Summer Garden Checklist

Mulch

Spreading a 2-inch-deep layer of mulch over your soil is one of the best things you can do for your garden. The mulch blankets the ground, shielding the soil from the sun. This keeps it cooler, so your plant roots are happier, and prevents moisture loss from evaporation.

Happily, there's not a single best type of mulch. Anything made from organic matter -- shredded wood, pine straw, a mix of grass clippings and shredded leaves, etc. -- is going to help your soil in the long run as it decomposes and adds to your soil structure.
Learn more about mulch.

Weed

Many pesky weeds love summer heat and quickly take the jump from tiny to gigantic. It's important to pull them from your garden, because weeds steal moisture and nutrients from your plants. Many weeds also encourage insect pests and diseases to pop up in your garden.

Weeds are easiest to pull when they're young and small. They also come out of the ground easiest when the soil is moist. Another reason to get them while they're young: You can stop weeds from producing seeds. A single dandelion plant can produce 2,000 seeds in a year. A weed such as lamb's quarters can produce 150,000 seeds in a year. That's a lot of future weeding you can save yourself from doing!
Check out our Weed Identification Guide.

Video: Get weeding tips.

Add Color with Summer Annuals

Once summer heat arrives, many spring-blooming annuals such as pansy, viola, and osteospermum fade. Make your yard look its best by pulling out the spent plants and replacing them with heat-loving varieties such as angelonia, lantana, ageratum, coleus, pentas, portulaca, salvia, sweet potatovine, and zinnia. Heat-loving annuals grow quickly in warm temperatures and will soon provide a beautiful burst of color.

Note: Don't be afraid to renew color in your landscape by replacing summer annuals damaged by drought, pests, or diseases.
Discover top annuals in our Plant Encyclopedia.

Plant Summer-Blooming Bulbs

Summer bulbs such as calla, canna, and dahlia are surefire ways to add color and drama to your landscape all summer long. These varieties are tender, so if you live in a Zone where they're not hardy, plant them after all danger of frost has passed. Once temperatures rise, they grow quickly.
Discover our favorite summer bulbs.

Pinch Mums and Other Late Perennials

Keep mums, sedums, asters, and other fall-blooming perennials standing tall by pinching the top inch or two of new growth. You can do so up to the Fourth of July.

Pinching the tops of the plant typically gives you a more compact, sturdy specimen. It may also give you more blooms from the sideshoots that develop, though the blooms are typically a little smaller and appear a couple of weeks later.

Other perennials that you can pinch in May and June:

• Balloon flower
• Bee balm
• Goldenrod
• Joe Pye weed
• Perennial sunflower
• Phlox
• Russian sage

Remove Faded Flowers

Remove spent blooms from many of your annuals and perennials, and you might see more flowers! Called deadheading, this process prevents plants from producing seeds so they put more energy into beautiful blooms.

Deadheading cuts back on future efforts, too, for plants that self-seed. Perennials (such as columbine, coneflower, cup plant, false sunflower, garlic chives, and verbena) and annuals (such as datura, flowering tobacco, kiss-me-over-the-garden-gate, larkspur, and spider flower) can self-seed to the point of being weedy in the garden.

Watch for Pests

Like weeding, keeping an eye on pests and diseases in your yard should be done all year. But midsummer seems to be particularly popular for these gardening obstacles.

Some of the more common midsummer problems to watch for include:

• Black spot
• Cucumber beetles
• Grasshoppers
• Japanese beetles
• Powdery mildew
• Rust
• Squash bugs
• Tomato hornworms

Water

If you experience dry summers, or a dry weather pattern, you may wish to water your garden to keep it looking its best.

Most common garden plants prefer an average of 1 inch of water a week. It's best to apply that inch all at once to encourage plant roots to sink down more deeply in the soil.

When watering, apply water directly to the ground rather than getting a plant's foliage wet; water sitting on the leaves can lead to disease. Soaker hoses are great for this!

Raise Your Mower

Raise the height of your lawn-mower blade if you have cool-season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass, ryegrass, or fescues. More leaf surface keeps the plants healthier during hot, dry weather.

