Weekend of May 31, 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.
A week ago one could see into the woods; today there's a solid wall of green. We gardeners are still frantically running around planting, but the flowers that ornament June- peonies, roses, delphiniums, Oriental poppies and irises-already show buds and first blooms.
I grow several kinds of iris: early-spring miniature bulbs (I. reticulata and I. danfordiae), dwarf bearded iris, yellow flags (I. pseudacoris), blue flags (I. versicolor), tall bearded iris, Siberians, and Japanese Irises. I've listed them roughly in order of bloom, but the blue and yellow flags, Siberians, and tall bearded ones all bloom together from early to late June.
It is the Siberians I'd especially like to recommend to weekend gardeners. They tolerate both drought (once established) and wet feet, never attract any pests or diseases, crowd out weeds, and continue to bloom well even after they've become crowded. While the individual blooms aren't as showy as those of tall bearded irises, they're both elegant and prolific. The grassy foliage looks good all summer, which is a great deal compared with the ratty-looking, borer-infested leaves of the bearded irises. Within the next week or so, you can see them in bloom in nurseries, carry them home, and plant them immediately. Do mulch around them to keep the soil moist, especially if you're not around full-time to water regularly.
VEGETABLES AND SMALL FRUITS
Transplant tomatoes, peppers, squash, and cucumbers, eggplant, and melons. Let the soil continue to warm up before mulching any of these heat-loving crops.
Sow melons, squash, cucumbers, and beans. If you're growing corn for the raccoons this year, begin sowing in early June.
TREES, SHRUBS AND VINES
The best time to prune lilacs is when the flowers fade, never later than the Fourth of July. The buds for next year's blooms are already forming by then and you'd just be cutting them off. The sooner the better, because the energy lilacs direct to ripening seed pods leaves less for setting flower buds. An overgrown, old-fashioned lilac is a great shrub for learning pruning skills; the worst you can do to it will only set it back for a year or two. You can safely cut out up to a third of the old wood, but be aware that the harder you prune it the more watersprouts and suckers it will produce. It's best to reduce the size of the shrub gradually over several years. Or you can forget the whole thing. Even lilacs that have been neglected for years bloom fairly well.
FLOWERS
Continue planting gladioli, cannas, crocosmia, acidanthera, caladiums and tender bedding plants. A friend tells me that the Mohican Market in Woodstock has packs of tall zinnias and snapdragons; most nurseries seem to carry only the dwarf versions these days.
Weekend gardeners must sternly resist the urge to plant anything in containers unless there is a reliable friend to water during the week. Pots, baskets, and windowboxes need daily watering in the heat of summer. Sometimes our porch baskets need water twice a day even though they get only dappled morning sun.
Mulch flowerbeds to cut down on watering and weeding. Pine needles make an attractive mulch and are free if you have pine trees on your property.
You may notice spittlebugs on ornamental plants. The frothy white masses surround one or several green or tan nymphs. While these insects suck on plant juices, I've never seen them do much damage. Pinch off spittlebugs with a towel if they bother you or your plants.
Many things seem inconceivable in late May. It's hard to remember how dry it can get and how weedy it can get, but the one I have most trouble with is remembering how big everything gets. The little tomato plants look so lonely spaced two feet apart, but in two months they'll be weighing down their trellises and grabbing me as I edge sideways along the path. A small lavender plant I set out a month ago next to a rose is now underneath the rose. I try to give everything more space than it looks like it really needs, but somehow it's never enough. Of course, it's not always my fault. For instance, every book I consult says the rose 'Pompon de Blanc Parfait' grows to four feet. Mine, planted two years ago, is now seven feet and doesn't look ready to stop soon. So, no matter what they tell you, don't believe them.
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