HOT WEATHER DEMANDS EXTRA WORK IN GARDEN

Hot, humid weather arrived with the month of July. As the temperatures have soared, watering has become necessary to keep the growth active. Plants can show stress in a very short time in spite of the very wet spring and the abundance of rainfall in our area.

This weather means more chores to be done in the garden and they are best done early in the morning or during the evening's cooler periods. One of the most daunting problems continues to be foreign weeds in the flower beds and garden. In areas where mulches have not been used, and compost was used to enrich the soil, weeds grow rampant and need to be kept under control a constant duty. Keeping weeds at bay and watering sufficiently are constant, time consuming tasks.

"Deadheading" is essential this month to keep flowers blooming and the garden looking its best. Now, what is "deadheading" you are asking, and it is a frequently asked question.

As blooms fade on flowers, the new growth will bear more buds, particularly on shrubs. On the plants that have foliage on flower stems, deadhead by cutting them off just above the foliage or along the stem just above the flower buds. For flowering plants such as hostas and daylilies which have leafless flower stems, cut their spent stems close to the ground.

Pinching consists of removing the growing tips of a plant, usually just above the uppermost full set of leaves. As a result, the plant will produce new branches, will grow bushier and more compact. Often this will make it flower all over again later in the season. After many years, my pruning and cutting back ability has increased, because earlier it was difficult to prune back or cut off any living plant.

Cutting back means pruning a plant uniformly to reduce its height, renew its appearance or encourage a new flush of growth and flowering. Tired looking perennials or any annual or herb that looks rangy or sunburned will produce new growth and often better blooms if cut back.

The vegetable gardener at our house has been baffled by a failure of his squash to set fruit, but may have found the reason. The plants zucchini, crookneck and straighteneck show ample blossoms, but they soon drop off.

This occurs, the books tell us, when there are no male blossoms to fertilize the ample female blossoms on the plant. Have you noticed that there are few bees in your yard gathering nectar from clover and the flowers? We have.

Normally, bees would pollinate the flowers as they move from one squash plant to the other. No bees, no fruit and the blossoms fall off. Bees pick up pollen and move it from blossom to blossom, fertilizing and thereby making squash.

About 100 feet from the squash bed we have a golden rain tree laden with blooms. We see large numbers of bees moving from one yellow blossom to another. Is it attracting the bees around our area because it is easy for them to get food? Both honeybees and bumble bees, along with other flying insects, abound. Could the bees we normally would expect to pollinate our squash be there? It is something to think about. Meanwhile, blossoms set and then drop off the squash and we have no squash for the table.

For the first time, after many years of trying, the lisianthus are blooming about four of them. After trying for several years and having them only stand there and look tired and sick, these tall pink ones are blooming a delightful pink. Now they grew so tall it was necessary to stake them as they have long exceeded their two-feet the book says. Blue Lisa, the one that is supposed to branch at the base (according to the news releases) and grow to only 12 inches, hasn't done a thing except stand there and look pitiful. The cut flowers of the taller varieties make their culture worthwhile, because as a cut flower they have no equal and will stay fresh and colorful for as long as two weeks.

Whether it is hot and humid makes not difference to the demands of the garden in early July.