by Vancouver Island Master Gardeners Association
Welcome to Milner Gardens' 2022 Monthly Growing Tips: Some short-cuts and tricks to help make lighter work of your gardening chores.
June Growing Tips
Summer arrives officially of the 21st of this month. The warm season has arrived, and our gardens are bursting with colour. Don’t forget your sunblock.
Container Time
Inserting a small PVC pipe or a piece of old garden hose all the way to the bottom in the middle of a large hanger, or a couple of them in a large oblong planter, will direct water to bottom, where the soil dries out first.
An automatic siphon waterer pushed to the centre bottom of a hanger will keep the planter evenly watered, and the jug you use for the siphon reservoir will tell you when to refill. Most garden centres carry them.
Managing Florescence
- For roses: Many rosarians consider organics as the best fertilizers. This isn’t surprising for an ancient cultivar at the heart of our medicine, perfume and art, delighting and evolving with us for over 5,000 years. Apply fish emulsion at recommended dilutions around mid-month after a through watering to give these beauties, especially repeat bloomers, the boost they need for the rest of the season.
- For Hemerocallis (daylily): If aphid appear on buds and blossoms, these are specific to daylilly and will not travel to nearby plants. Simply knock them off with a blast of water and the beneficial insects will devour them on the ground. If the buds are shriveled or misshapen, you have daylily gall midge. Remove and destroy buds by freezing for 48 hours. After freezing, buds can be safely composted or added to yard waste.
In the Home Orchard
Be sure to gather the normal fruit drop from apples, peaches and pears and throw them into the compost so as not to encourage pests. Thin the rest of the crop to the largest single fruit in the spur. You’ll end up with better tasting and larger fruit. Thinning apples also discourages biennial cropping – a good thing!
Be sure to check regularly (or hang – right now!) pheromone traps for coddling moth detection. If nothing shows you’ve saved yourself the task of spraying for the pest.
What -- Winter Veggies Already?
Winter food gardeners will soon start seeds for the winter crops, and are already seeding cabbages, bok choi and chard for the late autumn garden. Cole crop starts do poorly in the heat, so if a heat dome is forecast bring them into a cool place, like a basement, or keep them on the cool side of the house or under the cover of a large shrub away from direct sun.
Green Groaners
Why did the fungi farmer move from his small house?
... Because there wasn’t mushroom inside.
The Old Hippie Gardener Sings Again …
Enjoying the June sun in the succulents garden:
“You say goodbye, I say aloe! Aloe, aloe!”