The Old Gardener

 

July, 2025

Pickaway to Garden

 

The Old Gardener

By Paul Hang

 

It’s July the month we celebrate our independence as a nation. We did not want one man, no matter of what title or office, having sole authority over us. We also honor the person who wrote our Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson was also a gardener. I would like to compare myself to him, as a gardener. For any other characteristic I might have, or hope to have, in common with him there would be no comparison. He said “Though an old man, I am but a young gardener.” 

 

Well, I too am an old man. However, unlike him, I suspect that I am also an old gardener. This is something that has just recently occurred to me. Not that I am an old man but that I am also an old gardener. I understand what Jefferson was referring to, the fact that you can never learn everything about gardening. There is always more to learn. And, there are always new discoveries, new twists, new techniques, and new styles. Yes styles. Have you heard of No mow May? Kill your lawn? Plant all natives? Plant a meadow? Plant for wildlife? Plant trees with no leaves or birds? (I made up that last one.)

 

I’ve known that I am an old man for quite a while. I am 83 years old, the same age Jefferson was when he died! No snow on the roof, just scalp. I have stents in various tubes. I’ve had my cataracts removed, my prostate reamed out, my lower eyelids lifted. I have heart disease and Type II diabetes. I have had skin cancers frozen and excised from my head and face. I have passed a kidney stone and other less solid substances. I could go on with my maladies but that would make me sound old. You know how we are. In other words, I am an old man, a codger.

 

I am, unlike Mr. Jefferson, an old gardener in need of assistance. I graduated from a push reel mower as a lad, to a push power mower to a self-propelled mower to a riding mower. I’ve recently hired people to mow my lawn this summer. My goal is to replace my lawn with mulch or AstroTurf. I bought a sprayer that I can pull along on wheels rather strap on my back or lug around the estate. I have a pair of loppers that I can ratchet closed rather than have to squeeze all at once. I have raised beds and may raise them even higher. The higher they are the shorter distance there is to bend over or to fall into them. I have more container grown plants.

 

I have an electric battery-powered string-trimmer, no more despair trying to start the old gasoline one and it doesn’t stink. I can change new strings with a push of the button. That alone will save years off my remaining life. I just bought a blower, my first. You guessed it; it too is battery-powered. It’s not too loud but it can end an extended and tedious conversation. I haven’t used my chain saw in about ten years. I have more houseplants.

I use an app to remind me of the names of plants I’ve known for years. I am strictly a no-till gardener. I have fallen in the garden, damned hose. I have drip irrigation on a timer for my vegetable garden. I have a reciprocating saw with a pruning blade for those pesky shrubs and dead branches. I haven’t completely fallen for some of the new-fangled garden regimes now in fashion no matter how important their goals. I will mow in May, or have it mowed. I plan to keep some non-native plants. I will grow food and flowers. I do plant for wildlife whether it’s intended or not.

 

Perhaps the latest, but hopefully not the final, straw is I may need to have back surgery soon. Old Thomas had it partly right, though I am an old man; I am also an old gardener.

 

Things to do in the garden:

 

On July 2nd we are exactly at the halfway point in the year. The dog days begin July 3^rd.  Time to take stock. What has gone wrong in the garden and what has gone right? Some days I am tempted to “throw in the trowel.” Once I see my daylilies in bloom, some tomatoes forming on the vines I get over that feeling and I resolve to keep on. Maybe the next half of the year will be better than the first.

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Are you waiting on cucumbers and squash to start bearing fruit? They get male flowers first then later the female flowers come on. This is the time to dry herbs. Harvest before they flower. Pick on a sunny dry day and in the morning. Tie them in small bundles with rubber bands. Hang them upside down in a hot, dry, dark, well ventilated spot in an attic, barn or shed. It is time to harvest garlic. Harvest when leaves are turning yellow but there are still one or two green leaves. Hang them or lay them out to cure.

 

Weeding, deadheading and watering are high on the list of routine activities. If July turns out to be bone dry, water the equivalent of one inch or more per week. Don’t let your plants wilt. This will cause blossom end rot in tomatoes and other solanaceous plants like peppers and eggplant. Mulch to conserve moisture and keep down weeds. If you haven’t mulched yet do so after a soaking thunderstorm or a good deep watering. Vegetables high in water content need more water e.g. tomatoes, watermelons, onions.

 

Keep your mower blades sharp; cut your grass long, 3-4 inches is ideal. If you use a pesticide for grubs you are also killing the ones that produce fireflies. Consider organic methods if you have a grub problem.  Kill Japanese beetle scouts before they let their comrades know about your garden. Brush them off into a cup of soapy water or alcohol (not Jim Beam). Repeatedly letting the lawn go dormant and reviving it by watering can kill the grass. Either keep watering or wait for Mother Nature to do it for you. Don’t forget to water your compost heap. It needs to remain moist for fast decomposition.

Container plants in the hot sun may need watering daily.

 

If grafted trees or roses are suckering below the graft, cut the sprouts off. Keep picking seed pods off the annuals and clipping spent flowers (deadheading) to encourage bloom all summer. Pinch back mums July 15^th for the last time. Thin out fruit on heavily laden fruit trees. Prune climbing roses after bloom. Divide bearded Irises and do not re-plant too deep. Plant gladiolus up to mid-month. Add soil to potatoes as they grow.

 

Always read the labels on your plants for fertilization. Most woody plants have completed their growth and their buds for next year so fertilizing trees and shrubs after early July is a waste of money and may harm the plant. Keep watering trees and shrubs planted in the past 2-3 years. Ten gallons for every inch in diameter every week is good.

 

Consider planting a fall garden later this month. Plants such as cabbage, broccoli, spinach, collards, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts (plant seeds now, seedlings later), kale, Swiss chard even beets and parsnips thrive in our fall weather. Consider starting your plants indoors (except for root crops). Acclimate seedlings to the sun before putting them out in the garden. You can still plant beans, cukes, summer squash, greens and corn.

 

If you would like to see much more of things to do in the garden, as if this is not enough, see Margaret Roach’s web site awaytogarden.com (no relation). She gardens in Zone 6a in upstate New York. Have gardening questions? Call the Gardening Helpline 740-474-7534. To read about problems facing those of us who “grow things,” check out bygl.osu.edu.