North Mississippi Gardening Tips
June, 2006
Trees and Shrubs
June is the month to begin taking softwood cuttings. This type of cutting is taken from current season’s growth. Softwood cuttings should be from new growth that is firm, mature and slightly brittle. To test the branch tip to see if it is at the right stage of growth bend it to about a 90 degree angle. If it snaps instead of bending, it is right for making a softwood cutting.
Plants that root easily from softwood cuttings include azalea, aucuba, crapemyrtle, boxwood, camellia, Chinese holly, English ivy, Japanese holly, photinia and privet. Go by your local Extension office and pick up a copy of Information Sheet 207, “Propagating Plants For the Home Landscape” for details on how to take cuttings.
Container Gardens
The secret of successful containers lies in regular feeding and watering. Check containers daily and water them whenever the potting mix feels dry. During our hot summers, containers in full bloom may need watering twice a day. Hanging baskets pose the biggest problems. Being high up, you cannot always reach them easily to water. When you do, they drip all over you, and if they dry out excessively the water just bounces off the surface without soaking in. Fortunately, there are various products and devices to help with these problems. If you forget to feed regularly, use slow-release fertilizer pills or granules. If watering is a problem, try self-watering pots or add a water-retaining gel to the soil before planting. Some potting mixes now come with the water retaining agent already mixed in. If you have several awkward baskets to water, it might be worth investing in a long-handled, hooked, watering attachment for your hose.
Fruits
June is harvest month for many of our home fruits. Your luscious tree fruit is also a free lunch for the thieving birds out there. It is really an insult to me when that annoying mockingbird goes from peach to peach taking one peck out of each. I don’t care if he is our state bird—I want to wring his little pecking neck! I have tried everything—fake snakes, owls, flashing tape, that huge balloon with the big evil eye on it, rattling pie pans, nets, etc. None of these are surefire. The best long-term solution in my mind is to overplant and let the birds have a peck or two. I’ve taught my boys (like my mama taught me) to eat around the peck or I just cut it out. That way all God’s critters (including me and my family) have plenty.
Blackberries are among the home fruits you will enjoy harvesting this month. After the blackberry harvest remove old fruiting canes. They are going to die anyway and early removal makes room for the young canes that will bear next year’s crop to grow more vigorously. Be sure to fertilize the young canes. It is also a good idea to prune the top of the developing canes back by several inches to encourage lateral branch development. This will increase the number of fruiting branches for a bountiful harvest next summer.
Slowly soak fruit trees and bushes if there has been no significant rain in a week. This is especially important for fruit plants that have been newly transplanted this winter or spring.
Flowers
The garden is full of perennial blooms now. Take the time to frequently cut a bouquet to bring inside and enjoy. It will lift your spirits. Coming home from work to a house “freshened up” with pretty flowers from the garden never fails to cheer me up.
The best time to cut flowers is in the early morning, but I have been known to go out at any time the mood strikes me and cut a few stems to take to work, give to a friend or just pop in a little glass and set by my kitchen sink. When cutting flowers it is a good idea to take a bucket of water with you to put the cut stems in while you wander all over your yard trying to make up your mind what to cut next.
To keep those blooms coming for many bouquets, don’t forget to deadhead (removal of spent blossoms) your perennials. Cannas, stokesia, coreopsis, catmint are a few that will reward you with additional blooms if deadheaded.
Vegetables and Herbs
By this month we are harvesting Irish potatoes, bulb onions, cabbage, broccoli and other early vegetables. By mid-month you early bird gardeners may be enjoying your first “mess” of green beans and plenty of fried green tomatoes—possibly a red tomato or two.
Don’t worry if the first flowers fall off your yellow squash plants without producing squash. These are usually male flowers. You can tell the difference because male flowers have a green stem. The female flowers have a little squash at the base of the flower that develops after the flower is pollinated.
Don’t forget to side dress your vining crops like cucumbers, muskmelon, watermelon, pumpkins, gourds, and winter squash, when they first begin to “run”. A general recommendation for side dress applications of ammonium nitrate for vegetables is 1 pint of 34-0-0 (ammonium nitrate) per 100 feet of row or three and one-third tablespoons per 10 feet of row.
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.