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gardenART on King St
44 King Street
Onancock, Virginia 23417
Phone
757-787-8818
Fax
757-787-9311
Email
info@gardenartonking.com
~ Hours ~
Tuesday through Saturday 10:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Sunday 12:00 noon - 4:00 p.m.
~ Winter Hours ~
January to Mid-March
Wednesday through Saturday
11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
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In The Garden
May In Your Garden
May is here and the unpredictable weather patterns of April are (usually) a thing of the past. Now that good weather is here for a while, the garden tip for the month is to enjoy the fruits of your labor and spend some time outside before the "hazy, hot, and humid" days of summer descend upon us. And if you don't have a garden of your own to enjoy, a trip to Eyre Hall in Eastville or the Norfolk Botanic Garden is great way to spend an afternoon outside.
LAWN CARE
There are two important rules to remember when cutting your lawn:
1. Never remove more than one third of the grass blade in a single cutting. If too much of the blade is cut at once the grass plant's ability to perform photosynthesis is greatly reduced, affecting both the looks and health of your lawn.
2. Just as you wouldn't want someone to cut your hair with dull, rusty scissors, your lawn doesn't appreciate those old blades on your lawn mower. Sharp mower blades will not only give your yard a better look, but a clean cut is better for the health of your grass as well.
AROUND THE GARDEN
- If your Azaleas and rhododendrons have finished blooming, now is the time to fertilize with 'Holly-tone' Work the fertilizer into the soil just below the mulch, then water.
- Expect to see aphids on tender new plant growth. Plants that are prone to aphids include roses, spirea and honeysuckle. You can wait two to three weeks for ladybugs and other predators to gobble them up or spray at regular intervals with Safer Insectical Soap or 'Rose Defense' Neem Oil.. If you don't see ladybugs in your garden, you can introduce them.
- If your roses are prone to black spot, it's a good idea to begin spraying now at 7-10 day intervals. It's easier to prevent the disease than to arrest it once it's begun. Spray with 'Rose Defense' Neem Oil, or Rose Pharm.
- If you haven't fed your crape myrtle this spring, feed it now with 'Plant-tone'. Shrubs and perennials can also be fed now with 'Plant-tone.'
- Fertilize hanging baskets and pots with 'Osmocote' , a sustained release fertilizer, one time at planting time or at the beginning of the season.
- Now is the time to "deadhead" your spent rhododendron blossoms. Carefully pinch off the blossom at the base, but be careful not to damage the emerging new growth. Deadheading not only eliminates the faded blossoms from view, but also gives the plant a chance to set buds for next year.
- "Deadhead" lilacs as well to promote flowering for next year. Prune off spend flower heads if you can reach them.
- Don't be too hasty! Wait until the foliage from your daffodil and tulip bulbs has turned yellow before you cut them back.
IN THE VEGETABLE PATCH
- If you planted early spinach or lettuce, you can start harvesting now. Pull up whole plants or simply pick the outer leaves as needed. If slugs are eating more salads than you are sprinkle 'Sluggo' (iron phosphate) around the plants. This organic control is safe around edible plants, kids and pets.
- You can plant beans, corn, carrots and beets from seed this month. Cucumbers and squash can be planted form seed or already-started plants. Tomatoes, peppers and eggplant are best grown form plants. All vegetables benefit from being planted in well worked, loose soil to which you have added organic matter. Mix a handful of of high calcium lime with the planting soil of each pepper and tomato transplant to prevent blossom-end rot.
- If tomato plants are leggy, you can bury them up to the first set of leaves because they will grow roots along their stems. (However, do not strip off leaves just so you can bury them deeper.) Aphid infestations on transplants can be controlled with a spray of 'Neem Oil'. (Avoid using insecticidal soaps, since they can burn tender young foliage). Once the plants are a little more established, you can rely on beneficial insects such as lady bugs to control aphids.
HOUSEPLANTS
- As the weather warms, take some of those indoor tropical plants outside for a little excursion. If your ficus tree lost a lot of leaves over the winter, cut it back a few inches on each branch, and put it outside in either shade or filtered light.
DONT FORGET THE BIRDS
- If you have been feeding the birds all winter continue to do so. There are not yet enough natural seeds available for the birds, and they've come to count on you for food.