Start a Fall Vegetable Garden

Vegetables fall into two basic categories: Cool-season and warm-season. The warm-season varieties -- tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, cucumbers, summer squash -- are all going now. Once temperatures cool, these plants will fade.

Enjoy continued harvests by planting cool-loving vegetable seeds -- including broccoli, carrots, kohlrabi, lettuce, and spinach -- now so you can enjoy fresh, delicious harvests this autumn.
Learn more about fall vegetable gardening.

Divide Tall Bearded Iris

Most types of iris typically enjoy being divided every three to four years to keep them vigorous and blooming well. The best time to divide them is in summer, when they're dormant.
Learn more about dividing iris.

Add More Color to Your Yard

Keep your yard colorful by adding flowers that bloom in late summer, especially if your garden is starting to feel tired. Many shrub roses are excellent picks for bold color in August, as are new sterile varieties of butterfly bush (such as the Flutterby, Buzz, and Lo and Behold series). 

Harvest Vegetables

Don't let hot weather keep you out of the vegetable garden. Keep up with your harvests to encourage your plants to continue producing and limit pest and disease problems. Insect pests in particular are attracted to overripe vegetables that fall off the plant and begin to rot.
Get tips for harvesting your favorite vegetables.

Get tips for preserving and canning your harvests!

Source: http://www.bhg.com/gardening/yard/garden-care/summer-garden-checklist/

November Garden Tasks

Vegetable Garden 

• Clean out old plants and compost including Asparagus beds as the fronds fade. Harvest Jerusalem artichokes, broccoli, radishes, peas, parsnips, lettuce, leeks, potatoes, kale, collards, celery, cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprouts.
• Prepare beds for early plantings of peas this allows for an earlier planting in the spring before the soil dries out enough to be worked.
• Plant Fava beans (cover crops can double as a source of beans for the table), garlic, onions, rhubarb and artichokes.
• Prune the fruiting top sections of evergreen raspberries once they finish producing fruit and leave the lower section of branch for next years early crop. Other raspberries can be topped off at 5 feet and staked.
• Store your bounty by freezing canning or hanging in a cool garage.

Flower Garden

• Plant pansies outdoors now and enjoy the flowers until late spring. Mound soil or leaves around the base of hybrid teas and other grafted roses to protect the graft union from frost.
• Prune rampant suckers from the base of lilacs which will take away from next years bloom.
• Prepare and plant wildflower bed and broadcast seeds. This can be done in the spring as well but you can get a head start now and focus on other tasks come spring.

General Landscaping 

• Prepare open beds in the flower and vegetable garden with organic matter and organic fertilizers. Chopped leaves, peat moss or compost can be added now to improve the soil’s humus levels. This improves the structure, drainage and nutrient holding capacity of your soil. For established beds work in organic matter and fertilizers around the plants and cultivate them into the to few inches of soil.
• Mow lawn to 1.5 to 2 inches for the winter This keeps the lawn healthy and prevents the lawn from matting down.
• Keep leaves and compost or make a dedicated leaf mold pile for future mulch unless they are from allelopathic trees (producing chemicals that inhibit other species growth) like the genera Juglans (e.g. Black Walnut or Aesculus (e.g. Horse Chestnut).
• Drain and clean man made pools and ponds. Remove tropical plants and store hardy lilies.
• Very last call for planting trees and shrubs including woody fruiting plants.

Source: http://www.horticultureguy.com/garden-calendar-planner/november-garden-tasks/

10 Beginning Gardener Mistakes to Avoid

Gardening Mistake No. 1: Starting Out Too Big
It’s difficult to resist those tempting photos of perfectly ripe vegetables and fruits in seed and nursery catalogs. It’s all too easy to order more vegetable varieties than your garden space and time will permit. Planting too large a garden is a mistake that can place too heavy a workload on a gardener and lead to frustration and burnout.

A better gardening strategy is to start small in the first year and plant only a few of your favorite veggies. This will allow you more gardening success and a greater feeling of accomplishment. In succeeding years, as practice builds your gardening skills, you can increase the size of your garden each planting season.

