The Whistling Gardener

by Steve Smith

Steve Smith is owner of Sunnyside Nursery in Marysville, located at 3915 Sunnyside Blvd., and a respected local expert on all things horticultural. You can reach Steve at 425-334-2002 or by e-mail at [email protected].

If you are looking for a list of chores for this month, I can tell exactly what I will be doing--which is to start and/or finish everything that I didn't get done in March, April and May. As I write this on the last week of May it is raining and in the low 50s; not the kind of weather that is conducive to getting out into the garden and working up a sweat. But I can wait no longer and neither can you. Time is of the essence.

Aphids and slugs and diseases of roses will continue to tax our patience this month. I simply can't over-emphasize the necessity to apply a fungicide BEFORE we see signs of disease, be it mildew, black spot or rust. I can guarantee that, regardless of the weather, hollyhocks will get rust, lupines will get mildew and nasturtiums will get aphids. Why wait for the inevitable if you can prevent it?

Speaking of preventing things, weeds are a heck of a lot easier to prevent then they are to remove after they are a foot tall. Again, all it takes is an ounce of prevention. In the last few days I have finally managed to hula-hoe all the annual winter weeds in my beds and rake them up so the soil is nice and clean at this point. We all know things won't stay that way very long. The next step for me is to apply a slow-acting organic fertilizer and an inch of compost. Some lime wouldn't hurt either. But once I have my compost (we call it mulch when we put it on the soil surface) spread, I am done with weeding for the season except for a few here and there. For extra measure I could have also applied some Preen before I spread the compost. I find that the Preen is really effective in the fall but somehow I rarely ever get around to applying it. Mostly, dense plantings and generous amounts of compost work the best for me.

June is the month to plant like a maniac. First off, I need to remind everyone that it is NOT TOO LATE to plant. If you add up the days between the first of June and the end of September there are about 120, which is plenty of time to grow just about anything. Shrubs, trees, veggies, bulbs, groundcovers, perennials and annuals can all be planted this month. Don't wait for fall to plant shrubs and trees. Plant them now and they will have time to establish before Mother Nature throws us another curveball like she did last November.

Speaking of bulbs, for the most part I treat tulips and daffodils as annuals and, in fact, just finished pulling most of them up (and throwing them away, OMG) so I could plant my summer annuals. But if you have them planted in areas where they can naturalize and you aren't going to plant more summer color, then let them die down naturally until the tops are brown and can easily be removed. This technique will give you the best bloom for the next year. Summer bulbs like dahlias and gladiolas can be left in the ground in the fall, but this last year is a reminder that if we really want to save our summer bulbs, we'd better dig them up after the first frost. I know for a fact that the missus lost 90 percent of her dahlias this last winter simply because we left them in the ground.

Speaking of losing plants, I can't tell you how many customers lost roses last winter, again from that hard freeze in November. For years I would mulch my roses religiously by Thanksgiving and I never lost one, but we have all gotten lazy in recent years and are now paying the price. While this is great for my business, it is sad to see customers come in so full of grief. If your roses are dead on top and all you see is "wild looking" growth coming from the ground, you probably need to dig them up and get some new ones.

June should finally reveal to us what is dead or alive on our trees and shrubs. Evergreens that were killed over the winter (probably from too much water) will start drying up this month and it will become apparent that they need to be removed. Broadleaf evergreens like Ceanothus, Viburnum, Cistus, Euonymus and Escallonia will start sprouting from older wood closer to the soil level. Everything above this point needs to be pruned out. This will seem drastic, but if the wood is dead it isn't going to become alive again.

Come to our pruning class this Saturday, June 4, for more examples. Class starts at 10 a.m. sharp.

Here's hoping June 5-9 will actually be as sunny and warm as they predict. You can send me your questions at [email protected] or call at 425-334-2002.