Weekend of May 25, 1996
This column is about your garden.
The writer—professional gardening editor/writer Dorinda Beaumont—
lives smack in the middle of our region—Rosendale.
So it’s about your zone, your soil, your plants.
Once a week Dorinda will chastise you, commiserate with you,
tell you what you absolutely can’t leave for another week,
all the while drawing inspiration from the daily journals she’s been
keeping for several years about her gardening experiences here in the Hudson Valley.>
Every bright day that offers a bit of free time, the garden calls. But we’ve had more than our share of drizzly, overcast ones lately, along with a few downpours, so I’ve shopped more than I usually do.
At Gill’s, I succumbed to an adorable germander and a four-pack of husky yarrows that they were practically giving away. Adams has everything, of course, and will cheerfully sell it to you up to 9:00 at night, when it’s too dark to garden anyway.
I’ve not allowed myself to even look at annuals yet, but I plan to start this week. Memorial Day weekend is the traditional planting time around here. Along with the above stops, I always find it worthwhile to hit Davenport’s, Walkill View Farm, and Sorbello’s, where I accquired wonderful petunias last year. I’m doing my bit to support the local growers.
Hot weather slapped us in the face right on the heels of a very ill-timed frost that hit the apple orchards just when the trees were in full blow. I understand it will be several weeks before the full extent of the damage becomes apparent, but folks are worried.
This would be an excellent time to mulch around peas to keep the soil cool and moist.
I always put a thick line of lime around them, on top of the mulch, to discourage
slugs. This is an effective protection for lettuce also; renew the lime regularly,
as rain washes it away.
Keep after asparagus beetles and remove the flower stalks from rhubarb.
Start transplanting tomatoes, peppers, squash, and cucumbers. I’d hold off on eggplant
and melons until nights and soil are warmer.
Sow melons, squash, and cucumbers in the garden. Sow cilantro and dill, if you haven’t
yet done so.
Pinch off blooms from newly planted strawberries.
I really wanted to write more about these plants this week, but I’m terribly
impatient to get out to the garden. The rain has slowed to an on-and-off drip, that’s
perfect for planting. I must go.
A look around the herb bed suggested one last word of advice: Check on your pushy
plants—mints, tansy, wormwoods, sundrops, sedums, lily-of-the-valley, ajuga, some
ornamental grasses, the list is a long one, and I’m sure I’m forgetting a lot of
them—and give them a ruthless ripping back before they get out of hand. It’s worth
the effort to sink a bottomless plastic pot into the ground, and plant the spreaders
in that. It will do no good for mint, however. Nothing can stop mint.
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If you’ve got all your cool-season vegetables—salad greens, carrots, cabbage family,
onions, spinach, peas—growing strongly, weeded, and thinned, you’re doing beautifully.
Carry on.
Begin pruning evergreens as new growth slows.
Check all ornamentals for die-back and cut off any dead wood. Start keeping an eye
out for aphids; hose them off with a strong spray of plain cold water. Pull off all
those tent caterpillar nests and stamp on them. Very satisfying.
Staked those peonies yet? Better get on it.
Start pinching asters and chrysanthemums, if you want them short and bushy. I like
mine tall and floppy.
Shear back creeping phlox as flowering ends. Deadhead tulips. Pick spent pansies to
keep the plants blooming.
Begin planting all the tender summer things that grow from underground storage corms
and rhizomes—gladioli, cannas, crocosmia, acidanthera, caladiums. If you started
tuberous begonias indoors, they can go out now, either in big pots or in the ground.
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