Blog

For late crops of beets, carrots, callards, kale, lettuce, spinach, turnips, mustards, and radish, sow seeds before the middle of the month. Transplants of broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and onions can…

Sow pansies, ornamental kale and cabbage, and Swiss chard seed in a good quality potting medium. After seedlings develop true leaves, transplant them into individual cell packs or pots. Feed…

Begin collecting seeds of annuals and perennials for next year’s garden. Cut seed heads and place in a brown paper bag to dry, labeling each bag with the name of…

Keep birdbaths clean and filled with water throughout the summer. Control mosquitos by eliminating all sources of stagnant water.

July is a good time to buy crapemyrtles. They are in flower now, so you can be certain to get the flower color you want. Crapemyrtles should not be fertilized…

Cut old flower heads off Hydrangea arborescens, such as ‘Annabellle’ to get a second but smaller flush of flowers.

Cut flowers for a bouquet early in the morning. Immediately place them in water. Good cut flowers include purple or white coneflower (Echinacea), black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia), zinnias, salvia, dahlias, sunflowers,…

Avoid pruning spring-flowering shrubs from now until next spring. Anything you remove now will also be removing next year’s flowers. Shrubs that bloom in the spring include azaleas, camellias, witch…

Cut back by one-third early planted annuals that are getting leggy or out of control to keep them looking good into the fall. Give them a shot of a water-soluble…

Keep your perennials deadheaded to keep them flowering. Be sure to remove the fading flowers down to a leaf node or new bud.