Tricks and Tips for June in the Flower Garden
At this time of year, some of your flowers may need to be provided with some type of support. For example, sweet peas or even nasturtiums may require support due to their climbing nature. In the old days, pea sticks were available for sweet peas to climb upon. These were simply pushed into the ground by each plant and they gave support to the plant as it sought to grow. This is a good thing you could do with some of your trimmed shrub or tree branches. It can make quite a lovely sight to see the sweet peas twining their way through the branches.
For another temporary measure to provide support to your sweet peas, try inserting long stakes into the ground. Wind string from one to the other and criss-cross it to provide a support for your sweet peas and other climbing flowering plants. Look around at what you have available that just might do the trick to provide temporary climbing space. Maybe even an interesting old trunk you have despaired of removing from your yard can look interesting with some type of climbing flower trained up and over it. Tomato cages can work well too.
Check around your flower garden and make sure all is tidy. Trim anything that hasn’t been done so yet. Remove weeds as soon as they appear. Don’t let them get ahead of you, eventually forcing you to be out in the summer’s heat. You want to have your flower garden already before the summer’s really hot weather hits.
If you are growing violets that are sending out runners, try to keep them pinched back. You want the plant’s strength to go to putting out beautiful flowers and not to supporting the new plants those runners are trying to produce. If some should get away from you, say during an absence for a summer vacation or just too many summer activities, and plants have already begun, consider removing these small plants. Whether they have rooted or not, place them in a cold frame to grow and you may still be able to have a bunch of violets for your table centerpiece in late autumn or early winter. (Just remember to close up the cold frame at night in the autumn as the nighttime temperatures become cooler. But don’t bake them during the day.)
During the summer, it is quite easy for plants in your flower garden to not get enough moisture. One trick you may wish to consider is to dig a hole near the stem of a plant or flower that is large enough to hold a small flowerpot. Actually this is better done when you plant your flowers and shrubs. Some people have even set milk jugs with holes punched in the bottom, and/or sides, in the ground by each plant. When it’s time for water simply fill the pot, or remove the lid of the milk jug and fill it, letting the water ooze down directly to the roots of the plant. This can be a more efficient way of getting water to a plant in your flower garden without worry about the water running off due to soil being too hard or the planting being on sloping ground. It gets the water right down to the roots.