Rodd's Seeds of Wisdom Horticultural tips and tricks from Rodd Moesel

Summer temperatures have arrived and the warm season crops like sweet potatoes, okra, periwinkle and many of the tropical plants are loving it and putting on a burst of growth. These warm, even hot temperatures can be a little more challenging for the non tropical humans and plants. Some areas of the state have enjoyed some June tropical rains with these higher temperatures while others have missed out on the rains. Your plants will dry out much quicker and more often as these temperatures rise and as the hot wind blows. We see hot air blowers in restrooms to dry our hands; this is the same dehydration effect many of our plants experience as the hot dry summer winds blow across their exposed leaves, stems and the soil they call home. You can reduce this water evaporation from the soil by mulching the soil with a good layer of bark, hulls or straw mulch. Watering is the most important summer gardening practice and can be a life or death issue for new plantings or plants that are especially thirsty or heavy drinkers. Watch your vegetables and flowers for signs of heat or water stress that are cries for human help, like wilting foliage or a pale tone of grayish green instead of the usual more intense green that plant usually exhibits. Most new or thirsty plants need the equivalent of one to two inches of rainfall per week in our hot Oklahoma weather. If your trees, shrubs and flowers are not getting this regular dose of water from natural rain they need you to help out with hand watering, overhead sprinklers, soaker hoses or drip irrigation to provide their life saving water needs.

You can still plant most all container grown annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees as long as you are prepared to provide regular watering for these new plantings. I have spent the better part of the last two weekends and many late evenings the last several weeks preparing and planting several new flowerbeds. A little over two months of the growing season are gone but we still have over four and a half months to enjoy before the normal November freeze wraps up the season. There is still a great selection at most of our local nurseries and garden centers and since the crowds have thinned out you can often get more personal attention and garden counseling or advice to help you select the best plant material for your soil type, light exposure and growing style. With camera phones so common, take a picture or pictures of the area you are planting and your nurseryman can help you make the best selection for your garden spot. If you see something you like at a local park or while visiting friends, take a picture or two and show that to your local nurseryman for help and advice.

With the warmer temperatures, we are starting to see a lot more pest issues. If you have a specific disease or insect problem, get a picture or grab a sample and take it in a paper bag or bottle with breathing holes to your nurseryman to diagnose and suggest several remedies to address the problem. Our fungus or disease problems usually go away as the weather gets drier and the insect problems can explode as we get hotter. We have had enough rain this year that the weeds, like most of our desired plants, are growing well this year. The best control is hand pulling and then mulching to reduce future weed problems. You can also help control weeds by hoeing but have to be careful not to hoe the good guys along with the weeds. There are some pre and some post emergent weed killers you can use in vegetable and flower beds but you must read and follow the label directions to make sure you don’t also kill your good plants. A farm friend recently told me that weeds are a lot like sin. They can look really good at first but soon they have taken over everything else in your garden or life. May your garden and life be beautiful and bountiful and your weeds be few.

Memorial Day is now in the rear view mirror and most schools are out for the summer so we are psychologically in summer mode even if the calendar does not officially go there for another three weeks. We have been blessed with periodic rains and moderate weather so far this growing season so we have not had to go into full watering mode to save our gardens. In fact, Mother Nature has done most of the watering and we have only had to step in a few times with supplemental or hand watering to keep from stressing our desired plant material. This is likely to change as the days get longer and the sun gets even brighter. Our yards will likely need us to help with more “fill in” watering as we get hotter and drier. So far we are enjoying one of our best gardening seasons in years on most plant material but we are only six weeks into our normal thirty-two week growing season. Shoppers are not as thick at the local nurseries and garden centers now but most still have a great selection of vegetables, flowering annuals and perennials, container grown shrubs and trees that you can plant and enjoy this year while we still have eighty percent of the 2016 growing season in front of us. The early bird gardeners this year have gotten a lot of help from natural rainfall and mild temperatures so most of their plantings are already rooted in and looking great. Those planting now may not get as much help from rains and may need to spend a little more time watering but they can still have a great gardening season and the thrill of picking their own fresh tomatoes and peppers or the beauty of their own fresh flowers.

Remember that plants in hanging baskets or decorative containers will usually dry out quicker and more often than plants grown in ground beds and may require extra watering. Be aware that planting in flower beds under your roof overhang, under thick tree or shrub canopies or in containers under porches or patios may receive limited rainfall and will need to be watered whether it rains or not. One of the joys of gardening is to be observant and learn how various plants grow and respond to different soil, water, day length and weather conditions and then to use our experiences and common sense to garden even wiser in the future. Observation and learning really enhance the joy of gardening. These experiences help us learn to move plants to sunnier or shadier areas, to more protected or less protected spots, to better drained or less drained areas, to use bigger growing containers and how and when to feed, water and spray our plants. Our knowledge and experience continues to grow and evolve just as our plants grow and evolve. Gardening is a partnership between the plants you select and plant, the weather and conditions nature serves up and our role as planters and caretakers.

Assuming the sun rises and shines each day the next most important issue for planting or gardening success is usually water. Sometime nature provides too much by way of floods or standing water and we have limited ways to deal with an overabundance of water except for creating well drained soil over time by the addition of sphagnum peat moss, compost or other organic matter. A shortage of rain or water is the challenge Oklahoma gardeners are more likely to face and we humans can really help with this challenge. We can hand water, use overhead sprinklers, soaker hoses, and automatic sprinklers or install drip irrigation, the most efficient way to supplement watering between rains. Most established plants need water equivalent to 1 to 2 inches of rain per week. New plantings often require more until they are well rooted into their new home.

Mulch the soil under new and existing plantings with a blanket of 1 to 2 inches of cottonseed hulls, pine straw, pecan hulls, cocoa hulls or pine, oak, cypress, cedar or fir bark shredded or chipped in different sizes and colors to reduce watering by half and weeding by even more.

This is still a great time to plant so finish planting the containers and flowerbeds you want to enjoy this year and then take time to observe, learn and enjoy your yard.