Gardening Mistake No. 2: Not Properly Preparing the Soil
Without good soil, no vegetable garden can thrive. Any preparation that the soil needs must be done before planting. Once those seeds begin to establish a root system, the soil cannot be disturbed without endangering the tender, young plants.

Prepare the soil as early in spring as you can work it without creating mud pies. Let the soil rest until the weather is warm enough to sprout seeds and support the growth of young plants. Then you can plant your vegetable garden and watch it spring to life.

Gardening Mistake No. 3: Ignoring Light Requirements
Vegetable plants need sunlight to grow properly and process soil and water nutrients. When choosing your garden spot, make sure that the area gets enough sun to grow the plants you want to put there. Some plants require more sun than others, and those light requirements must be honored when planting your garden.

Check planting recommendations on seed packets before you decide where to plant each seed variety. Some plants need full sun; other plants do well in partial shade. The directions on seed packets will tell you. Plan your vegetable garden before you plant, giving full-sun spots to veggies with the greatest sunlight requirements.

Gardening Mistake No. 4: Over- or Underfertilizing
Too much, too little or the wrong type or timing of fertilizer will not allow your garden plants to produce healthy, vigorous growth. For example, all plants require nitrogen, and high-nitrogen fertilizer will produce vigorous top growth—which is what you want for leafy green vegetables like chard, cabbage and lettuce. That same amount of nitrogen, however, will create such vigorous top growth that it can hold back ripening.

Excess nitrogen can have a similar effect on root vegetables. Robert Thomas of Tonasket, Wash., warns enthusiastic new gardeners: "Please, go easy on that wonderfully rich manure and homemade compost where you are going to plant your potatoes.” Manure and compost are such rich sources of nitrogen that putting too much on a potato patch can cause excessive top growth and delay the development of the edible tubers.

Gardening Mistake No. 5: Over- or Underwatering
Plants need water to metabolize nutrients and grow, but different types of vegetable plants need different amounts of water. Too little water will cause plants to dry up and wilt. Once seriously wilted, most plants will not recover, even if watered, so do your best to keep your vegetable plants from wilting. Too much water can rot the root system, and only healthy roots can absorb nutrients from the soil and hold the plant upright. Once rot afflicts the root system, the plant is done for.

Most vegetable plants prefer a good, deep watering one to three times each week. If you water too shallowly, the roots will grow near the surface instead of downward to seek water.

"If you don’t water your vegetable garden deeply and thoroughly, you might end up with shallow roots that cannot tolerate any drought at all," warns Rebekah James Pless of Spencer, N.C.

When you water your vegetable garden, ensure that the roots receive moisture. If you don’t know whether you’re watering deeply enough, check soil moisture by inserting the probe of a moisture gauge to the depth of the plant’s roots.

Gardening Mistake No. 7: Planting Bulbs Upside-down

Onions, garlic and other bulbs have a root-growing end and a stem-growing end. Make sure that you know which is which before you plant these seeds.

Planting bulbs wrong-end up will cause delayed growth as the root and top try to find the right direction to grow. This can use so much of the energy stored in the bulb that by the time the sprout reaches sunlight, the plant is weak and will fail to thrive. In most cases, the top of a bulb comes to more of a point than the bottom, so it’s not too difficult to tell which end should be up when planting.

Gardening Mistake No 8: Planting Too Closely—and Not Thinning
If you plant your seeds or transplants too closely, you’ll create too much competition for the nutrients in sunlight, soil and water. Seed packet instructions include advice on plant spacing, but it’s tempting to ignore it because seeds seem so tiny when you’re planting a patch of bare soil. It’s difficult to imagine how much space the plants that sprout from those seeds will need once they start to grow.

Not every seed planted will germinate and not every sprout will survive, so it’s OK to plant seeds closer than the spacing needed by mature vegetable plants. It’s important to thin the patch or row when plants are a few inches tall, removing enough of the seedlings to make room for the remaining plants to grow. Many vegetable plant thinnings are edible — young carrots and greens are tender and delicious—so enjoy your thinnings in an early-spring salad. Vegetable plant thinnings also can be left on the soil around remaining plants to serve as light mulch.

