What to do in the Garden this Month

Planting is in full swing!  Enjoy each day in your garden.  Take time to look and acknowledge the new life sprouting and growing all around you. 

What to do in the garden this month:

• Weed, weed, weed.
• Avoid overcrowding your plants. Good air circulation helps keep fungal disease at a minimum so pull and thin plants growing too closely together.
• Plant new batches of bush beans every few weeks to ensure a steady supply of beans to harvest over the growing season.
• Plant your tomatoes and stake them early. Other cold sensitive plants should go in your garden now as well. If you have started plants from seed, be sure to harden them off before planting in your garden.
• Pinch back perennials like phlox, beebalm, echinacea and sedum to control height, promote bushiness and delay flowering.
• Cut fall blooming perennials back 1/2 to 1/3 to encourage fullness and good growth.
• Deadhead your perennials regularly. This promotes reblooming.
• Start slug control and scout for fourlined plant bug and tent caterpillar nests. Remove them promptly.
• Prune spring flowering trees and shrubs as they complete their bloom.
• Keep watering newly planted plants.
• Turn your compost.
• Thin out fruit trees if necessary to ensure fruit of reasonable size. Water the trees, if necessary.