Summer hits on the Fantastic Lakes garden in June. There are garden walks, graduation parties and weddings in gardens full of blooms. The first goodies from the backyard are prepared to consume, but beware of diseases and bugs starting to appear too.
Barbara Pintozzi
June Blooms
The June backyard is full of 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, woman’s mantle (Alchemilla spp), roses and clematis.
Barbara Pintozzi
The best bets for roses in the Great Lakes backyard are disease-resistant shrub and climbing roses, such as this ultrahardy Canadian Explorer series ‘John Cabot’ (Rosa ‘John Cabot’). Be certain to purchase own-root roses in case of winter dieback.
Barbara Pintozzi
The standard rule for clematises is to grow them with their heads from sunlight and their feet in the shade, which means greatly mulching the roots. This maxim is true for the majority of them, including this Clematis ‘Viola’.
Barbara Pintozzi
The rule doesn’t hold for some paler-hued clematises, for example as ‘Silver Moon’ (revealed), ‘ ‘Evipo023’ Cezanne and ‘Bees’ Jubilee’, that would be washed out in full sun. They should be grown in partial shade.
Barbara Pintozzi
June can be prime time for bellfowers (here Campanula persicifolia ‘Blue-Eyed Blonde’ with Clematis ‘Evipo023’ Cezanne), though lots of them continue to bloom throughout the summer.
Barbara Pintozzi
While the major show is finished from the shade garden, you will find still blooms available. Goatsbeard (Aruncus sp), Astilbe, masterwort (Astrantia spp)and also the mophead hydrangeas (here Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Bailmer’ Endless Summer and ‘Penny Mac’) brighten up shady corners. Hydrangeas bloom pink in the alkaline soil of the majority of Great Lakes gardens. Adding an acidifying fertilizer can make them bluer.
Barbara Pintozzi
In addition to exotic old favorites, you will find beautiful, lesser-known natives blooming in June. In shade Indian pink (Spigelia marilandica) supplies a dash of colour. It’s visited by hummingbirds.
Barbara Pintozzi
In the sunny garden are purple poppy mallow (Callirhoe involucrata, revealed), wild petunia (Ruellia humilis) along with prairie smoke (Geum triflorum).
Barbara Pintozzi
Milkweeds, such as this purple milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens) do dual duty for Monarch butterflies, providing food for larvae and nectar for mature butterflies.
Barbara Pintozzi
Edible Gardening
Cool-season crops are ready to be harvested, and the first fruits of this 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 could be controlled.
Barbara Pintozzi
Garden Tasks
Cut lavender stalks (here Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’) when buds swell but before the blossoms open for drying. The dried buds can be utilized to create sachets, wreaths and simple syrup.
Watch for germs. Whether you have to worry about them depends on which you grow. Columbine sawfly larvae defoliate columbines fast if uncontrolled, and pine sawfly larvae demolish new growth on pines. Japanese beetles feast on roses, clematises and coneflower blooms.
Use mechanical or biological control methods instead of heading for the insecticide. There might be a high “yuck” factor, but removing pests by hand could be effective. You may not get all the pests without using insecticides, but some marred blooms are worth the price of getting butterflies and pollinators in your backyard.
Columbine sawfly larvae could be squished between gloved fingers. Shake pine sawfly larvae and Japanese beetles to a bucket of soapy water. Japanese beetles are more lethargic in the morning and will fall in the bucket instead of fly later from the day they’ll fly. If they look just in the afternoon and early evening, grab them by shaking them in a gloved hand, then squish them. The ugliest of the creepy crawlies are earwigs, which damage the blooms of many plants. Place rolled-up paper sealed in one end below the affected crops at night. In the morning dump out the earwigs hiding inside into a bucket of soapy water. Finish planting perennials until the warmth of summer kicks in. If it gets too hot and dry, proceed purchased plants to a bigger container in partial shade to be planted in fall.
Deadheading spent blooms can extend the flowering time of many blossoms and supply for a more appealing display. Pay careful attention to blooms and foliage for the first signs of disease and treat affected crops promptly. Pinch mums (Chrysanthemum spp) and tall asters (Symphyotrichum novae-angliae and laeve) to stagger bloom time and also to shape, leaving the tallest stalks in the center and rear.