Gardening Mistake No. 9: Letting Weeds Grow Too Large
The best time to pull a weed is when it’s tiny and its root system is small. Pulling weeds at that stage of growth won’t disrupt the roots of your vegetable plants.

The longer you let a weed grow, the stronger a root system it will develop and the more nutrients it will steal from your vegetable plants. Keep weed growth to a minimum by mulching soil around your vegetable plants or disturbing the surface of the soil by regularly hoeing between your plants.

Gardening Mistake No. 10: Overmulching 
Mulch is a good thing, but too much of a good thing usually isn’t. Mulching with organic matter—like straw, dry leaves or grass clippings—helps keep weeds from sprouting, retains moisture in the soil, keeps the root zone cool and provides nutrients for the plants as the mulch decays.

A light mulch is fine after planting, but don’t mulch too deeply or seed sprouts might not be able to push through into the sunlight. To retain soil moisture and discourage weeds, gently add more mulch as the plants grow. After mulching, draw the mulch back 1 inch or so from the stems of the young plants so it doesn’t create too much heat as it decomposes or trap dampness against the stem and cause rot.

Take special care when using green mulches like fresh grass clippings, as these materials produce heat while decomposing, which can harm the plant and even kill it. Green mulches are very rich in nitrogen, which they release as they decompose. This nitrogen boost will fuel top growth in vegetable plants, which you might not desire.

Don’t use grass hay as mulch. It often contains seeds of weeds that can spread rapidly and become very difficult to remove once they’ve established themselves in a vegetable garden. Wheat straw contains fewer weed seeds, so it is usually a safer mulch than hay.

A lot of gardening questions become common sense to a gardener after a few seasons of experience. There’s a lot to learn along the way, but you will learn how to avoid a bunch of common gardening mistakes.

Source: http://www.hobbyfarms.com/crops-and-gardening/10-beginner-gardening-mistakes-to-avoid.aspx

Planting Trees & Shrubs

Choose the right spot. Does the plant need sun? Shade? Wind protection?

1. Dig the right hole! Dig the hole up to 50% wider than the root ball width and only the depth of the root ball. When the plant is in the hole the top of the ball or root system should be slightly above ground level.

2. Base. The base or bottom of the hole should be undisturbed soil to support the root ball and reduce settling.

3. Burlap covered root balls should not be disturbed. Put ball in prepared hole. Remove twine from top of ball, pull burlap away from top. Leave the wire basket in place so root ball will not be injured. Bend down the edges of the basket below soil line.

4. For container-grown plants, remove the pot and slice the roots 1/2 inch deep, several times around from top to bottom of root system.

5. Backfill. Using a mixture of the topsoil from the hole, add 25% of a soil amendment such as organic compost. Shovel the mixture around the roots. Do not heap soil around the trunk of the plants. Tamp lightly to remove air pockets. Make a shallow rim around the root ball to prevent water runoff.

6. Water thoroughly. Use a how and turn water pressure down low and allow the water to slowly run through the soil of the new planting, deep into the root system. Mix root stimulator, such as Starter Plus, in a watering can and apply around root zone.

Regular watering is essential to the survival of the plant. New plantings need to receive a thorough watering several times a week, soaking the entire root system. This should occur for four to six weeks, then weekly thereafter. However, be careful not to overwater the plant. Check the soil before and after watering.

7. Apply mulch at a depth of two to three inches around the base of the plant. Keep mulch away from the trunk.

8. There is no need to fertilize until the follow- ing spring. Use a slow-release fertilizer such as Osmocote, Tree-Tone or Jobes spikes. Evergreens prefer an acid plant food such as Holly-tone or Miracid.

Special planting instructions for Rhododendrons and Yews: Plant them high! Rhododendrons and yews do not tolerate wet soil and should be planted only in well-drained soil. to keep the roots drier, they should be planted with up to 1/4 of the root ball depth above the existing soil level. If wrapped in burlap, carefully cut away as much of the burlap as possible, once placed in the hole.

FAQs

What is the drip line?

The drip line is where the water drips from the outermost edge of the plant’s canopy.

My tree is not producing leaves. Is it dead?

Trees and shrubs have different dormant periods and different growth periods. Viability is determined by the presence or absence of green tissue under the bark.

