 |
 |
 |
Summer Gardening
Well it is time to talk about SUMMER gardening.
Having spent much of today out in the heat and
getting a bit red in the process clued me in to
that fact. Before I talk about roses though I
think I should say a few words about rose
gardeners. Plan your gardening chores in the
relatively cooler parts of the day. Gardeners
wilt too. Do wear sun screen and protective
clothing. If you do spray be sure to wear
appropriate protection and clean your equipment
and yourself as soon as you have finished.
Now on to our roses. Mulch, there is that word
again, best thing you can do for all of your
plants. It helps keep in the moisture, cools
the soil temperature and makes it easier to
pull those ever present weeds and grasses that
invade most gardens. You can overdo mulch if
you used a great deal to prepare a bed and then
keep top dressing with it. So if your plants
start to look as if they are not thriving like
they used to you might want to consider checking
the pH of your soil. Too acid a condition will
lead to tying up those nutrients that you want
your bushes to have, just as too alkaline
conditions do.
There are several ways to check your pH. One is
pH paper very like the litmus paper you used in
chemistry class. Another is a pH meter, usually
available at nurseries or through gardening
catalogs. These run from very inexpensive to
mega bucks. The other way is to take soil
samples and have them tested by a soil
laboratory. This can be fairly expensive, but
the analysis is complete and should give you
recommendations on correcting any problems
you might have.
Although PH is important and you do want it
somewhere between 6.5 and 7.0 unless you are
having a problem I would not test. In fact I
have an inexpensive pH meter somewhere and
have used it once or twice and not since.
Take some time to just walk around your garden and
look, I mean really look, at your bushes. Are the
leaves a little pale? Some cultivars require more
iron then others, so give these a feeding of
chelated iron. Are some of the leaves "bronzing"?
Maybe spider mites are invading. Wash them off or
use a mitecide. Are some of the leaves burnt?
Several possibilities here: spray burn, sunburn,
or salt burn. Sun burn you can't do much about
unless you use shade screen. Spray burn you also
can't do much about, these leaves will fall off
as they age. Salt burn you can correct by
watering very deeply and then doing it again,
say once a month.
When you are through looking at your roses, walk
around your garden again and take time to "smell
the roses". After all gardening should be a
pleasant hobby.
Gardening Index
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Long Blooming Summer Gardening
Ornamental gardening and landscape design
Activities In Relation To Keeping Waters Clean
 |
 |
 |
 |
 Thee Home Site |
 |
 |
 |
Plant Heat Zone Map
