This week in your Massachusetts garden & landscape
Week of June 25, 2018
‘Imogen’ is a beautiful, new soft yellow rose with a center filled with tightly-packed petals. Its fragrance is a bit like a fresh apple. ‘Imogen’ is disease resistant and the blooms just coming! It is hardy in zones 5-9.
- Dried and fresh herbs may be used interchangeably in most recipes. Use three to five times more fresh herbs than dried depending on the strength of the herb.
- If you love the thought of being able to smell chocolate in the garden all summer, consider planting C. atrosanguineus (Cosmos). Beautiful, dark purple flowers cover this annual plant. They are perfect in a container and thrive in full sun and good drainage.
- Watering in the morning rather than the evening can help reduce slug damage to leaves in the garden.
- Shear the tops of spring-blooming perennials such as candytuft, rock cress and moss phlox. This shearing will ensure a uniform appearance for the remainder of the summer.
- Pinch chrysanthemums and shear back asters for a more compact and fuller late fall bloom.
- For more white in your spring garden next year, consider adding Dicentra spectabilis ‘Alba’ to your perennial garden. It is hardy to zones 3-8 and blooms mid-to-late spring. Remember that bleeding hearts do go dormant in the summer months leaving a void in their place. They will last longer if they are planted in a cooler, shadier location.
- A beautiful ground cover for full or part shade and moist soil is brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ (Siberian Bugloss). Its heart-shaped leaves are beautiful and the foliage lasts spring through summer. Delicate, blue flowers bloom in spring. Hardy to zones 3-8.
- If you are growing garlic, be on the lookout for garlic scapes. Garlic scapes are small bulblets at the tip of stalks that shoot up from the garlic plant. As they elongate, they forms a curl. Cut the scapes and sauté or steam them. They are delicious added to stir fry dishes. They add a light flavor of garlic. Removing the scapes from the plants also helps to encourage larger garlic bulb growth.
- Scatter crushed egg shells, clamshells or sharp sand near and around vegetable plants that are susceptible to slug damage. Cultivating the soil in the garden will also dry it out a little and help to deter those little critters. Slugs like it wet.