How can I tell if I am watering my tree too much or too little? Slow drip watering is best for newly planted materials. Turn hose on with 1/4” stream of water running at the base of the plant. water trees for 1/2 hour and shrubs for 15 minutes. Water 1–3 times per week, as needed (with consideration to natural rainfall). Use a moisture meter to determine how moist the soil is prior to watering.

What is the scratch test?

Take a sharp object and scratch a small area of surface bark off to determine if there is healthy tissue (usually green) beneath the bark.

Mulch: How to Use it & Prevent Problems

How to Calculate the Amount of Mulch Needed

To determine how many cubic feet of mulch is needed, you need to calculate the surface area and the desired depth of coverage. There are 27 cubic feet in a cubic yard. One cubic yard will cover a 324-square-foot area with an inch of mulch. Figure out the square footage of your bed, that is the width times the length for square or rectangular shaped beds. The square footage of a circular bed is the distance from the middle of the circle to the outside multiplied by itself and then multi- plied by 3.14 (which is pi). Multiply your square footage by the depth desired (in inches) and divide by 324 square feet. This will tell you how many cubic yards you will need.

Problems

Mulch Toxicity: Though mulch benefits plants, “sour” mulch can quickly damage plant tissue and lower the soil pH causing injury or death. Bedding and low-growing woody plants are most easily damaged. Symptoms include yellowing of the leaf margins, scorching or dropping of leaves and occasionally entire plant death. Although it may be several days before symptoms appear, spreading sour mulch can damage plants immediately.

Sour or “acid” mulch is caused by poor handling or storing of mulch resulting in anaerobic (without air) conditions. Mulch piles need to “breathe” to prevent anaerobic conditions from occurring. In the absence of air, microbes in the mulch (mostly bacteria) produce toxic substances such as methanol, acetic acid, ammonia gas, and hydrogen sulfide gas.

Sour mulch smells like vinegar, ammonia, sulfur or silage. Good mulch smells like freshly cut wood or has the earthy smell of a good garden soil. Another way to determine if mulch is sour is to test its pH. Toxic mulch will have a pH of 1.8 to 2.5.

To prevent mulch from turning sour or to cure sour mulch, you need to turn your pile once or twice a month, more frequently if the pile is very wet. Do not let the pile get larger than 4 feet thick in any dimension if you are not turning the pile regularly. A good aeration will eliminate the toxic com- pounds in 24 hours, but to be safe allow three days.

Slime Molds: Slime molds are fungus-like organisms that can be a nuisance in mulch. They typically appear suddenly during warm, damp weather. The resulting masses may be several inches to a foot or more in diameter and vary in color, including bright yellow or orange. They are unsightly but harm- less, feeding on decaying organic matter such as that found in new hardwood mulch. No pesticides are recommended. Simply scoop up with a shovel and remove.

Matted Mulch: When thick layers of dry mulch are applied or existing mulch dries, some nuisance fungi can grow, forming a mat of mycelium (a mass of fine threadlike structures that make up the body of the fungus). The mycelial mat is hydrophobic (repels water). As a result, the mulch is not easily penetrated by water, which can prevent plants from receiving adequate water. Newly installed mulch should be watered to prevent this problem. If existing mulch is matted, break apart the matted layers with a rake or claw cultivator.

The Artillery Fungus: Occasionally, microorganisms in mulches can become a nuisance. The shotgun or artillery fungus (Sphaerobolus) may cause serious problems. While it delays the mulch, it also produces fruiting structures that resemble tiny cream or orange-brown cups that hold a spore mass resembling a tiny black egg (1/10 inch in diameter). This fungus shoots these spore masses high into the air. They stick to any surface and resemble small tar spots on leaves of plants, on cars or on siding of homes. They are very difficult to remove. To avoid damage to cars and houses do not use mulches that contain cellulose (wood). Use pure bark mulches, especially pine, or if the mulch is already in place, cover the hardwood mulch with pine needles.

