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North Mississippi Gardening Tips
July/August, 2006

Flowers

Cannas are one of the “bold tropical-looking” perennials that Southerners can enjoy in their garden. Even in my Zone 7 garden these perennials are reliably winter hardy and return year after year. Choices of flower color, foliage color and plant size—from dwarf to tall are available.  ‘Bengal Tiger’ also listed, as ‘Pretoria’ is one of my favorites. It combines striking yellow and green striped foliage with orange flowers that when backlit by the setting sun is absolutely glorious. ‘Tropicana’ is just about the gaudiest colored one of the bunch. It has purple leaves striped with yellow and red. This plant looks like it is afire. The bright orange flowers just add to the blazing show.  To encourage new blooms to form and to tidy up the appearance of your cannas remove flower stalks as soon as the blooms fade. A new flower stalk should grow below the old one.

During the hot days of July, flowers and foliage in cool colors of blue, violet, and shades of green can make your outdoor living areas seem cooler. Adding masses of pastel flowering plants in shades of blue, purple, violet, lavender, and green around your deck of porch will cool it down. Adding plants with white variegation, white flowers or silvery foliage will add to the “cool atmosphere”. Cool colors are considered relaxing and peaceful and hot colors such as reds and oranges are considered active, energetic and “hot”. So, I guess you need to decide if the overall atmosphere of your outdoor rooms should be cool or hot—for me, I prefer a mix with a tad more cool colors to calm and cool me down after a hard day of work at the office!

Trees and Shrubs

The peak of summer is a maximum growth time for plants, so their water demands are high. It is particularly important to keep newly transplanted trees and shrubs watered during this intense growth period. Water early in the day for best results. One of the easiest ways to conserve water is by mulching. Keep a 2-4 inch layer of mulch around shrubs and trees. Be careful NOT to pile the mulch directly around the trunks of plants. Pine straw, bark chips, and shredded hardwood bark are effective choices. As a general rule, one bale of pine straw will cover about 50 to 80 square feet of bare area. For replenishing areas covered with straw, one bale will cover about 150 square feet. One cubic yard (27 cubic feet) of bark mini-nuggets will cover about 80 square feet.

Vegetables and Herbs

Seeds of fast-growing vegetables, such as zucchini, lima beans, and bush beans, can be planted now for a late harvest. If you grew corn earlier this year, interplant pole beans within the corn rows, and let the stalks support the vines. Keep tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash picked for continued harvest.

Continue to harvest leaves from basil, sage, oregano, thyme and all your culinary herbs for drying. Even though the flavor is considered to be the best prior to flowering, don’t let flowering deter you from continuing your harvest.  Drying these in a hot, dark place such as the attic will ensure that you and your family can enjoy herb flavors in your cooking during the winter months. Store dried herb leaves whole in airtight containers and place in a dark, cool cabinet in your kitchen.

Fruits

Don’t know when to harvest those peaches?  Well, some old-timers say that peach fruit is ready to harvest when the side of the peach facing the ground turns from green to white or yellow (depending upon the color of the flesh). If you have problems with birds pecking the fruit it is not a bad idea to harvest while the peaches are still a little firm. This also avoids bruising when handling. Allow them to soften quickly at room temperature. Then refrigerate to stop the ripening process and maintain them at this stage.

After the blackberry harvest remove the old fruiting canes to allow the new canes to grow. These new canes are the fruiting canes for next year.

Container gardening

Sometimes, gardeners as well as our plants have begun to “burn out” by this time. It’s hot outside and we tend to get a little wilted around the edges and so do our plants! Want to know how to lift your spirits and invigorate you and your garden—add containers of bright, cheerful plants. If you already have containers rework them with new plants or move them around the landscape to give the garden an instant new look.  Containers can be used in all sorts of gardens from formal to informal. Plants in containers can run the gamut from flowers to climbers, vegetables, fruit, shrubs and even trees! In small gardens you could create a complete garden of containers and simply change the plants whenever they are past their best to keep the display looking new. And large gardens containers are useful for accenting features within the garden.

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.