All of April’s severe weather added up to a pretty wet month. The month’s total precipitation totaled 7 ¼-inches! Average is 3 ¾. With the exception of a small corner of northwest Wisconsin, the state is no longer showing any drought conditions. All of the gardens that I see on my way to the Garden Center every morning are lush green and bursting into bloom! If we could only stop the nights from flirting with frost, it would be a perfect spring!
Many gardeners use Mother’s Day weekend as permission from Mother Nature to plant all of their tender annuals and vegetables. And even though the Celebration of all things Mom is on track this year, keep your ears tuned to your favorite forecaster. Cool weather flowers like pansies and osteospermum will weather temps close to 30 with a light cover, as will members of the cabbage family. But if you succumbed to temptation and purchased some begonias or geraniums, all bets are off. Night temperatures below 45 degrees means bringing pots in close to the house and covering tender bedding plants like coleus, fuchsia and sweet potato vine, and warm weather veggies like tomatoes, peppers and basil. If those temps fall below 40, bring those same plants into the house or garage.
Luckily there isn’t much to do with your perennials other than to sit back and watch them grow. And except for early blooming specimens like bleeding hearts and primrose, planting and transplanting most of them shouldn’t be a problem. Just remember to avoid moving or dividing your plants while they are flowering.
Many gardeners find it tricky to predict which pests will be having banner year. But you can always count on slugs and earwigs. Hosta are a favorite and they’ll munch big holes in those luscious leaves overnight. There are tons of remedies for slugs, including the ever-popular stale beer trap, as well as products like Sluggo Plus, also effective against those prehistoric-looking earwigs, or Bug-Geta. Both are available in the Garden Center.
It’s also getting close to the time that we see Zimmerman Pine Sawfly larvae feeding on mugo pines. They’ll strip last year’s needles to the stem, seemingly overnight. As they don’t consume the new growth, your plants will be fine long term, but they look really silly. Now that the pink saucer magnolias are in bloom, it’s time to treat the larvae with Eight, or for an organic option, try Captain Jacks.
No matter the weather, one insect population or another is guaranteed to get out of hand. Soft-bodied bugs like aphids and lacewings are often washed off plants by a good, strong thunderstorm. It’s too soon to tell if there will be significant problems, but it doesn’t hurt to keep your eyes open. Watch your indicator plants. Roses, linden trees and hibiscus for instance, are all favorites of Japanese beetles. When you spot the pests, you can treat more broadly. Susceptible ornamental trees and shrubs can be dosed with a systemic product. Trees and shrubs that bear any kind of fruit should be treated differently. You don’t want any pesticides accumulating in the fruit. Keep systemic products away from dogwood, crabapple, viburnum and serviceberry, as well as the plants we consider fruit-bearing for ourselves.
And find some space in your garden for butterfly-attracting plants. The swallowtails love bronze fennel. There are lots of general butterfly magnets like liatris and coneflowers. Butterflies emerged from winter dormancy early this year and are hungry! Or try a butterflybush. They’re famous for their fragrant, non-stop flower power. Grow them as tender perennials or pot them in containers as spectacular annuals.
The Old Farmers Almanac is predicting a cooler, wetter summer for the upper great lakes region. But it doesn’t hurt to be prepared for all kinds of weather. Typically, we see dry spells develop in late June or early July, so keep those hoses and sprinkles at hand. Soak anything that you planted late last year and top off that layer of mulch. Of course, any newly planted trees and shrubs require about one inch of water a week to ensure establishment. This is a practice that you will need to monitor until the ground freezes in November. Nobody enjoys watching a plant die from neglect.