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Monthly Gardening Tip –
Every Cloud has a silver lining,
(but then every silver lining has a cloud!)
Conditions
are never perfect in a perennial garden. Water
and plants of course go hand in hand - can’t
have one without the other, but very seldom do
we ever have the perfect balance of sun and
rain. Gardeners may have dreams of gentle rains
at night, bright sunshine every morning, with a
bit of cloud cover between noon and 2:00 to take
the edge off the burning noonday sun, but in
most gardening seasons, it’s just that – a
dream! While some years we’re dealing with
drought, this year we’re dealing with too much
of a good thing. Too many days full of hard
pounding rains and the corresponding lack of
drying and nourishing sunshine.
While all
this rain may appear like a good thing for
plants, by now the excess moisture is simply an
unnatural situation that may start causing
problems. Nightime temperatures have been much
cooler than usual as well - overall, perfect
conditions for diseases and insects to thrive!
 Normally
at this time of year we’re well into the dryer,
warmer time of summer, and that’s exactly what
perennial plants need. In spring they need tons
of water to push out all their green growth, but
by June they aren’t growing greens anymore and
their water needs are greatly reduced. At this
time perennials need dry warm air and lots of
sunshine to keep their foliage dry, flowers
pumping, and their crown area free of surface
moisture. A constantly wet soil surface
combined with the thick lush growth all the
spring rains produced are prime conditions for
crown rot and mildew diseases.
If you have a
very full perennial garden, take some time and
thin out some stems and foliage to make sure
that there’s still good air circulation at the
soil level and around the bottom half of their
stems. It would be a good idea to spray some
Bio-Desolve
as well to make use of its garlic additive’s
anti-fungal properties. The wet soil conditions
this season are perfect for fungus and mildew
diseases, and once they take hold of a plant
they’re hard to stop. Protecting healthy leaves
BEFORE they’re infected is the only way to deal
with these unsightly diseases on plants like
Phlox and Bee Balm that are mildew disease
prone. Roses too – black spot is a fungus
disease and prevention is the key to control.
Good air
circulation and a dry soil surface is what
perennial plants want at this time of year. Do
your best to help them along. And … whoever it
is out there doing a rain dance every evening,
please stop!
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Van
Bakel Greenhouse & Garden Center