The Lazy Berkshire Gardener’s garden has been challenged by the blistering heat and thundering rain. While some sturdy plants keep coming back for more (More heat? Yes! More rain? Yes!), new plantings and young plantings just look beat up. My petunias can’t seem to catch a break. I think they got too dry, and then even after being watered, they haven’t had their best summer.
Perennials look pretty good though. I usually cut back Chrysanthemum in July to keep the plants bushy and encourage flowers later. It is August already! What was I doing? I missed that opportunity, but I have pretty blooms already! I will dead-head these flowers this week to encourage more blooms into October.
But I garden on! The bean plants that I planted relatively late are growing well and starting to bloom. Sweet peppers can be harvested during anytime of their development. However, let zucchini and summer squash get to five or six inches long for best flavor. My zucchini and squash that barely started to form two days ago are just about ready to pick today due to such nice rains.
My split tomatoes show evidence of wide fluctuations in moisture. They cannot lie! I thought my watering was consistent. But the heat set the tomato skins at one size and then huge doses of watering and rain (some from me trying to “catch up”) caused the tomatoes to swell and pop their hardened skins. These should be eaten first before bacteria and fungus creep into the gaps.
Any annual or vegetable plants starting to explode from their planned garden sections should be staked to prevent flowers or fruit from rotting on the ground. Keep plant surroundings free from overripe fruit or you risk attracting more pests.
The regular rainfall means jumping worms may become visible. Scout for them now. The adults will be most apparent. Jumping worms degrade soil by consuming all the organic matter and leaving hard mineral-type material. Remove jumping worms from garden areas and desiccate in soapy water or wheelbarrows of sand. Avoid transporting jumping worms by cleaning work boots, gloves, and tools between garden areas.
Also popping from the rain and heat: herbs. First, snip the flower buds off thyme, savory, basil, and oregano to prevent bitterness. Snip whole stems of herbs back to leaf nodes that will sprout new stems. In recipes that call for dried herbs, triple the dried herb amount when using fresh. One teaspoon of dried oregano would equal one tablespoon of fresh oregano.
To dry herbs, gather six to eight stems together with a twist tie or rubber band at the stem base. Put the stems in a paper bag but pinch the bag opening closed around the stems. Hang the herbs out of the way in a dry, well-ventilated shed or basement. The herbs can dry, and if they fall from the stem, the bag will collect the pieces. I also snip some vents around the bag creases to allow more air circulation.
Just as we keep certain herbs from flowering, gardeners should focus weeding on those about to bloom and set seed. Letting one weed spread seed will set back months of weeding. Wear protection on hands, arms, and legs. Be cautious now as many weeds have unique toxic qualities that make touching them painful. Weeds can be large, and even small pieces or drops of sap can cause rash or burning when exposed to sunlight. Beware the colorful native pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) with striking purple-red stems and purple fruit! A type of herbaceous shrub, pokeweed roots grow deep, and the plant dies back to the ground after a frost. But pieces left in the garden will sprout next year.
A native perennial that also gets large and showy but has fewer toxic downsides, Culver’s root (Veronicastrum virginicum) blooms white to pale blue and forms candelabra-type towers. They grow up to six feet tall and make a great alternative to invasive purple loosestrife. An early pioneer doctor (Dr. Culver) discovered that the plant’s roots would cause vomiting, but the leaves do not cause a rash.
For a plant whose flowers die every day, it seems odd that daylilies (Hemerocallis) will provide garden color for a month or more. Daylilies that do not flower well may need to be divided. You can cut apart daylily clumps every four or five years to keep them flowering profusely.
Once the daylily stems stop producing flower buds and turn brown, you can gently lift the clump with a spade or garden fork. Pull the clump apart by pulling the rhizomatous tubers away from each other. Split clumps of 24 inches in diameter into at least four clumps. Replant the thinned clump and find new garden locations for the separated tubers with green leaves intact. Plant the daylily root clumps at the same depth as the mother plant.
Rhododendron shrubs have a shorter flowering season, but their wide evergreen leaves make them a staple in Berkshire gardens. Rhododendron do not need to be pruned; in fact, pruning could cut off the buds forming for next season. When choosing any shrub, it is best to choose based on mature plant size. Some rhododendrons can get to 12 feet tall and wide. Be a lazy gardener and choose the plant that will fit the growing location.
The house we bought has a huge rhododendron that should have had some corrective pruning early on in life. The Lazy Berkshire Gardener took drastic action to prune the monster away from the house. Thankfully, the most dramatic cuts are on the non-public side, and from the front blooms should be just as lovely next year.
Are you seeing spots? It could be too much sunshine for you, or it could be the environment affecting your plants and your plants responding. Different diseases, fungi, insects, and pollution can all cause spots on leaves or fruit. Those black spots you notice on maple leaves in fall when raking leaves, known as tar spot, are the fruiting bodies of fungus that infected leaves in June, but became visible now—late July and August. Other leaf spots may be from too much sun during this summer’s heat waves or too much insect repellent sprayed nearby. We spray our boots to prevent tick hitchhikers every morning and now have circles of yellowed grass to show for it. The sun combined with oil-based repellants kill the outer surface cells of the plant leaves but don’t spread from year to year.
To minimize tar spot and prevent overwintering disease, clear and throw away infected plant debris at the end of the growing season. Also use preventive fungicides starting in June next year. For sun-burned leaves or damage due to chemicals, you may want to move the affected plants to shadier locations and spray your repellant in a different spot! Herbicide drift damage looks very similar, too!
The Lazy Berkshire Gardener likes to know the cause of the problem before wasting time by applying the wrong fix.
I call myself the Lazy Berkshire Gardener because I don’t want to work too hard in my gardens. I want to enjoy them. I find it easier to observe my landscape and let the compost happen, the water pool up, or daisies to self-sow. I look for ways to do the minimum task for the biggest impact. For example, mulching is better than spraying and much better than weeding all season. I look for beautiful, low-maintenance plants that thrive in or at least tolerate my garden conditions. Plus, I am willing to live with the consequences if I miss something.