Stinkhorn Fungi: Stinkhorn fungi, such as Mutinus caninus and M. elegans, can colonize hardwood bark mulch. The fruiting bodies or mushrooms often come up in the fall and exude a very unpleasant odor. Scoop up and dispose of the mushroom as soon as they appear. Consider replacement of hardwood bark mulch, which contains a lot of wood, with an- other choice, such as pine needles, pine bark, or a composted mulch.

Shotgun Fungus

What are some solutions to Sphaerobolus stellatus growing in mulch? – Pennsylvania

Researchers don’t know a great deal about this organism, which is also known as the shotgun fungi. However, it apparently is becoming a more prevalent problem in many regions of the United States and Canada. Extension horticulturist Dr. Larry Kuhns is leading a study at the Pennsylvania State University with hopes of learning enough about shotgun fungus to offer practical solutions.

Sphaerobolus thrives in moist wood mulch and produces its spores in spring and fall. While this fungus does not seem to harm landscape ornamentals, it can create serious aesthetic problems when it sporulates and can stain walls, automobiles or other objects. The problem stems from the fact that the fungus “fires” its spore masses into the air. Wherever they land, they stick with incredible tenacity- the spots resemble fly specks- and defy almost every effort to remove them. These spore masses may not be noticeable at first, but as they accumulate over several years, they create a splattering effect similar to black paint sprayed through a partially clogged nozzle. Kuhns is aware of instances where the problem was severe enough to prompt insurance claims and even lawsuits against the landscapers that installed the mulch.

According to Kuhns, the rising occurrence of shotgun fungus may relate to the increasing wood content of many mulches that groundscare professionals apply to landscapes. Woody material, as opposed to bark, is the food source of this fungus. Several possible factors may be contributing to this increase in wood content. “Bark” mulch- more than ever- often contains more wood than bark. Further, waste wood- pallets, for example, is increasingly being converted to mulch for landscape use. Many landfills now prohibit landscape waster and much of this is converted to mulch as well. Combined with greater use of mulch generally, the increasing wood content of land- scape mulches may be promoting the spread of Sphaerobolus. As Kuhns points out, however, much of what is “known” about Sphaerobolus is based on educated guessing.

At this point, authorities can offer few practical solutions. Applying a layer of bark mulch over the top of Sphaerobolus-infested wood mulch may help block the spore masses from reaching vulnerable surfaces. Ensuring any mulch you use near visible surfaces primarily is composed of bark- not wood- should also help. Once staining has occurred, there isn’t much you can do. That’s why finding a way to remove the spore stains from various surfaces is one of Kuhn’s research goals.

Research Update: A new study reaffirms the benefits of mulching trees

Mulching tree bases may be one situation where you can have too much of a good thing. Because researchers have proven that mulching offers many benefits, some grounds managers get carried away, sometimes applying excessive amounts to depths greater than 50 centimeters (20 inches). This practice has prompted several studies about mulching, a few of which reported detrimental effects such as oxygen deprivation or root rot. To test these results, researchers at Cornell University looked at the effects various thicknesses of mulch had on young trees.

The investigators used chipped pine mulch and shredded hardwood mulch around young trees—Pinus strobus and Quer- cus palustris—in depths ranging from 7.5 to 25 centimeters (3 to 10 inches). After 2 years, the results affirmed many of the beneficial effects of mulching. The mulch improved soil-moisture retention, moderated soil-temperature swings and sup- pressed weed growth. Moreover, the mulch did not significantly reduce oxygen levels, even where the mulch was as deep as 25 centimeters.

However, the study yielded other, less-expected results as well. Weed suppression improved with increasing mulch depth, even up to 25 centimeters. Also, the mulch did not alter pH or nitrate levels in the underlying soils. Interestingly, one of the possible drawbacks of mulching- trunk infection by pathogenic fungi or canker-causing agents- did not occur in this study. The investigators specifically looked for infection and even created wounds as entry sites for pathogens. Possibly, no appropriate pathogens were present in the mulch, but this is an encouraging result nevertheless.

A potential problem with using thicker mulch layers (15 to 25 centimeters in this study) stems from the fact that this may delay the warming of soil in spring, which could slow root growth. However, this study reaffirms that the often-recommended depth of 7.5 centimeters provides optimum benefits with few, if any, negative effects.

Image source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Mulch.jpg