Gardening Has Not Been Canceled

Gardening here in Maryland has taken on new life. I've been lucky enough to work through this pandemic, but have spent much more time at home in late afternoons and evenings. Plants are flourishing; tomatoes are too abundant to use immediately after harvest.  Luckily, they're plum tomatoes, so I'll freeze them for use later. 

Two weeks before the harvest

 Summertime, as usual here in Maryland, flips between drought and tropical storm-induced heavy rains. A friend who lives in Southern Maryland has had 11 inches or more of rain this past week! Her fruit trees have floated up into her pasture, roots and all. Still, with all of its challenges, gardening gives us a nice break from the news of the day and allows us to nurture nature on our own terms. 

Walking through the garden center today, I've made plans for more planting. The vegetable garden gets a restart. I consider this season 3 in the garden. The first round in March-April was for peas, cole crops, and lettuce. Season 2---tomatoes, peppers, watermelon, and zucchini. Season 3 will include broccoli, lettuce, and beets in my own garden, planted in pots around the patio. 

Spinach, Swiss Chard and Lettuces

Great time to plant herbs too!

Coneflowers, hardy hibiscus, sedum, ornamental grasses, asters, and mums are a few things that can be planted and give the garden color for another couple of months. Rudbeckia, heliopsis, the aforementioned coneflowers, and coreopsis all feature daisy-shaped flowers with seed centers that birds will love long after the plants finish blooming. 

Hardy hibiscus blooms are dinner plate size

Ornamental grasses

Sedum a few weeks before color

Mums

Captivating coneflowers

Black-eyed Susans

Coneflowers

Pond plants are blooming too. Lotus, waterlilies, and cannas add color to the water garden. The Koi bring delight to everyone. Watching kids feed the koi with enthusiasm is a highlight at the big pond daily at 12:30. 

David topping off the ponds

Water gardens

During storms and times that it is just too hot outside, we move inside with houseplants. Decorating with plants is fun; choosing the right pot to go with our plant and inside spaces brings a bit of nature inside. 

The dracaena is on its way to a new home

Gardening was not canceled this year. We've met many new gardeners. Please use our resources, including signage, handouts, and knowledgeable people, many who are passionate gardeners themselves. 

Keep calm and garden on!

FAQs for Early Spring

Frequently asked questions by our customers come to us via phone and email all the time. All of us at Valley View Farms love to talk to customers who ask questions about everything from plant availability to day to day care of plants. Here are some of the questions that we are hearing a lot this year.

I planted a crepe myrtle last year and it hasn't started to leaf out yet. Should I be worried?

Crepe myrtles are slow to leaf out in early spring

No. Crepe myrtles are late bloomers and often will start to leaf out in later April into early May. People occasionally wish to prune crepe myrtles, maybe to force new growth, but we find that they do best growing in their natural state. They may certainly be pruned to remove dead branches or  any that may get in the way of a walkway or driveway.

Speaking of plants that are slow to emerge in the spring, hardy hibiscus also show growth later than many other perennials. Be patient; the new stems and leaves will be up later this spring.

When should I cut my mums back to encourage blooms in the fall?
 Mums should be cut back a few times to promote good branching and blooming. Easy to remember holidays, St. Patrick's Day, Mother's Day and the 4th of July, are ideal times to cut mums back to about 8 inches. Depending on the varieties planted, and, of course the weather, mums will bloom for 6-8weeks from September until November.

My hydrangeas have not bloomed well for the last few years. What can I do to encourage better bloom?

Look closely and you'll notice a few dead stems above the blue hydrangeas. Simply prune them off as leaves and blooms emerge.

 Hydrangeas do well in morning sun with some protection from the hot afternoon sun. There are several varieties that bloom on old wood and others that bloom on new wood. Pruning at the wrong time could impact the blooms on some varieties. Cold weather, especially late freezes for the last couple of years, may have hurt early blooms; plants will generally leaf out and bloom later in the season.

All sorts of weeds have emerged in and around my lawn this year. What is the best way to identify them and get them out of my lawn?

Mouse Ear Chickweed

 

Hairy Wintercress

Ground Ivy

Identifying the weeds is a good first step. University of Maryland Extension is a great resource for identification. Better yet, bring your problem weed to us to look at and we can discuss options for eliminating them using synthetic or natural controls. Bring a large coffee cup-sized soil sample as well. Simply correcting the pH of the soil is one way to help create a healthy lawn. Valley View Farms offers these services free of charge.

Several of my broadleaved evergreen shrubs have sections of browning and yellowing. What might be causing this damage?

It is hard to say without taking a closer look. Yellowing and browning can be caused by winter windburn, late season disease or insects, a dog doing his thing, and all sorts of other reasons. Bring in a large sample of the damage; we can put the branch under a microscope to look for pests and ask some questions to try to narrow down the problem and suggest a solution.

Is it safe, temperature wise, to plant my vegetable garden?


Hold off on planting tomatoes until all danger of frost is gone, usually about May 10 here in Cockeysville. Look for our Tomato Tornado on the last weekend of April for a selection of 70 varieties. Before and after the "tornado" lands, we will have 40 varieties available.

Cole crops, like broccoli, cabbage, collards and Brussels sprouts are ready to go out in the garden. Ours have been hardened off to withstand colder temperatures. Peas, onions, carrots and other cold hardy plants can be planted now as well. Wait until later in April or May, depending on where you live, to plant tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squashes and cucumbers.

We will continue to add questions and answers to this blog for the next week or two.  Feel free to leave a question in the comments. For the quickest reply, call our garden center at 410-527-0700. Our receptionist will get you to the right person to check on availability or answer your question.