Fresh Color for Containers

By the end of July, many people start to see their container plantings looking run down. Whether it was the neighbor kid who forgot to water while you were on vacation or your own forgetfulness in fertilizing, something happened along the way that made your plants look tired. If you think your plants are beyond rescuing, try sprucing them up with some fresh color!

Daylilies are great additions to containers and will give you abundant color all through summer and into early autumn. Available in literally hundreds of colors and textures, you're sure to find a variety that goes with your style. At Vander Giessen's, our daylilies are all just $8.99, but with our sale going on right now, you can take any variety home for only $6.99 each.

Stop in soon to check out the unique and beautiful varieties of daylily in stock!

Tips to Keep Your Yard Looking Great

Finally, it’s here—summer weather! After a seemingly interminably wet June, July has given us a good share of sunny, warm days. As you take advantage of the nicer weather to enjoy more time out in your yard, it’s important that you also keep up on some maintenance of your lawn and flowerbeds to keep things looking their best. Here are a few easy tips to keep your yard looking great. 

First, with warmer temperatures come weeds. Actually, weeds will grow in just about any weather (if only your flowers would too, right?), but sunny, warm days will promote faster growth. If you’re not careful, weeds will quickly reseed themselves—and then you’ve got a real problem! 

In your flowerbeds, there are a couple of simple fixes to weeds: regular hoeing or bark mulch. If you like the look of bare dirt, grab a Hula-Ho and get to work. Unlike traditional hoes, you’ll find a Hula-Ho much more effective in killing weeds—and with a lot less work, since you won’t find yourself dragging dirt around with every pass. Check out the Hula-Ho at Vander Giessen's--for just $15.99, it's a great deal on a great tool. If you choose bark mulch, not only will you have fewer weeds to pull, the bark will help your soil hold more moisture as well.

For a good portion of the year, maintaining your yard serves only to benefit the view from your front windows, but in summer you can finally enjoy playing on a thriving green lawn. To keep your grass looking great, water every other day, keeping in mind that less frequent, deeper watering is better than frequent but shallow irrigation. Additionally, the best time to water is at sunrise to minimize evaporation. Lawns watered at night tend to stay damp until morning and will be susceptible to diseases that thrive on cool, damp grass. 

With summer vacations and fun activities keeping you busy, you may not think to fertilize your lawn; however, grass should still be fed to keep it lush underfoot. Store-brand or generic fertilizers may be attractive in price, but without the proper blend of micronutrients, they can’t deliver the same results that a professional-grade product will. For a healthy lawn, apply Scotts fertilizers—at Vander Giessen's, we can advise on the blend to best suit your needs. 

Speaking of lawns, you may have noticed that with all the rain in June, your yard has developed, let’s say, a little more “biodiversity.” In short, you’ve got weeds. At the nursery, we’ve grown to love the Bayer line of garden products for quality and reliability, and their lawn weed killers are no exception. Compared to granular weed control products, the Bayer liquid sprays are much more effective in killing weeds. For the best weed-killing results, spray weeds a day or two before mowing to maximize the amount of leaf surface area you spray—the bigger the weeds, the easier they are to kill!

Now, for plants—after all, this is summer, so you deserve to have some fun finding homes for new treasures. But is summer safe for planting? Of course! Given adequate water, plants will root out quickly in the warm soil. Make watering easy by building a small dam around the base of newly-planted shrubs and trees so that when you water, you fill up a reservoir at each plant that can slowly soak into the ground. Additionally, use Vitamin B1—available at Vander Giessen's for just $3.99/quart—to reduce transplant stress and promote rapid and healthy root development. In no time you’ll have flourishing, well-established plants. 

With July’s long days and abundant sun, make the most of this great month to enjoy your garden and the beauty it provides.

Q&A: My dogwood has curled leaves--what's wrong?

Q: Why does my dogwood have curled leaves? Is there a disease or insect problem I should be worried about?

A: Dogwoods very commonly exhibit curled leaves in summer, so chances are you don't have too much to worry about. If you've planted your dogwood tree in the last 2-3 years, this is completely normal--your tree simply hasn't gotten its roots system completely established. Typically within 5 years of transplanting, you'll see the majority of leaf curl diminish.

Leaf curl on dogwoods is essentially a protective reaction to stress the tree feels. Rather than keep its leaves flat and susceptible to burning in the summer sun, dogwoods curl their leaves to minimize leaf surface area and thus minimize any damage they might receive.

If you have a dogwood showing significant leaf curl throughout the summer 5 years or longer beyond when you planted it, keep these tips in mind:

• Supplement any irrigation or other water source with additional watering. Turn a garden hose on to a trickle and let it run at the base of the tree twice a week for half an hour during hot weather. This will direct water straight down into the root system and alleviate stress.
• Use Vitamin B-1 (available inexpensively at Vander Giessen's) twice a month through the summer to reduce stress and promote vigorous rooting.
• If you have very well-drained soil, great! Better that than heavy soil that holds too much moisture. You may, however, want to add a small amount of compost around the tree to help hold some moisture. Additionally, you can spread bark mulch around the base of the tree to keep the soil from drying out.
• Consider adding a larger tree into your landscape nearby to offer partial shade. In our area, dogwoods typically do fine in full sun, but if your tree is planted in a hot, full-sun location, it might benefit from some afternoon shade. 

These tips are useful for younger dogwoods as well--don't feel like you have to wait 5 years to start implementing them! Usually, though, dogwoods will adapt very well to any location after a few years, so don't worry too much if your new tree looks stressed. Just be sure to offer it some TLC and it will reward you with years of beautiful spring or early-summer blooms!

Wordless Wednesday

Hosta 'June' -- $2.00 off!

Blueberries: Great Fruit, Great Shrub

Have you seen the price of blueberries in the stores? Even during the summer when we can get them fresh from the local farms, they're not the cheapest food to buy. Why not grow your own?

While some fruits may be more hassle to grow than you care to deal with, blueberries are incredibly easy to grow in your yard--and beside the great fruit they offer in summer, they're a great landscaping shrub.

Right now, many of our blueberry bushes are loaded with fruit starting to ripen. For the price of a basket of berries in the store, you can take home a whole shrub that will give you loads of berries for decades to come!

Also, all of our edibles--berries, grapes, fruit trees, rhubarb and herbs--are currently on sale (Buy 2, Get 1 FREE!), so you can get blueberry bushes for your yard at an even greater price than normal.

Take advantage of the great fruit and seasonal interest that blueberry bushes can provide for your yard today--you'll love picking your own fresh berries in summer and be thrilled with the fall color and winter interest the shrubs provide as well.