Gardening in May part 2

Greetings to all you faithful gardeners. It looks like spring here in middle Georgia has suddenly turned into summer! Many of you must be yearning for some of those April showers in the hope that they will bring you some pretty May flowers! Let’s look at some more things we need to be doing in and around the May garden.

As I mentioned last week, consider planting summer-flowering plants such as gladiolus, canna lilies, caladiums, and dahlias. Planting some every couple of weeks will give a succession of color to your landscape. These plants originate from corms and tubers. They require a warm soil at planting time.

Stay on top of early sprouting weeds before they overtake the garden or flower bed. Hand weeding will prevent many from setting seed that would otherwise produce next year’s crop. A little herbicide, well-placed, can be beneficial too.

Continue to pinch back and deadhead annuals such as petunias, salvias, impatiens, and others to encourage the formation of new branches and thus more flowers.

Watch for aphids on tender new leaves and flower petals. They are always attracted to the youngest growth and often find their way into the young, unfurled leaves and may go unnoticed for some time. A yellowing or wilting of the plant tips may warn of their presence. Fortunately, aphids are relatively easy to control once discovered. Before resorting to insecticides, you might try washing them away with a burst of water.

Edge the entire flower bed or flower garden. It may make a big difference!

In clumps of perennials, pinch back some stems in the front area of the clumps to create a succession of blooms. Do this with tall phlox, bee balm, baptisia, agastache, and other returning perennials.

Begin pinching back fall bloomers such as chrysanthemums, goldenrod, Joe Pye weed, and asters. This causes more branching and more flowers later in the season. If not done all along during the spring and summer, the result will be erratic and not so appealing growth along with untimely blooms.

Stake tall plants such as hollyhocks, hibiscus, agastache, and foxglove well before they get out of hand.

Add fresh mulch to beds if needed. One to two inches around annuals and perennials on top of existing mulch will be sufficient. No more than four inches total of any mulch is advisable.

If a soil sample has not been taken from your garden within the past two years or so, now is a good time to take one. Ideally, a soil analysis should be undertaken before fertilizer is applied to the garden. Otherwise, you will be, as they say, “shooting in the dark” when it comes to providing your plants’ nutrient needs. Many perennials, in particular, need very little supplemental fertilizer so long as they are planted in a good, fertile soil.

If the leaves on your crape myrtles and hydrangeas develop a grayish coating later in the season, they probably have developed powdery mildew. Try a mixture of 4 teaspoons of baking soda in one gallon of water on them. Apply this once a week, being sure to cover the tops and undersides of the leaves.

It is time to repeat something I wrote in an article a while back. Many of you may be just now planting your tomato plants. Remember this-after planting tomatoes, it is a good idea to mulch them right away. This will help to prevent leaf diseases such as early blight. This debilitating disease is caused by a soil-borne fungus that splashes onto the leaves from the soil during rainfall or overhead irrigation. Control of this disease with fungicides is difficult. Immediate mulching is more effective.

I trust that these tips will help you in your gardening endeavors this month.

Tim Lewis is a Georgia Green Industry Association Certified Plant Professional, gardening writer, former Perry High School horticulture instructor, and former horticulturalist at Henderson Village and Houston Springs. He and his wife, Susan, own and operate Lewis Farms Nursery located on Hwy 26 two miles east of Elko, where he was born and raised. He can be reached at (478)954-1507 or timlewis1@windstream.net and at LewisFarmsNursery.com.