- Want to attract hummingbirds and butterflies to your garden? The right combination of colorful annuals, perennials and woody ornamentals will help make your yard a "must stop" for these delightful creatures.
THE HERB GARDEN
Start an herb garden this year. Or if you have an herb garden, consider expanding your tastes by trying something new and different. Nothing can beat the taste of fresh herbs to liven up a salad or grilled fish, chicken or vegetables. And even if you don't cook much, there's pure joy in brushing against a lavender, rosemary, thyme or oregano just to release their wonderful scents into the air. Herbs are easy to grow and many are perennials. Most need a sunny spot and good drainage. Consider growing some of them.
The 'Scarborough Fair' herbs, flat leafed Italian and curly parsley, sage, several rosemaries and regular and lemon scented thyme.
Mints, including spearmint and Kentucky colonel mint, emerald and gold, plus many with fruity overtones, such as pineapple and orange. Mint in invasive and is best grown in an area where you don't mind an invasive plant taking over, or in a large pot either above ground or sunken into the ground.
Oregano and marjoram for Italian cooking.
Delicate spring herbs such as dill, chervil, chives, tarragon, fennel (licorice taste and scent) and salad burnet (lacy leave that have a cucumber taste).
Edible marigolds , including Mexican (tastes like tarragon) and Lemon Gem (tastes lemony).
For lemon lovers - lemon grass, lemon balm, lemon verbena, lemon thyme, lemon basil, or lemon gem marigolds.
For the cats in the family, catnip.
Basil - sweet, purple and lemon, including the new 'Sweet Dani' variety which is much more lemony than other varieties. Pinch back top growth to keep your plants bushy, and don't let them flower.
Add some lavender , or use it as a low-growing hedge. Lavandula, or lavender, is part of the same family as rosemary , basil, and thyme, and just as essential to the well stocked herb garden as these culinary herbs. Lavender enjoys light, loosely compacted, sandy soil in a sunny spot. The soil should be alkaline, so test the area before planting or add a little lime to our naturally acidic soil. Unless your soil is well worked, loose and well drained, add a cupful of perlite for each plant to ensure proper drainage. Keep the area around the lavender free of weeds, especially weeds with underground rhizomes.
To create a hedge, plant lavender 12-15" apart, prune hard after flowering in the fall to maintain a compact hedge throughout the winter. You can also prune selectively throughout the summer to bring in flowers to enjoy indoors.
A great companion plant for lavender is grey santolina (a.k.a. lavender cotton). Santolina generally grows a few inches shorter than lavender and bears yellow button flowers in summer.
June In Your Garden
In June, we totter between appreciating the beauties of the spring garden - dogwoods, azaleas, tulips, daffodils, peonies, iris - and anticipating the joys of the summer garden - vibrantly colored annuals and perennials, the first tomatoes, and the pungent scents of basil and lavender.
June is a great time to be outside: the weather is staying warm (but without the prolonged heat and humidity that's sure to follow), annuals and perennials are blooming, and if you're lucky enough to have planted an early edible garden, you're harvesting salad greens, spinach, peas and strawberries. Even if you're behind schedule with your gardening plans (and what gardener we know isn't?), there's still time to do what you need to do before the dog days of summer arrive, so take the time to relax in your garden and revel in its beauty.
LAWN CARE
- Cut lawns high 2 to 3 inches for fescue/bluegrass lawns - and leave clippings on the lawn if possible. Cut zoysia and bermuda grass lawns at 3/4 - 1. Fertilize zoysia and bermuda grass (but not bluegrass or fescue) in July.
- Lawns need at least an inch of water each week. If Mother Nature doesn't supply it, you should. Water deeply - at least an hour in each spot - to promote deeper root development. Water in the morning to help prevent the development of fungal disease.
AROUND THE GARDEN
- Flower beds, shrubs, trees and vegetable gardens should also be getting at least one inch of water a week. Water in the morning to avoid disease problems.
- Your plants in pots and hanging baskets need more frequent watering. Check soil daily. Frequent watering tends to wash nutrients out of the soil quickly, so fertilize regularly with Neptune’s Harvest Fish Emulsion water soluble fertilizer. Follow label directions - more is not better. Or use OSMOCOTE timed release fertilizer for a one time application.
