After Spring Rains, It's Summer Chores That Keep Your Garden Lush

After plenty of spring rain, gardens are growing lushly again, a contrast with last summer's drought. So it's time to get back to normal garden management activities.

That means you should deadhead flowers, encourage summer blooms, prune shrubs, fertilize, weed, monitor pests, and cut dead and diseased wood from trees and shrubs.

Don't let young plants go dry for longer than a week. Water deeply, and maintain drainage by checking for soil moisture. Use your finger, a dowel or a screwdriver to check wetness. Whatever you use should sink in easily, and soil should not still be muddy within a day or two of watering.

The best treatment for your plants is to lay one to two inches of compost over your beds. The organic material will lighten the soil; make it more fertile; and provide better moisture retention, aeration and drainage. Here's a closer look at some garden chores:

Deadheading

Deadheading flowers can make plants more robust. Pinching or cutting spring flowers as they fade will sometimes encourage plants to re-bloom. This is generally a good practice on all plants where it's practical to reach flowers.

For example, low-growing evergreen dianthus ( D. gratianopolitanus) just flowered. The stalks that held the now-faded flowers should be sheared so the plant will return more densely next spring. And foliage has yellowed on most spring bulbs, so they can be cut to the ground. If you have to dig and save them to replant in the fall, dig now, while you can still find them, and store in a cool dry place.

Flowering stalks on certain bulbous plants should be pruned to the base of stems when flowers fade. This is applicable for day lilies, irises, gladioluses, spider lilies ( Lycoris), leucojums and canna lilies.

Many perennials are blooming now or preparing to make their show. Some of these are Japanese irises, day lilies, salvias, astilbes, nepetas, Shasta daisies and purple coneflowers.

While you carry out your June deadheading chores, clip some fresh flowers that have not faded and bring them indoors to display in a vase. Use room-temperature water, and make a fresh diagonal cut at the base of each stem just before placing it in water.

Pinching salvias and nepetas, as well as removing flowering stems (scapes) of faded flowers on day lilies or repeat-blooming bearded irises, can result in a second flush of flowers. Also, shearing flowers from heirloom bridal-wreath spirea ( Spiraea prunifolia) as they fade will often result in another flush of flowers.

It is also a good practice to deadhead annuals. As soon as one flower is gone, you want the plant to be generating another, especially petunias and geraniums. Pinch or cut flowers from stems.

Annuals

Deadheading, applying fertilizer and growth stimulants, and maintaining moist (not soggy) well-drained soil are the best practices you can use to grow sensational displays of annuals.