Weeds, slugs and other surprises
Garden Expert
What a difference a week makes! I was traveling, imagining I might have missed a few buds opening and some perennial growth. But—wow!—what was going on here? I know Western New York had some perfect, hot days followed by a couple of rainstorms. But who ordered this rainforest?
It’s great to see the blooming Campanulas, Clematis, Penstemon, lilies and roses, but that’s not all! I’m hearing from everyone about an abundance of insect life, “millions” of slugs and snails, overwhelming weeds and plants that are too tall, too soon, and flopping.
What’s a gardener to do?
For some perspective, I’ll suggest this: In most seasons the precipitation and heat come along gradually, and we see our pests—from weeds to insects—a few at a time. (Both insects and fungi depend upon heat and moisture; they don’t just appear by a calendar date.)
Normally, it’s all spaced out. But this year the moisture and heat episodes have been fast and intense so plants, diseases and insects are emerging all at once. It may not be a matter of more pests; it just seems so.
Many pests will pass quickly; others will dry up in the summer heat. We’ll just have to take them on one at a time.
Pull the weeds
Some good news is that weeding is easy in moist soil, and it’s sometimes easier to pull out big weeds than little ones. So pull all you can—quickly! It’s gratifying to be able to pull dozens of goldenrod, pigweed, ragweed, dandelions, etc. in minutes. And there’s nothing like ferreting out every last rootlet of a clump of quackgrass.
If a weedy area is too overwhelming, the fallback plan is weed-whacking or mowing it all down and covering the weedy parts with a tarp or mulch. Be careful: A perennial may be hiding in there, hoping for rescue!
Prop the flowers
So how about those suddenly floppy flowers?We gardeners often wish, too late, that we had placed a peony ring, cage or fencing to support perennials before they got so big. Now it’s tough to contain the overgrown Culver’s Root or Monarda without breaking them or ruining their appearance. (If you are tying tall stems to stakes, be sure you use soft ties.)
You might try this least intrusive English method of staking called “pea-staking.” It uses branched twigs (pea stakes), stuck into the soil, to hold up the flower stalks. Choose any branches with two or three stems just shorter than the plants you are supporting. Like all the staking methods, it’s better to do this when plants are small. Because of its natural material, the stakes blend in.
Finally, you can cut the front half of most perennial clumps back by a third or more, to thicken up the front of the clump and delay its flowering by a couple of a weeks.
After the weeding, clipping, staking and propping, you may agree with me that so far it’s still a wonderful season!
Sally Cunningham is a garden writer, lecturer and consultant.
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