What to Do This Week in Your Garden
Gardening in the morning and Maplewoodstock in the afternoon...
Gardening is always better in the morning. It tends to be cooler and to some extent, quiter. This week, it will allow you to go to Maplewoodstock…because it is Maplewoodstock time!
Ok, here’s what you should be doing this week:
Prune non flowering shrubs and summer flowering shrubs. But don’t prune spring flowering shrubs. You can certainly prune flowering shrubs, but check what you have and when to prune it. Best source of info are the state cooperative ext offices located at state universities. Rutgers is good, but so is Penn State and Clemson. If you must use AI - confirm that the info is correct. In other words, if you use AI, you get to do 2 steps instead of 1.
Why? Because after August 1st, we run out of time for the new growth to harden off before the first frost.
Pruning plants will make the plants put out new growth. The new growth needs to harden off. This a bit different that hardening off seedlings in the spring where the plant needs to make a waxy coating to protect itself from the sun’s UV waves. The fall hardening off is where the plant is hardening itself for winter. It needs about 10 to 12 weeks to do that.
Yes, climate change is making our winters warmer, however the last two years we’ve have had extreme temp swings that included dips into the single digits. This is hard on plants. Give them the best start to get thru it.
Weeding - you can always weed.
Review your garden - got holes? Did something not come back? Did a neighbor take out a tree and now you have sun where you didn’t before? Bored? Make a plan to add plants in the fall! You can do this with a notepad and a cool drink while sitting in your garden.
Take photos - it’s as much of a record of what you have and where it is as it is fun to look at in the depths of a freezing cold day in February.
And lastly, the high temps and torrential downpours are hard on plants. Spend a few extra minutes this weekend (and during the week) checking on them.
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