Casa de Gardenista has been so swamped with rain this spring and summer I’m almost ashamed to show you the healthy growth of weeds and grass I’ve allowed to co-habitate with my flowers until this point. Suffice it to say that this weeks afternoon and weekend projects will all involve lots of weeding and mulching. The bonus I suppose to all of this rain has been unusually large flowers and shrubs in the garden. My Bee Balm is about four feet tall instead of the usual two feet tall, and close to outgrowing my forsythia bush. Mums, which have always grown to mammoth proportions in my yard have had to be pruned back into respectable shape to keep them from completely overtaking their tinier garden cousins.
My forsythia has leafed out completely this year, and it’s hard to believe that only three years ago it was a collection of three sticks I received as a housewarming gift. I began pruning it immediately as it sent out it’s first shoots to encourage more growth. Over the past two years though I’ve trained it into the mini-tree form that it is now, which I think looks particularly cute from the road. I still hold out hope for the spring when the whole bush blooms yellow and looks like a giant lollypop. Hopefully spring 2010 will be the year for that!
My side porch has become “vegetable central” this year, as I added peppers, carrots, lettuce, and spinach mustard to the canteloupe and strawberry containers.
In the past I planted two large containers on each corner with strawberries surrounding one pepper plant in the center. This year I may repeat that late in the season, or in the fall, but for now the fruits and veggies remain segregated and out of the reach of “Confucious,” my city ground hog – who is happily eating the clover blooms in the backyard for now. Regardless of the weeds thus far, we have had several handfuls of home-grown strawberries to eat with our breakfast pancakes, so all in all, rain or shine, it’s been a great summer thus far here at home.
For those of us in the business who can’t tell the difference between “Giant Hogweed,” and a “Cow Parsnip,” this guide will help you properly identify the difference between the two, while giving you proven tips on the permanent erradication of the invasive. I particularly appreciate the hints it gives on handling some of the more noxious plants, for instance warning the reader that Hogweed sap on the skin causes chemicals burns when it’s exposed to sunlight.
One particularly common garden pest wreaking havoc on shrubs in the months of May through August is ‘Armor Scale’, also called ‘Oyster Shell Scale,’ or ‘Wax Scale.’