The Pause That Refreshes

June 2013

Pickaway to Garden

The Pause That Refreshes

"June is Bustin' Out All Over." This refrain from the musical Carousel really is descriptive of the month. Other lines of the song also convey the feeling of June. "You can feel it in your heart. You can see it in the ground." "You can see it in the trees. You can smell it in the breeze." "Look around. Look around. Look around."

Look around! No season lasts forever so stop for a moment and look around. Take in the colors, sounds, smells and tastes of this time of year. June is a kind of pause in the year. Spring has been winding up, not down, and June is when it unwinds. Most of the garden is in. We've caught up with the mowing. Pause at least long enough to look around.

The summer solstice is June 21 and marks the astronomical beginning of summer. Solstice means "sun standing still". Even the stars are telling us to pause. On the 20th of June we will be experiencing the last day of spring. The next day summer begins. It's like the whole year has been working its way to this season. We now get the payoff for all those dark cold days of winter. It would be a shame not to enjoy it. To quote Rogers and Hammerstein again, "June is a love song sweetly sung." Hear the music?

As the sun pauses on its annual journey north it stands still before plunging southward to bring the other seasons of the year. That pause is like the top of a roller coaster and should cause a lump in the throat as we look ahead and contemplate what is to come, the thrill of summer. After the up and down of summer weather the ride will slow and coast into autumn.

On June 26^th you are invited to the Pickaway County Master Gardeners Founders Day Celebration. Martha Beck and Lyn Fisher were instrumental in establishing a Master Gardener Volunteer Program with our local OSU Extension Office. That was fifteen years ago. Although they are both now deceased, their work and foresight lives on in a vibrant organization providing research based gardening information and  local gardens displaying a variety of plants. The celebration will be held at 7pm at Noecker Hall at Trinity Lutheran Church135 E. Mound Street in Circleville, Ohio. Our speaker will be well known naturalist Jim McCormac whose talk is titled “Think Globally, Plant Locally.” Jim writes a column for the Columbus Dispatch and authored The Birds of Ohio. The program is free and open to the public. It should be an enjoyable evening.

Things to do in the garden:

If you find “volunteer” tomato plants springing up, fight the temptation to “get a freebie.” You should rotate your crops just as good farmers do to prevent the build up of disease. Volunteers are allowing a second year of growth in that spot. Pull them out. By the same token, you know you should thin those seedlings (carrots, beets, radishes, marigolds, zinnias, all those plants you direct seeded) to the recommended distance between plants? I know you do. Try to resist the empathy you feel for those little plants. Pull them out! Gardening can seem cruel!

Crowding plants more than is recommended usually results in all the plants doing poorly.

Now is the time to mulch the hot weather plants such as tomatoes and peppers. The ground is nice and warm. Mulch keeps the ground from drying out and suppresses weeds. It also moderates the soil temperature. Several layers of newspaper topped with organic mulch, leaves, grass clippings, coarse compost, shredded bark etc. should do the trick. Wet the newspapers while doing this or you will be chasing them all over the neighborhood when the wind gets under them. Two to three inches of mulch is sufficient and keep it an inch or two away from the plant.

Mulch under tomatoes also keeps the soil from splashing up on the fruits, during those occasional downpours. Soil on the fruits promotes disease. If you don’t stake, trellis or cage your tomatoes and just let them sprawl on the ground, mulch will keep the fruit off the bare ground.

June sometimes begins our droughty summers. Water your roses and onions well but hold off on the geraniums. They will bloom best when kept somewhat dry. Newly planted trees and bushes should be watered well each week if the weather remains dry. Give them a good soaking. Don’t give them a booster feeding of fertilizer this year. Force those young roots to search for food by stretching out into the soil.

Keep your lawns cut to three inches, the resulting lush growth keeps weeds from getting enough sun to germinate and keeps the soil moisture from evaporating too quickly. Water, if you must, in the morning, never in the evening, so the foliage can dry out before nightfall. This keeps fungi from getting established. This is true for all plants, not just lawns.

Deadhead flowers for more blooms. After the spring flowering bulbs’ leaves turn yellow (brown is better) they can be cut off. Also the bulbs that are too crowded can be lifted, divided and replanted. When iris are finished blooming they can be divided and replanted. Replant the vigorous outer tubers with two or three fans of leaves shortened to four or five inches.

You can ask Master Gardener Volunteers gardening questions at the Farmers’ Market on Saturdays. Also our Helpline is open for your gardening questions. Call 474-7534 with your question or go to www.Pickaway.osu.edu, click on "Ask an expert." Master Gardener Volunteers will get back to you with answers to your questions. Try to provide as much information as you can. This will keep June from being a bust.