SACANDAGA GARDEN CLUB - By Barbara Henry

Oh my goodness, looking back I can remember a cold windy day in early June when our club went to visit Tom and Kathy O’s perennial gardens in Ephratah. Anna Johnson was all bundled up in a blanket she keeps in her car – smart woman! Still, the rains held off and Kathy greeted us with a hot cup of coffee. Their gardens are lovely, both sun and shade plants in wonderful combinations so we could see just what might work in our own gardens. I picked up several pots of a cranesbill geranium which makes a lovely mounded plant and blooms most of the summer. Those went in my front yard where I am trying to create a cottage/wildflower garden to encourage more birds and insects. I have had lots of butterflies so far this year and I hope they will use the parsely plants I have dotted about to shelter the chrysalis for next year.



Did you go see the flower show we had at the library – our members are so talented, the arrangements were spectacular. If ever you need help with any type of table design or designs for the holidays and are not sure how to go about it, do give one of our members a call. We are all happy to help in any way.

There is an upside to all the rain we have been having; my peonies are full of blooms this year and the astilbe are putting out many more flower heads, in another couple of weeks they will fill up the border with their color. All this rain also means I don’t have to go out and put more water on my water loving plants such as the cardinal flower, the Joe-Pye weed and the filipendulas. The cardinal flower does like to be wet most of the time but the others do well with an extra bucket of water now and then when the rain doesn’t cooperate.

However, you might want to keep a close eye on your tomato plants because all this rain could bring on early blight. If you see the bottom leaves start to yellow, then brown and fall off then early blight may be the cause. Feed them with a fertilizer with high nitrogen, or use bloodmeal, and that should stop the problem. Tomatoes are heavy users of nitrogen – think of all those leaves as the plant grows.

Now that most of your planting is done, it is a great time to walk around your garden and see how the plants are growing and perhaps what may need to be divided later in the year or what combinations are doing well and what is not doing so well. As you are walking around take a pair of scissors with you and continue to deadhead your spring flowering bulbs. Don’t tie up your daffy stalks, instead use daylilies or hosta or phlox to camouflage the foliage as it ripens. Mark areas where you need to add more bulbs so that when you plant in the fall you don’t dig up previously planted bulbs. Now matter how many times I tell myself to keep good records I can guarantee that I will spear an existing bulb when I start planting in September. My bulb catalogues have started arriving so I am walking the garden and making notes of what I need to order to fill out the bulb display.

Keep up with the weeding, the more you get it under control now, the less problems you will have later in the year. Watch for phlox and hollyhock seedlings for example, they will pop up in the most unexpected places and you can leave them and enjoy them or transplant them to a more convenient area. I have some lupine seedlings that I have no idea how they got where they are, those I am transplanting to my front garden. Lupines are best transplanted young, they really don’t like to be moved when they are bigger. Forsythia and lilacs should be pruned at this time of year. If you have large plants take out one fourth of the largest canes, these will be the older canes and this will encourage new growth for next year, keep your shrubs down in size and maintain a good shape to the plant. A light haircut to azaleas is beneficial too.



The garden club is taking a couple of months off to enjoy the summer months with friends and families visiting us. We are planning our program for the coming year and will meet again in September.



As always, questions and comments can be sent to POBox 675, Northville NY.