Gardening Guides
Great Lakes Gardener's June Checklist
Hear the berries beckoning? Pluck them while enjoying the wealth of garden blossoms and maybe kicking out a few bugs this month
Summer hits the Great Lakes garden in June. There are garden walks, graduation parties and weddings in gardens full of blooms. The first goodies from the garden are ready to eat, but beware of bugs and diseases beginning to show up too.
The best bets for roses in the Great Lakes garden are disease-resistant shrub and climbing roses, such as this ultrahardy Canadian Explorer series 'John Cabot' (Rosa 'John Cabot'). Make sure to purchase own-root roses in case of winter dieback.
The standard rule for clematises is to grow them with their heads in the sun and their feet in the shade, which means heavily mulching the roots. This maxim is true for most of them, including this Clematis 'Viola'.
The rule does not hold for some paler-hued clematises, such as 'Silver Moon' (shown), 'Evipo023' Cezanne and 'Bees' Jubilee', which would be washed out in full sun. They should be grown in partial shade.
June is also prime time for bellfowers (here Campanula persicifolia 'Blue-Eyed Blonde' with Clematis 'Evipo023' Cezanne), although many of them continue to bloom throughout the summer.
While the big show is over in the shade garden, there are still blooms to be found. Goatsbeard (Aruncus sp), Astilbe, masterwort (Astrantia spp) and the mophead hydrangeas (here Hydrangea macrophylla 'Bailmer' Endless Summer and 'Penny Mac') brighten up shady corners. Hydrangeas bloom pink in the alkaline soil of most Great Lakes gardens. Adding an acidifying fertilizer can make them bluer.
In addition to exotic old favorites, there are beautiful, lesser-known natives blooming in June. In shade Indian pink (Spigelia marilandica) provides a dash of color. It is visited by hummingbirds.
In the sunny garden are purple poppy mallow (Callirhoe involucrata, shown), wild petunia (Ruellia humilis) and prairie smoke (Geum triflorum).
Milkweeds, such as this purple milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens) do double duty for Monarch butterflies, providing food for larvae and nectar for mature butterflies.
Edible Gardening
Cool-season crops are ready to be harvested, and the first fruits of the season, strawberries (Fragaria spp.\) and blueberries (here Vaccinum 'Northsky') are beckoning. In our alkaline soils, it's easiest to grow blueberries in a container, where the acidity of the soil can be controlled.
Cool-season crops are ready to be harvested, and the first fruits of the season, strawberries (Fragaria spp.\) and blueberries (here Vaccinum 'Northsky') are beckoning. In our alkaline soils, it's easiest to grow blueberries in a container, where the acidity of the soil can be controlled.
Garden Tasks
Cut lavender stalks (here Lavandula angustifolia 'Hidcote') when buds swell but before the flowers open for drying. The dried buds can be used to make sachets, wreaths and simple syrup.
Watch for bugs. Whether you have to worry about them depends on what you grow. Columbine sawfly larvae defoliate columbines quickly if uncontrolled, and pine sawfly larvae demolish new growth on pines. Japanese beetles feast on roses, clematises and coneflower blooms.
Use biological or mechanical control methods rather than heading for the insecticide. There might be a high "yuck" factor, but removing pests by hand can be effective. You might not get all the pests without using insecticides, but a few marred blooms are worth the price of having butterflies and pollinators in your garden.
Deadheading spent blooms can extend the blooming time of many flowers and provide for a more attractive display. Pay close attention to blooms and foliage for the first signs of disease and treat affected plants promptly. Pinch mums (Chrysanthemum spp) and tall asters (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae and laeve) to stagger bloom time and to shape, leaving the tallest stems in the center and back.
Cut lavender stalks (here Lavandula angustifolia 'Hidcote') when buds swell but before the flowers open for drying. The dried buds can be used to make sachets, wreaths and simple syrup.
Watch for bugs. Whether you have to worry about them depends on what you grow. Columbine sawfly larvae defoliate columbines quickly if uncontrolled, and pine sawfly larvae demolish new growth on pines. Japanese beetles feast on roses, clematises and coneflower blooms.
Use biological or mechanical control methods rather than heading for the insecticide. There might be a high "yuck" factor, but removing pests by hand can be effective. You might not get all the pests without using insecticides, but a few marred blooms are worth the price of having butterflies and pollinators in your garden.
- Columbine sawfly larvae can be squished between gloved fingers.
- Shake pine sawfly larvae and Japanese beetles into a bucket of soapy water.
- Japanese beetles are more sluggish in the morning and will fall into the bucket rather than fly away; later in the day they'll fly. If they appear only in the afternoon and early evening, catch them by shaking them into a gloved hand, then squish them.
- The ugliest of the creepy crawlies are earwigs, which damage the blooms of many plants. Place rolled-up newspaper sealed at one end under the affected plants at night. In the morning dump out the earwigs hiding within into a bucket of soapy water.
Deadheading spent blooms can extend the blooming time of many flowers and provide for a more attractive display. Pay close attention to blooms and foliage for the first signs of disease and treat affected plants promptly. Pinch mums (Chrysanthemum spp) and tall asters (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae and laeve) to stagger bloom time and to shape, leaving the tallest stems in the center and back.
The June garden is filled with old-fashioned, romantic favorites: peonies (here Paeonia lactiflora 'Port Royale'), lilies, irises, wisteria (Wisteria frutescens or macrostachys), foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), pinks (Dianthus spp), cranesbill (Geranium spp), Penstemon, lady's mantle (Alchemilla spp), roses and clematis.