Wednesday, July 2

Dealing with the dog days

Garden tasks and tips for high summer

To promote fall bloom, feed reblooming iris like this ‘Brown Duet’ with Bulb-Tone™ worked into the soil around each clump. Keep rebloomers a little moister than “oncers,” and be sure to keep them weed-free. You can use the same approach for reblooming cultivars of daylily, delphinium and clematis, too.

Spring — as we gardeners in Northern Illinois affectionately like to refer to it — passed this year with snow and sheets of ice in March and spotty, torrent-producing storms in April and May. But by June, repeated rounds of wind and rain made sure no one — and I mean no one — felt left out.

The good news? Almost all of us were able to seed new lawns, plant vegetable beds, and add trees, shrubs and perennials without the need to water!

High summer will soon be upon us, though, and if history is any indication, the need to water will soon follow. This season will also give us the opportunity to prune, stake, weed, purge and otherwise “edit” our gardens. Here are some things to keep in mind as you confront your own dog-day garden:

Perennials and biennials

• Divide and replant perennials that have finished blooming. Most can be handled easily at this time if kept well watered.
• Mulch lightly to keep weeds down and conserve moisture, and deadhead or lightly prune plants for best appearance and continuous bloom. Be ready with stakes or other supports for wayward stems and blossoms.
• As late summer approaches, seed hollyhock, Iceland poppy, delphinium, Canterbury bell, sweet William, foxglove and other old-fashioned types for bloom next spring. Keep seedbeds moist!
  

Annuals

• Follow the same mulching, deadheading, pruning and support advice as you would for perennials.
• Seed zinnia, calendula, cosmos, sweet pea, candytuft, nasturtium, alyssum, ornamental kale and other fast-bloomers through mid-July for flowering through hard frost. Again, keep seedbeds moist!
  

Bulbs

• Spring-flowering bulbs such as narcissus and tulips that have become crowded should be dug, divided and immediately replanted if you’ve not already done so.
• For summer-flowering bulbs such as dahlia, begonia, gladiolus, calla and canna, mulching, deadheading, pruning and support advice applies as for perennials.
  

Do only light pruning during the height of summer; branches that are damaged, dead, out of proportion or crossing. Cut outside of the branch collar (swollen area at the base) and the ridge (crease inside the collar). This allows the tree or shrub to seal and heal the cut naturally and makes it better able to fight off diseases and pests.

Trees

• During drought (and it will come!), water newly-planted trees once a week with an inch of water. A three-inch layer of mulch — deeper at the outer edge of the mulch ring — will keep moisture levels even. And please, no “mulch volcanoes!” Mulch mounded against the trunk is not only unsightly, but it can also encourage rot and insects.
• Root feed no later than mid-July. This gives new growth time to harden before winter
  

Shrubs and evergreens

• If you must prune or shear in the middle of a dry period, water the plants thoroughly the day before. I have seen more scorched hedges as the result of pruning during hot, dry weather than from any other cause.
• Prune shrubs that bloom on old wood (such as lilac, forsythia, and ninebark) selectively, if at all, now. It’s better to have pruned immediately after flowering to evenly flush out new growth for bloom next year. Shrubs that bloom on new wood (rose, spirea, potentilla and buddleia) can be pruned through late summer, especially between flushes of bloom.
  

Lawns

• A light organic feeding with Milorganite™ is helpful a week or two on either side of Independence Day. Do not use the heavier “new lawn” rate.
• Water deeply and evenly, but infrequently. I wait until there have been 10 days with no rain before I even consider watering, then I turn a sprinkler on for three hours in each area — no less, no more.
• Use bagged clippings generously to suppress weeds around annuals, perennials, shrubs, herbs and vegetables.
• Keep mower blades set at least two inches high or you will remove too much leaf surface, making turf more vulnerable to heat and moisture stress.
  

Tomatoes, peppers, beans, summer squash, cucumbers and broccoli all produce longer if they’re not allowed to overmature on the vine.

Vegetables

• Keep vegetables that offer more-or-less-continuous production well picked to prevent them from shutting down.
• Give tomatoes and peppers a midseason boost with a top-dressing of Tomato-Tone™ or other balanced organic feed scratched gently into the soil and watered in well. This will help maintain productivity, fruit size and flavor into the latter part of the season.
• When shorter-term plantings such as corn, lettuce, greens, radishes and peas are finished with their main production, remove them to the compost pile and replant the same areas with a succession crop. Use either varieties that mature quickly during the remaining warm days (again — early maturing cultivars of beans, summer squash, cucumbers, lettuces, greens and herbs) or those that take a bit longer and mature during the cooler days of fall (early maturing varieties of peas, carrots, parsnips broccoli, cauliflower, radicchio, fennel, parsnips and more). Practice crop rotation. (For example, do not replace peas with beans, or radishes with broccoli. Change plant families.) Try to finish most of your replanting, especially of the longest maturing varieties, by July 15.
  

A lifelong gardener, Robert F. Gabella has been involved in the horticulture industry since 1983. With an AAS in ornamental horticulture and a BA in business management, Bob is an Illinois Certified Nursery Professional, an independent consultant, hybridist, writer and photographer. He also tends prize-winning gardens at his Villa Park home.