June Gardening Tips

These are just a few gardening tips for you to consider here in late June. Many people seem to think that just because all the plants have been put into their places for the summer and your perennials are blooming, or past bloom, there is no more work to be done. The garden is full of multi-colored flowers, so there must be little or nothing to do. Right? No, there is always work that may be done.

Watering alone when the weather is very hot and dry is important work. The chief thing to remember is never to give water until it is needed, and then to water thoroughly. A mere sprinkling of water with a water can to plants that are thirsty and needing a good drink is worse than useless. When you water a plant, you've got to get the water down to the roots which is how the plant takes up the water. If you just sprinkle the surface of the soil with a little water, you will only encourage the roots to remain near the surface and they will suffer from the heat of the sun. What you want to do is to make the roots go as deep as possible in search of moisture. Therefore, you need to give enough water to penetrate the soil to a sufficient depth. One really good watering when it is needed is better than half a dozen little sprinklings. Having the roots grow down deep also gets them down to where the nutrients are that the plants need to grow.

Mulch can be added around your plants to help preserve water. Not only will this conserve moisture, it will add to the nutrients in the soil as the mulch breaks down and keeps the roots cooler, too. You are using organic mulch, aren't you? For more information on mulch, see our article about composting.

Perhaps upi don't need to water much this month, if you are fortunate enough to live where there is a lot of spring rainfall but as the summer advances more water will probably be needed. All the same you must research and know which plants require plenty of moisture and which do not need as much. Such plants as snapdragons and geraniums like to be fairly dry while hollyhocks and pansies among other things, like more moisture. Look up how much moisture your plants need if you are not sure.

Another tip for the flower garden has to do with getting more flowers. It may be that you want to keep a plant from flowering for awhile so as to make the display of flowers of flowers last longer. You can do this with many plants by merely pinching out the growths tips. Doing so can have another effect beside slowing the flowering. It will make the plant bushier and thicker. When the flowers do come, there will be many more of them. Some of the plants that may be treated in this manner are the snapdragon and blue cornflowers.

One last gardening tip for your late June garden. In the fall, you might want to put in a rock garden. The weather will certainly be nicer then when it's not so hot as it is becoming now. See our other articles for more information on creating rock gardens. To enable you to have something to put in it when it is ready, you might want to consider sowing some seeds now in some pots with ideal rock garden plants. There is more information under the gardening tips articles section at our website.

© 2005, Sandra Dinkins-Wilson.

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