North Mississippi Gardening Tips
July/August, 2005
Flowers
The oppressing heat that is typical now could give the impression that if we are suffering surely there aren’t any flowering plants that can prosper. That’s not true. north Mississippi gardeners do have choices of tough, annual plants for summer heat. Good annuals for sunny areas include lantana, evolvulus, scaevola, portulaca, purslane, zinnia, periwinkle, cosmos, celosia, cleome and melampodium. All of these are heat and drought tolerant once established. Zinnia, cosmos, marigold, cleome and sunflower seed can be sown this month for fall bloom.
If the brown tips of your bearded iris foliage really annoy you, you can cut it back. Iris is in a state of semi-dormancy now and is not growing to any degree. That’s the reason this is the recommended time to dig and divide these spring bloomers.
Don’t forget to continue to deadhead the spent blooms of your perennials and annuals. This not only promotes the formation of new flower buds in some plants, but also makes the garden look neater. The spent blossoms of daylilies can sometimes flop over a developing bud and prevent if from opening fully, so that’s another reason to remove the dead blossoms often.
Some flowers I would never cut back because the seed head or dried flower supplies winter interest in the garden. Some of these are the sedums, rudbeckias, Siberian iris, monarda, and purple coneflower to name a few.
Fruits and Nuts
You should be enjoying some of the harvest from your fruit trees this month. Apples and pears will come later, but peaches and nectarines are ripe now.
If your fruit trees (apple, pear, peach, plum) refuse to bear, there must be a reason. First, how old is your tree? Most dwarf fruit trees will bear their first crop the second or third season after planting. Standard size trees take longer: apples and pears, from 3 to 5 years; peaches and nectarines, about 2 or 3 years; cherries and plums, from 3 to 5 years. Has your tree bloomed? If a tree is growing in partial shade, rich soil or has been heavily fertilized, it often develops excessive branch growth at the expense of fruit production. Excessive pruning may also be the problem. Was it subject to cold damage? If the tree was subjected to freezing temperatures during bloom, this could have damaged the blooms or developing fruit. Is a pollinator variety present? Some fruit varieties cannot set fruit by their own pollen. Talk to a knowledgeable nurseryman or your county Extension office to find out which fruit tree varieties require pollinators. Should this be the problem, planting a pollinator tree will correct the problem. Any spraying done while your tree is in bloom could harm the bees. No bees, no pollination, no fruit!
Did it bear too heavily last season? Some varieties get into the habit of biennial bearing—big crop one year, very little the next. Proper thinning of the fruit usually corrects this problem.
Groundcovers and Lawns
Watch for insect and disease problems on your turfgrass. Insects cause irregular dead areas while diseases cause well defined dead areas. Take a plug of grass (include dying as well as healthy grass) to your local nurseryman or county Extension office for identification and recommended treatments.
Be prepared to water as needed in hot weather. Summer is the prime time for promoting active growth of your warm season grass. Take advantage of the ideal temperature and provide water, fertilizer, and proper mowing at this time.
Continue a post-emergence herbicide program as needed to clean up existing summer weeds. Remember to cut your cool-season permanent turfgrass at the highest level for its type during the summer. Cutting heights for tall fescue should be 3-4 inches, Kentucky bluegrass should be 2-3 inches, and creeping fescue should be 2-2 ½ inches.
Trees and Shrubs
Don’t forget to take care of those trees and shrubs you planted this spring. This is a very critical time for these plants. Hot, dry weather can be very stressful for newly planted shrubs and trees that haven’t yet developed adequate root systems. Water these plants thoroughly each week if there is no significant rainfall. Providing a weekly soaking is preferable over frequent light sprinklings because soaking the soil deeply encourages roots to develop at that depth and this, in turn, makes the plant better able to withstand drought. A mulch of pine needles, pine bark, raked leaves, or similar materials will help keep the soil cool and conserve moisture. However, do not let the mulch pack against the trunks of your trees. Large trees may require a small levee around them to retain water long enough to soak in.
Vegetables
Sometimes, despite our best efforts, we can’t keep up with the harvest. If we would do what the experts say and seed successive crops over a period of weeks rather than planting every vegetable seed on the same day, we could have a prolonged, more manageable harvest.
Do try to act rationally next spring and resist the urge to plant everything on the same day. Then, you can serve as an example to the rest of us as you calmly and systematically harvest your garden while the rest of us are busting a gut trying to keep up.
By late this month heat-loving okra plants might be getting too tall to comfortably harvest. Cut off half of the plants at about knee height. Continue harvesting the other half until the cut off ones begin to bear again, then cut off the others. This allows you to continuously harvest okra until frost without having to replant or use a stepladder to harvest.
Lelia Scott Kelly, Ph.D., writes North Mississippi Gardening Tips monthly and is a Horticulture Specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service. Her office is in the North Mississippi Research & Extension Center, Verona.