Pretty flowers, lush landscapes beckon
It is fun to drive through neighborhoods and to see so many pretty yards, flower beds, decorative containers and vegetable gardens. With so many folks spending more time at home this year and the blessings of a few rains in July and August, we have some the prettiest August flowers in recent memory.
It is a special blessing to watch the seeds or small transplants you planted in the spring as they grow into full plants and produce a gorgeous show of flowers or fresh vegetables. If you have invested some time into pulling weeds or mulching and provided refreshing, life-sustaining water when needed, there is a good chance you are experiencing gardening success this year.
Enjoy your own yard, and take time to walk or drive through your neighborhood and public gardens to enjoy the natural beauty that surrounds us and to get ideas for future plantings and landscaping.
If you didn't get planted this spring, we still have about 10 weeks until our first killing frost. Nurseries and garden centers still have a good selection of plants you can plant out to liven up your yard for family events or just your own personal enjoyment. Many growers have been growing larger sizes of annuals or pre-planted combination pots or decorative containers that you can buy and place for immediate color and enjoyment.
You also can plant container-grown trees, shrubs and perennials to get established this fall and then to provide color, impact and shade for years to come. Just remember new plantings need more watering than established plantings that have developed a bigger root system and are rooted deeper into the soil.
When we garden in Oklahoma in the summer, our biggest challenges are usually watering and weeding. The watering has not been as challenging this year as some summers as we have received some nicely timed natural rains. This has helped the desired plants and the weeds both do better than normal in many cases leading to more weeding unless you did a nice job of mulching. Mulching the top of your soil with 2 or inches of bark, straw or hulls will reduce your watering by up to half and will dramatically reduce weed pressure.
If you didn't mulch or use a pre-emergent weed control, or both, you pretty much need to just get on your knees and pull the weeds to keep them from competing with your plants for precious resources of water, sunlight and food. Think of weed pulling as meditation time, and start pulling.
We are in the final days of prime planting for fall vegetable crops like cabbage, cauliflower, collards, kale, kohlrabi, leek, onions and greens peas to get a harvest before hard freezes. We still can start some of the more semi-hardy vegetables like radish, turnips, rutabaga, garlic and leafy veggies like mustard, spinach and Swiss chard now or over the next month or so. Some crops like lettuce can be sown later if we protect them with cold frames or row covers when the frosts arrive.
Take time to smell the roses and all the other pretty flowers, and keep planting so there are fresh vegetables and pretty flowers in your future.