LADYBUG SAYS:IN HEAT, GARDENS NEED WATERING, OTHER CHORES

When a prominent doctor left Cape Girardeau recently to relocate in Idaho, he spoke most highly of our community, but said that he would not miss two things about Missouri July and August.

The hot, humid, dry weather of the past two weeks certainly explains that statement. It has meant water, water, water just to keep our plants alive. However, many of us recall the scorchers of 1935 and 1936 and are thankful for our modern methods of watering and also for air conditioning.

July, on good behavior, can be a great month when it sends weekly rains to bolster vegetable gardens, farm crops, lawns and flowers. Or, its bad behavior can bring hot winds, drying out the soil more and more. These conditions keep the garden hoses busy and the water meters running.

In spite of the hot weather, there are still many outside chores to be done besides watering.

To keep flower beds producing, remove faded flowers from annuals and perennials. Many need to be trimmed back to prevent them from becoming leggy. Feed with liquid fertilizer to encourage new shoots that will soon return to flower.

To keep petunias blooming, a good friend removes the spent blooms from them each day to keep seeds from forming. This is a most rewarding task. Her petunias line either side of steps on the east side of her home where they get morning sun, and are the most beautiful I have ever seen. Having grown large and fluffy, they have almost encased the steps, making an eye-catching treat for early morning walkers and joggers in the neighborhood.

With continual hot sun, wind and high temperatures, hanging baskets dry out quickly. Because they are exposed to the elements on all sides of their containers and grow in a small restricted area, they need to be watered daily and some even wilt down in the evening after having been early in the day.

Such daily waterings may cause the dry soil to shrink from the sides of the container. The water drains down the sides and out the bottom. To give them a thorough watering, take them down and set them into a container of water. Let them drink all of the water they want and then drain. When they have been thoroughly saturated and drained, is a good time to trim and shape them and then fertilize.

Iris may be divided soon. Daylilies that have stopped flowering, or those that failed to flower this year, may also be divided. Oriental poppies may also be divided now. Prepare soil well, with a light application of superphosphate and then put them back into the ground, when it can be cultivated well.

Remove seeds from annuals to keep them blooming. Remove the blooms from flowering plants as soon as they have faded. This practice will help keep the flowers neat and will prevent the plants from becoming weak by the production of seeds. It will also help prevent the self-sowing of those varieties which do not come true from seeds.

Many annuals can still be sown for cut flowers later. One has to keep the soil continually moist until the plants are established. Some good ones are marigolds, zinnias and sweet alyssum.

Do no more pinching on chrysanthemums to allow good setting of the buds. Feed with a balanced fertilizer such as 5-10-5 for a better blooming display this fall.

If your African violet is not flowering as it should, it may be receiving too much bright light these sunny, summery days.

Home owners frequently become alarmed at this season by the rather sudden dropping of leaves from maple and poplar trees. There are some leaf diseases that may produce this defoliation, but the cause is more apt to be a physiological sun scorch which is a result of the sudden change from the wet, cool period with its lush growth to the hot dry condition.

The trees are unable to adapt to the sudden changes and in severe cases some of the leaves may turn yellow and fall. Watering and feeding are the best preventatives of leaf scorch. Pruning may also be of considerable help to a tree suffering from drought. Marginal drying and browning of leaves is frequently indicated in this way. A reduction in the leaf are by pruning aids the tree in re-establishing the balance between top and root. Recently, we gave a pink Honeysuckle shrub this treatment and we hope it will case loosing leaves. Flowering shrubs should not be pruned this time of year, you know.

This is a good time to take softwood cuttings of azaleas, boxwoods and yews. Keep them in damp sand until rooted.

Watch for insects, plant diseases and fungus.

Hot, humid weather tends to make one want to stay where it is cool, but garden chores must be done in July the same as other months.