Throughout the country August brings hot and sticky weather. With it, too, comes the full enjoyment and bounty of vegetables and flowers tended so carefully during the spring and early summer.
Pick Faded Blooms
To insure prolific bloom on annuals, keep removing faded blooms. If allowed to remain, blooming will decrease, as the strength goes into making seed. Keep on picking, too, phlox heads that have passed flowering. This will result in a second, smaller crop of bloom, and will lessen the possibility of unwanted magenta seedlings among named varieties. Also pick flowers for bouquets. This will not only help to keep the garden neat, but will increase flower productivity. Gather blooms in the evening and plunge in water overnight before using.
Put in Madonna Lilies
Plant madonna lilies now when they are dormant to allow them sufficient time before frost to form rosettes of leaves. Place tops of bulbs about an inch below the surface of the soil. Madonnas are more tolerant of lime titan most lilies, and do well in a pH value as high as 7 to 7 Planting soil should be friable, well drained and fertile.
Herbs for Winter Seasoning
Most herbs should be harvested when plants begin to flower and then dried rapidly in a well-ventilated, darkened room. If leaf herbs, such as spearmint, sage, thyme and rosemary, have soil on them, wash well in cold water and drain thoroughly before hanging to dl y. When leaves are brittle, place in tightly scaled containers.
Parsley may be cut any time after plants have become established. Seed herbs, such as caraway, dill and anise, should be cut when changing color indicates they arc ripening. Spread seed heads thinly on cloth, and when dry “thresh” to remove seed from husks. Let stand about a week before storing.
Bouquets for Winter
At this season you can gather many kinds of flowers and seed heads suitable for drying and use in winter bouquets. Roadsides and fields are excellent sources of material, aside from your own garden. If you want to retain brilliancy of color, collect flowers when they arc in their prime, not as they are beginning to fade. Material suitable for drying include the steely blue globe thistle, large-flowered zinnias and marigolds, blue salvia, straw-flowers, gomphrena, cockscomb, larkspur, rose hips and seed pods.
Still Time to Sow Seed
Have you sown seeds of biennials and perennials for bloom next year? If not, this is your last opportunity to start next year’s pansies, canterbury bells, foxgloves, hollyhocks, delphinium, sweet William, English daisies and forget-me-nots. Transplant crowded clumps of iris now, making certain that all replanted roots are free of rot or disease. Remember that bearded iris rhizomes need to be planted close to the surface of the soil. Plant colchicum, autumn crocus and sternbergia as they arrive.
Separate Oriental Poppies
Now, while plants are dormant, is the time to move or divide Oriental poppies. You can also make new plants from root cuttings, 2 to 3 inches long, placed in sand or vermiculite. Colors range from white, blush, apricot and rosy pinks through the rose and cherry shades to deep blood-red and raspberry tones.
Don’t Let Crab-Grass Win
If crab-grass appeared in spite of all your efforts, do not allow it to go to seed, otherwise it will be with you again next year. Hand pulling is one method to eradicate it if the lawn is not too large. Before mowing, rake in order to pull up the heads of the crab-grass. Thus the mower will be able to cut them. Then, chemicals can be used to destroy this lawn weed. Since crabgrass thrives best in the hot sun, a thick turf, kept 1 1/2, to 2 inches high, will discourage it.
Early Start for Strawberries
Late summer is ideal time to replant strawberries or set out young pot-grown plants. Select only vigorous stock, and plant in rows about 12-15″ apart. Fall planted strawberries will produce a greater yield than those set in the spring. Mulch beds with marsh hay or straw for winter protection.
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