Time to start those summer chores

Lately, I haven’t been doing much gardening because of the heat, but have managed to get a few things done. My bearded irises put on a fantastic display this year, which meant I had a lot of deadheading to do. The daffodil leaves are finally drying out, so I pulled those. I even edged a lawn with trowel, shovel and spading fork.

Deadheading sounds ruthless, but is simply the removal of spent flowers so the plant’s energy doesn’t go to making seeds. With the irises, I cut the flower stalk all the way down to the bottommost leaf. I will remove that stalk back to the ground in the fall, but allowing that extra leaf to remain during the growing season means more food production for the plants. That provides extra food storage through the winter giving the irises extra strength for magnificent blooms next year.

The same food production and food storage concept holds true for the daffodils. While I did cut back the flower stalks weeks ago, I never cut the leaves down while they are still green. My friend Roni ties all her declining daffodil leaves into a tidy knot and then removes them once they have dried up. I’m not that orderly, so I just let the leaves go, pulling them out as they dry up.

Edging the lawn sounds pretty ambitious, but what I actually mean is digging up all of the grass that was escaping into the flower and shrub bed. It’s not the kind of edging one does with a motorized trimmer or with hand edgers. Those may trim the grass neatly, but they do not eliminate the stems that spread and grow unwanted throughout a flower bed. Some people might spray those marauding stems with herbicide, but I actually prefer just sitting there with my trowel and digging the dang grass out. I usually loosen the soil first with the shovel or the spading fork. But, in many locations in my yard, the tree roots prevent the use of a shovel. It’s a tedious time-consuming task, but I only do it for an hour or so a day. Sitting in the shade, digging in moist organic-rich soil filled with earthworms is its own reward.

Of course, mowing never ends. Neither does watering. Weeding is an additional constant, but I generally pull a few weeds whenever I wander through the yard, particularly when I see morning glory coming up. A gardener is never bored!

JoAnne Skelly is Associate Professor & Extension Educator Emerita at the University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. Email skellyj@unr.edu