disorder,
ensure
even
soil
moisture throughout
the growing season;
mulching helps too.
In general, give your
lawn and garden one
inch of water per week,
taking into account
anything that falls for
free from the sky. It
is better to irrigate
deeply
infrequently
to encourage deep
rooting rather than
several short bursts
of water. This helps
‘drought-proof’ your
plants. Time how long
it takes to capture
one inch of water in
a shallow container
when irrigating to gauge
how long to run your
sprinklers. Don’t forget
to keep your compost pile
moist to keep it humming
along too. And containers
need to be watered daily.
Do not fall behind on
weeding.
Weeds
are
well adapted to poor
growing conditions, are
extremely
competitive,
take advantage of open
spaces and are particularly
good at reproduction and
establishment. If you let
them go to seed, you will
be fighting a bigger battle
next year. Watch out for
winter annual weeds. These
are weeds that germinate
in late summer/early fall
(e.g
shepherd’s-purse,
stinkweed,
chickweed,
etc.) and overwinter as
an evergreen, ready to
flower in early spring.
Avoid pruning trees and
shrubs except to remove
diseased
or
damaged
branches. Pruning now
may
stimulate
new,
succulent growth at a time
when the plants should
be starting to prepare for
winter with current season
growth
maturing
and
ceasing to grow. Wait until
mid-September (or better,
January to March) to do any
substantial
maintenance
pruning for the year.
Continue to deadhead
your ornamental plants.
This includes summer
flowering
shrubs
like
spirea and potentilla; give
these a very light shear
to just remove the spent
flowers. This will do
three things. One, it keeps
your plants and garden
looking tidy. Two, it may
encourage more flowering.
And three, energy will be
directed from producing
fruit and seed to sending it
to the root system to help
perennial plants survive
our prairie winter. It also
helps ensure that these
plants do not become a
weed problem in your
garden. The seed-heads of
some late flowering plants
like hydrangea can be left
to provide winter interest.
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