The Monterey Garden Club
Monterey, VA 24465
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in magnificent Highland County, Virginia
NEXT MEETING:
Tuesday, August 3,
12:30 PM –
Annual Picnic at Highland Center Pavilion
Bring a covered dish.
monthly tips:
HELPFUL AND USEFUL GARDENING HINTS
JULY
DOG-DAYS’ STALWARTS:
( LILIES AND MORE) FOR THE MIDSUMMER GARDEN
May and June’s exuberant flowering gardens can sometimes give way to a subdued and rather shabby midsummer garden...after the last peony has faded away, we may see patchy plots of not-very-interesting foliage, separated by gaps of bare earth where spring bulbs and Oriental poppies had flowered and then gone underground. With three months of good growing weather still to come, July is too soon for such an anticlimax!
Annual flowers are one option for extending the color, since most come into flower fairly late and then bloom till frost or even beyond.
However, if you want to grow a garden of hardy, relatively permanent perennials that will follow each other in successive waves of color from spring till fall, do become acquainted with the many fine perennials that bloom in midsummer to keep your garden fresh and flowering after June’s opulence.
HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES:
- LILIES (Lilium spp) [see our JULY PLANT-OF-THE-MONTH]
BLOOM: June-August
HEIGHT: 2-6 feet
COLOR: every color
NEEDS: full sun to partial shade
- DELPHINIUMS (Delphinium spp)
BLOOM: June-July
HEIGHT: 3-6 feet
COLOR: blue, white, purple
NEEDS: full sun to partial shade, slightly alkaline soil
- BERGAMOT (Monarda didyma)
BLOOM: July-August
HEIGHT: 3 feet
COLOR: red, pink, white, violet
NEEDS: full sun to partial shade
- BABY’S-BREATH (Gypsophilia paniculata)
BLOOM: June-August
HEIGHT: 3 feet
COLOR: pink, white
NEEDS: full sun, alkaline soil
- MONKSHOOD (Aconitum spp)
BLOOM: July-August
HEIGHT: 3-4 feet
COLOR: blue
NEEDS: full sun to partial shade
- ASTILBE (Astilbe spp)
BLOOM: June - September
HEIGHT: 18 inches to 3 feet
COLOR: pink, white, lavender, blue
NEEDS: full sun
- YARROW (Achillea spp)
BLOOM: June-August
HEIGHT: 8 inches to 4 feet
COLOR: red, white, red
NEEDS: full sun
- MIDSUMMER DAISIES
BLOOM: June-August
HEIGHT: 1-2 feet
COLOR: yellow, white
NEEDS: full sun
- BELLFLOWERS (Campanula spp)
BLOOM: June-August
HEIGHT: 4 inches to 3 feet
COLOR: blue, purple
NEEDS: full sun to partial shade
- BALLOON FLOWER (Platycodon grandiflorum)
BLOOM: July-August
HEIGHT: 2 feet
COLOR: blue, pink, white
NEEDS: full sun to partial shade
- EVENING PRIMROSE (Oenothera spp)
BLOOM: June-August
HEIGHT: 10-18 inches
COLOR: yellow
NEEDS: full sun
- MALTESE CROSS (Lychnis chalcedonica)
BLOOM: July-July
HEIGHT: 2 &1/2 feet
COLOR: red
NEEDS: full sun
- GOLDEN KNAPWEED (Centaurea macrocephala)
BLOOM: July
HEIGHT: 4 feet
COLOR: yellow
NEEDS: full sun
- SEA HOLLY (Eryngium spp)
BLOOM: July-August
HEIGHT: 2 feet
COLOR: blue
NEEDS: full sun
- HARDY GERANIUMS (Geranium spp)
BLOOM: May - September
HEIGHT: 12 to 15 inches
COLOR: blue, pink, white, red
NEEDS: full sun
- POTENTILLA (Potentilla spp)
BLOOM: June - frost
HEIGHT: 1 -3 feet
COLOR: pink, white, yellow, apricot
NEEDS: full sun to partial shade
- HOLLYHOCK (Alcea rosea)
BLOOM: July-September
HEIGHT: 4 - 9 feet
COLOR: pink, white, red, yellow, peach, purple
NEEDS: full sun
VEGETABLE GARDENERS:
BEETLES ON YOUR BEANS?
Look for the first ones about now: a tiny, yellow Mexican bean beetle larva. Examine the underside of leaves on your green bean plants, and suddenly there's one, then another, yet another and . . . . well, you get the drift. Ugh!
For those of you who grow green beans (43 percent of American gardeners do, according to USDA), we highly recommend you take a close look at your bean patch this week. Why? If you go away on vacation for a few days, you might return to find your green bean plants decimated. The Mexican bean beetle is one of the most persistent and destructive insects to be found in a vegetable garden. They can strip a plant down to the stem quickly.
The Mexican bean beetle is a spotted, brown or copper-colored beetle that attacks the leaves of young plants, leaving them with a skeletonized appearance before moving on to devour the beans themselves. The young insect is yellow and has a fuzzy appearance. The adult is about the size of the fingernail on your pinky finger — oval and no more than a quarter of an inch in length. The adult has 16 black spots on its back, which often leads to some confusion with lady beetles (a beneficial insect). Lady beetles, however, have a varying number of spots on their back, while the Mexican Bean Beetle always has 16.
There are several ways to prevent Mexican Bean Beetles from overwhelming your bean patch, including:
•Always till under crop residue at the end of harvest season. The adult beetles hibernate underneath collections of brush or debris.
•Plant green beans as early in the spring as possible so the beans will mature before beetles arrive on the scene in late June or early July.
•Check the undersides of bean leaves every third day for tiny yellow egg clusters. Crush larva and eggs with gloved fingers.
•The final resort is to treat plants with a registered insecticide. Organic growers often use rotenone, which generally comes as a dust, but some formulations can be mixed with water to spray. Be sure to spray underneath the leaves.
Thanks to Jeff Ishee at the Staunton Daily News Leader
Monterey, VA 24465
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