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THE LAZY BERKSHIRE GARDENER: Week of July 4, 2024

As I walk leisurely about on my day off, I continue to scout for the bigger gardening issues.

Happy Independence Day. Now that you have prepared your containers and gardens for holiday guests, enjoy how the colors and textures have come together! Listen to the Lazy Berkshire Gardener and take today off and even the weekend! But, you will have more to do next week. You can decide. What follows are suggestions.

Milkweed plants are starting to bloom. By encouraging a section of your gardens to go wild or simply native, you develop appropriate habitat for milkweeds. I have the common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) fronting my evergreen foundation plantings. I think it just showed up. I planted the swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) with seed, and it has started to fill in parts of the wet section of my meadow. That makes sense.

Need a reason to skip away from gatherings? Do some light pruning. Dense hedges like yews or boxwood should be sheared back about now, after spring growth has slowed. Plants will put out fresh growth after pruning. If done now (and before the end of July), the fresh growth will have time to harden before chilly days and nights of September.

This yew shrub has lush new growth that needs to be sheared to keep it in control on the left. On the right, pruning has gone too deep, exposing the wood underneath. The woody section of the shrub was too close to a pillar. It will grow back green after a few years.

As I walk leisurely about on my day off, I continue to scout for the bigger gardening issues. In my meadow, I discovered purple loosestrife forming beautiful (but pernicious) flowers. I have pulled up the full plant and prepared it for the trash hauler.

Purple loosestrife and other problem weeds continue to pop up in the garden. At left, loosestrife without flowers and, at right, the budded flower spikes start to open.

Other garden pests besides Japanese beetles would be voles, ground hogs, rabbits, deer, and more. When you discover a new rodent hole in the garden or missing tips to your fruiting shrubs, you probably have a rodent or deer pest. Barriers, repellents, and movement all contribute to keeping pests away. First step is to identify the pest, and then you can search websites for repellent or barrier strategies. Usually a combination of strategies works best. I haven’t seen damage that I can blame on the owner of this hole in the ground. It might be a chipmunk luxuriating in the loose soil of a recently planted perennial.

Who dug this hole? The Lazy Berkshire Gardener doesn’t know for sure, but repellents on budding or flowering perennials would be a good preventive measure, and repellents are the least damaging to the environment.

I am mostly concerned about this pest attacking new plant growth and flower buds on perennials. My best strategy against this unknown intruder is a repellent sprayed on the plants to send the pest elsewhere for food.

More fun (AKA lazy) gardening to-dos for this weekend—especially if you are planning a to-do:

Harvest mint leaves to flavor iced tea or lemonade for summer celebrations. You can even let the mint leaves steep alone in a clear pitcher of water and direct sunshine for about 4 hours. Then enjoy a tasty, mint-flavored refreshment.

Have your guests gather up dropped rose petals. Put them in a bowl to dry for a potpourri project later or just leave the bowl in a powder room to smell nice.

Walk your guests out to the herb garden and show them how to harvest basil. Basil plants will be bushier if you harvest by pinching the stems above a leaf node.

Pinch off flower buds forming at the tips of basil. When harvesting larger quantities of basil, snip the stem just above a leaf node (at the red mark) to encourage a bushier plant.

Now, Tom Sawyer, you should have enough basil to make a batch of pesto (two cups), all picked while you were “entertaining.” Check your other vegetables as well. Like snap peas, pick snap beans when small and tender. Make it a daily routine to check the vegetable plants for ripe produce and pests.

Maybe before guests arrive (either dawn or dusk), inspect vines of squash for signs of borers or cucumber beetles. Remove any you find.

Or you could involve the company in a game of capture the beetle! Supply every participant with a jar of soapy water and light direction (where to find the pest—Japanese beetle, potato bug, cucumber beetle, asparagus beetle, etc.) and send out your team of collectors. I will leave it to you to figure out how to determine the winner and the prize.

This weekend, visit your local farmers’ market and purchase produce from a local farmer. That is a Lazy Gardener win!

Pick raspberries when the plants are dry to avoid spreading fungal diseases. Like strawberries, raspberries will ripen up after picking. However, blueberries should ripen on the bush. They do not ripen after picking. Area growers have pick-your-own opportunities as well. You will come to learn what a ripe blueberry looks like while on the bush.

As you harvest lettuce or greens, continue to plant lettuce seeds, preferably a summer variety that is slow to bolt.

After company visits this weekend, or after you have spent more time relaxing at home, notice what parts of your property see the most use or abuse. Many lawn weeds thrive on compacted soil. Consider installing steppingstones or gravel to create a worn path through your landscape instead of struggling with lawn issues.

Like humans, plants experience stress—usually related to a lack of water. Review the plant’s watering routine, especially your high-investment plantings of trees and shrubs. If allowed to dry out, a tree or shrub may become more susceptible to vascular disease. Erratic or irregular watering can expose the plant’s water-conducting cells to fungal disease. When the tree responds and blocks the fungus, the vascular (water-conducting) cells also get blocked, and sections of the plant lose access to water or nutrients only to die.

Some raspberry canes started to set fruit but suddenly died. This is a problem still under investigation.

I had no trouble with raspberry plants at my old house for years, but now my plants seem to struggle in full sun. I am still researching, but water access and drainage are the most likely culprits. The old location was a sandy mound with regular moisture but quick drainage. The new site has a slope but a base of heavy clay soil. More sand might help!

Enjoy your weekend. I hope you find some participants to make your gardening journey a lazy one!


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’m willing to live with the consequences if I miss something.

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THE LAZY BERKSHIRE GARDENER: Week of February 13, 2025

Seeds are inexpensive compared to purchasing the same volume of produce. Make a plan to start some favorites this year!

THE LAZY BERKSHIRE GARDENER: Week of February 6, 2025

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The Edge Is Free To Read.

But Not To Produce.