Things to do in your garden each month, taken from the Ontario Master Gardener Calendar by John Hethrington, past president, Master Gardeners of Ontario. For more information, or to obtain your own copy of the 11-by-17-inch colourful calendar of the full year’s tips for a $2 contribution to Master Gardeners, call 519-599-5846.
We have certainly had the heat, and the rain as well. The corn is high and the weeds, too.
Your garden should be looking good, so congratulations.
Now, what to do this month.
Top up your mulch. Keep it at least two inches deep. It works to suppress weeds, keeps the soil cool and damp and retains the rain.
Sow vegetable seeds again for a fall harvest of spinach, radishes and some varieties of leaf lettuce.
Tidy up plants and shrubs with a little judicious pruning, but early in the month.
Stake tall perennials like against the wind.
Cut your grass at least two inches high to combat drying out. Water well when needed, or when it is allowed.
Check out the bulb catalogues and order spring flowering bulbs before they are sold out.
Finally, pull or cut off the browned leaves of spring flowering bulbs. Trim back iris leaves. My mother would take her best kitchen scissors and cut up one side of each leaf fan and then down the other side to make a neat arrow. She was a picky gardener.
Fill in any gaps in your flower garden with fall-flowering perennial plants, like mums and asters.
Start drying flowers and herbs. Pick your lavender now for drying.
Start to divide the daylilies as they stop blooming.
Collect seeds that have matured but not yet fallen from the seed head, plants like poppies. Once they have completely dried, store the seeds in airtight containers in a cool location or sprinkle them around your garden for colour next summer.
Take a hard look at your garden and take pictures, too, so you can decide where there are empty spaces for new plants this fall. Identify any plants that have not performed well (or you can’t stand) and plan to replace them with a fall planting program of shrubs and perennials.
Early fall is a great time to sow grass seed and plant perennials, trees and shrubs. You’ll get a big jump on next spring.
John Hethrington has been gardening since the age of nine. He spent his early life gardening in Toronto and earned his certification as a Master Gardener before moving to Meaford where he cultivates 2.5 acres with 20 different gardens.
