Summer-blooming spireas have pretty much finished their early bloom cycle. A light shear now will remove those dead flower heads, and within a couple of weeks they will put on a new crop of foliage that will look as bright and fresh as they did in the spring. … Wish a hair cut would do that for me!
Rain over the weekend was another huge blessing, especially the fact that it was more widespread. I almost feel guilty addressing the fact that we got a wonderful rain and people just a few blocks away got almost nothing … not so this time! With that rain comes a whole new crop of weeds and that’s OK. It is easier for me to eliminate the weeds than to have to try to keep up watering.
Speaking of watering, if you have been faithful keeping your container gardens watered, I want to stress the importance of using plant food in your water to maintain the energy of those plants.
Water-soluble fertilizer is nutrients that are available immediately for the plants. With the maximum amount of daylight and the time those plants have been growing, they are at their peak performance and need energy to maintain the color you dreamed all winter about seeing.
All fertilizers have a formula analysis on the container. I am not as much concerned about the value of the number as I am about the sequence of that value. There will be three numbers: the first is nitrogen which promotes vegetative growth. It gives the leaves their healthy green color. Lack of nitrogen can be indicated by yellowish leaf color, and with frequent watering, the nitrogen can leech out of the soil quickly.
The second number in the analysis is phosphorus. This nutrient is what promotes blossoming and consequent seed or fruit production. For blooming plants, this middle number should be the highest of the three.
The third nutrient in the sequence is potash, and that is a root promoter.
You can see why all three nutrients are vital for plant health. Many fertilizers will have equal value for all three ingredients and that’s OK. With a formulation of 10-30-20, Bloom Booster is one of my recommendations for the obvious reason of maximum phosphorus for maximum amount of flower potential.
Most of the potting material called “potting soil” today has no soil in it as far as we understand soil. These products are comprised of shredded wood, compost and peat moss. They work because they have to work due to the quantity of growing medium needed to meet the market’s demand.
Nothing bad about that as long as you understand how fast the potting soil dries out and its inability to retain nutrients. Frequent watering is a necessity in hot weather when there is a lot of plant to support. Often a thorough watering results in water running through the soil mass and out the bottom of the pot. That water coming out of the pot is also carrying some of the nutrients the plants need, and the process is called leeching.
White and yellow butterflies dancing in the air around your garden are pretty and fun to watch as long as you are not trying to grow cabbage, broccoli, and similar crops in the brassica family. Those little butterflies lay the eggs that hatch into green worms with voracious appetites, and it’s not fun finding them in the food you are about to eat!
To eliminate those worms, I spray with an organic spray called DiPel. The active ingredient is Bacillus thuringiensis or BT for short. I am spraying now, before the leaves are riddled with holes and the worms develop any size.
I’m telling you that they are there right now so it’s your choice of if and when you want to go to battle.