Saturday, June 14, 2008

More on Hail Damaged Plants

Many of the plants in my yard seem to be bouncing back from the hail that we had a couple of weeks ago. The key now is to just keep removing any additional dead leaves and branches and give the annuals an extra shot of fertilizer to help them recover.

Here is a link that I found that talks more about hail damage and plants.

Make your day a good one.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

The Dating Game Continues

I’ve been writing this blog for three years. During that time there has been no other posting that got the response than the one titled “plants and dating”. Mmmmm…apparently it struck a chord with lots of people.

In that posting, I mentioned that my Ramblin' Red Climbing roses which have wintered very well in the past died down to ground level this year and clematis which never seems to do well for me were thriving this year. Just like dating, it can go on for months or even years and then end without warning. You can read the entire posting here.

So the love affair continues with the clematis. What do you need to know to grow them? First full or nearly full sun, good organic soil and most importantly, they like warm tops and cool bottoms. What does that mean? Mulch the soil around the base with wood chips to keep the soil cool and moist at all times. The vines or the top part of the plant like full warm sun.

Here is a picture of one of the clematis blooming in my yard.



I’ve got a new love for white in the garden…something about it is refreshing. There is one color that every garden should have in it and that is the color blue. Why blue? It brings the color of the sky into the garden. Sounds crazy, but it’s true. In the background is the gazebo…note that you can barely see the climbing roses coming up from ground level.

For more information on growing clematis click here.

For more information on the various varieties of clematis click here.

Make your day a good one.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

The “Other” Geraniums

When it comes to geraniums, most people think of the standard annual geranium, the ivy geranium, Martha Washington geranium and finally the scented geranium. All of those are annual geraniums. What most people either forget about or don’t know about is the “other” geranium – the perennial ones. These are a must in any perennial garden. They start blooming about this time of year…well, actually a bit earlier – everything is late this year. They are unbelievably reliable, hardy and easy to care for. The blooms range in color from whites, pinks and blues. They range in height from about 12-18 or more inches.

Here is a picture of one blooming in my yard right now.



For more information on perennial geraniums, click here.

Make your day a good one.

Monday, June 2, 2008

You should have been here yesterday...

There is a garden saying that I have seen many times that reads "You should have been here yesterday, my garden looked perfect then."

So it goes this past weekend. I was in my yard most of Saturday morning planting a few things and doing some cleanup. Before lunch I looked around and thought to myself that the yard looked as good as it gets...darn near perfect.

A few hours later and while not totally destroyed, it looked much different. My area of Minneapolis did not get the worst of the storm and hail, but it did it's share of damage.

Here are a few random tips and things to keep in mind if your yard and garden had some storm damage.

It is important to clean up all the debris and foliage around the yard. Cleaning up the debris can help prevent disease problems.

Perennials should be given a week or so of recovery time and then given an all purpose granular fertilizer to help give them a boost of energy to help them thru the rest of this growing season.

Annuals that are totally defoliated will probably not recover and should be replaced.

Annuals that still have leaves on them and are not totally crushed should be given at least a week of recovery time to see how they look. If they start growing and look as if they will recover then they should be fertilized with a water soluble fertilizer.

The only trees that need to have a wound dressing type of product applied to cut limbs and branches are oaks and elms.

Annuals will help fill in the holes in perennial gardens.

Most trees and shrubs will recover and should generate new leaves. It will be important to keep hail damaged trees and shrubs well watered during the summer and fall. The hail has stressed the plant and what you want to do is reduce any other stress on the plant such as needing water.

It is absolutely not too late to plant or replant warm weather vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers. I didn't plant them until late about the middle of June last year and I still had a great crop.

Make your day a good one.