- It's still a good time to plant container grown trees, shrubs, groundcovers, perennials and annuals. Remember that newly planted plants need more regular watering than established plants.
- Attract BENEFICIAL INSECTS to your garden by planting a variety of flowering annuals and perennials to bloom over the entire growing season.
- Prune and shape spring-flowering trees and shrubs now. Do not prune summer-blooming shrubs, or you'll prune off flower buds. Wait until after they bloom.
- Deadhead, (remove spent flowers) to tidy up your flowering plants and encourage them to bloom more. Many annuals - such as petunias, cosmos, dianthus, dahlias, zinnias and geraniums - will stop blooming if allowed to go to seed. Others, such as impatiens and flowering vinca, clean themselves and do not need to be deadheaded.
- Your pansies a will soon look scraggly, if they don't already. There's nothing you can do to prevent it, short of moving them to Vermont. They simply don't do well in heat. Replace them with warm weather annuals for the summer, then plant new pansies in the fall. Pansies will usually survive the winter and come back for a great display next spring.
- Cut spiderwort back to the ground when it finishes blooming and looks ugly. It will send up new shoots and bloom again later in the summer. Perennial geraniums also benefit from being cut back when they get leggy. (Do not cut back the big showy annual geraniums; if you're not sure what you have, just ask us!)
- Fertilize annuals with 'Master Nursery All Purpose' water soluble fertilizer every two weeks unless you added Osmocote time release fertilizer to your plantings.
- Pinch back mums and asters and feed with Neptune’s Harvest Fish Emulsion water soluble fertilizer for showy flowers in the fall.
- Spring-blooming perennials that need to be divided can be dug and divided now - the sooner the better.
- Avoid applying fertilizers, fungicides, insecticides and weed killers when temperatures rise above 85 degrees. Damage may occur to plants at high temperatures. Please read and follow all label directions before application (an excellent idea, even when temperatures are below 85 degrees).
- Don't let slugs ruin your garden. Treat flower beds, perennial beds, even vegetable gardens with 'Sluggo' (iron phosphate) to control slugs.
IN THE FRUIT & VEGETABLE PATCH
Cover ripening berries with HARVEST GUARD netting to protect your crop from the birds.
Don't let basil or other culinary herbs flower; flowering changes the taste. Pinch back the top leaves to prevent flowering and promote bush plants. Herbs are best harvested in the morning - cut the stems, then strip off the leaves. To dry herbs, hang branches in a cool, dark place.
Herbs such as dill, fennel, cilantro and cress go to seed in hot weather. Plants in part shade may last a little longer. Replant in late summer when the weather begins to cool.
Watch for cabbage worms (velvety green caterpillars) on broccoli and cabbage . Spray or dust with Bt, a bacteria that kills caterpillars but is not toxic to humans or insects. To harvest broccoli, cut the main head with some of the stalk, but leave the rest of the plant and fertilize it. Many varieties produce 'sideshoots' (smaller broccoli heads) well into the summer.
HOUSEPLANTS
Begin to fertilize your houseplants with a full strength solution of 'Jack’s Classic All Purpose' water soluble fertilizer for maximum growth over the summer months.
Give potbound houseplants a new home. Remember, only move up one or two pot sizes. Use clean containers and fresh potting soil.
Most houseplants are tropical plants that long for the rainforest. They benefit from summer's humidity, so bring them outside for the summer if you can. Check your houseplants frequently for water when they are outside. They dry out faster than when they are kept inside. And, on the opposite end, make sure they have drainage so that summer showers don't drown them.
Even if you don't bring your plants out for the summer, treat them to a shower on a warm rainy day. This is a good way to wash away dust collected over the winter.
When watering boston ferns or any fern that has a full soft crown (top), lift up the fronds and water from underneath, or submerge the plant in a bucket of water. Otherwise, the weight of the water can easily break down the crown.
Orchids can come outside for the summer in filtered sun or shade. Keep them up off the ground so that slugs and other critters will be less likely to move in. A covered porch which allows them to benefit from the humidity while allowing you to control watering is ideal.
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