June chores:

I'm done planting my landscape so there is just the daily maintenance to do.

Weeding. I'm using round-up in a small squirt bottle to handle some of the weeds that I can't hand pull.

Spraying. Once a month, I treat my azaleas for lace bug. I've already sprayed my apples, just as the last petal dropped from the tree. That was two weeks ago, time for another treatment. Around Fathers Day, I'll have to treat the arborvitae, juniper and spruce for bag worm. Bag worm will also make nests on Japanese Maples.

Pruning. As my spring flowering trees and shrubs have dropped their petals, it's time to give them a trim. I prune in a natural manner, never in shapes from kindergarten class.

Fertilizing. Annuals and Vegetables are the big feeders in the garden. I use miracle grow on them. The perennials I use a slow release granular fertilizer. In the spring I fed my shrubs with Epsom salts that is rich in magnesium. Magnesium is a micro nutrient that aids in the overall health of the plant. You can sprinkle Epsom salts in your vegetable and annual beds too as you plant as sort of a boost.

General Cleaning. Keeping the garden free of clutter is the icing on the cake. Recycle your plastic nursery pots, wrap up that hose, clean and put your tools away, get piles of debris into the compost pile, pick up sticks... sounds like another job! phew. Enough of this blog post!

Small Watergardens
Making sure your water garden is healthy is not much of problem when you have a good balance of fish and plants.
The fish help eat the algae and the plants remove the harmful toxins that the fish produce doing so. A fountain or waterfall provides enough oxygen to the water to benefit both.
I make it a weekly routine to make sure everything is running properly and debris is somewhat cleaned out of the pond.
Ponds do have their challenges even when you've reached a healthy balance. Namely predators.
Ponds do attract a wide variety of amphibians, reptiles and other creepy crawlies. This week I noticed a garder snake that is trying to eat my smaller fish. Hiding in the rocks, it is nearly impossible to get rid of it. Setting a minnow trap in the pond with some tuna is one solution. At least it's in a place where it can't escape.
For larger ponds, herons can come in and feast on your fish. Stringing wires across your pond is a good deterrent. I've even heard of one pond having a snapping turtle visit it, completely wiping out the fish and frogs. Turtles can be trapped and moved out.
Box turtles and others are harmless and will help clean the pond of algae. Frogs are nice to have around too because they can eat insects and slugs. If your fish are big enough, they will feed on the frog eggs and poly wogs.
Ponds are a 24/7 nature program right in your back yard.

Pavers and stone blend well together.

Shown here is a fire pit and boulder seat wall that was installed by Sunrise Landscape here in the Harrisburg area.

As I mentioned before, seat walls are a super design element that helps enclose a garden as well as functions as informal seating around patios, firepits, or other design accents.

Even if you have a simple island bed in your yard, an 18 inch high wall like this provides comfortable seating. In a planted island, you can mound the opposite side of the wall to add dimension to your landscape.

Pondless waterfeatures are a nice accent for your garden. This bubbling urn overflows into a basin that is sunken under the stones. Kits like these are becoming more and more available at fine garden centers. Installed by the folks at Sunrise Landscapes here in the Harrisburg area, this homeowner had us install the urn fountain with a wire gazebo that supports Wisteria vines. The shade keeps the water from evaporating as much. If you look closely, notice the natural stone patio and seat wall. This provides seating as well as enclosure for this garden.

Quince

This is an old fashioned large shrub that comes in a multitude of colors. Orange, red, pink, apricot, and peach. It is tough as nails. It is clad with nails! Large spikes of thorns. Guess what! Deer don't touch them. It never dies, no matter what. I use Quince in areas like hillsides that aren't often traveled. Quince is not a plant where children may play around.

I'm sorry to say that this spring beauty is often forgotten by June until it blooms again in April. If you have a large property and have an area you want to just "fill in" pick Quince. It makes a nice barrier screen. Like... keeping the neighbors-out-of- your-yard-barrier. (Another plant that is good at that is Hardy Orange (Ponicerus). It is impenetrable!. Under plant Quince with shrub roses and barberry and whoa! You'll have a mire of brilliant color from April until October.

Magnolia lilifolium 'Elizabeth'

This is the most popular yellow flowering Magnolia. It will bloom around the same time as the saucer magnolia. Which is just after the star Magnolia (Magnolia stellata) and before the sweet bay and seibold Magnolia.

Like all the other Magnolias, Elizabeth does well in many soil situations but if you have a little bit of a wet spot, It will flourish. This one I found near a natural stream.

I have only had to deal with scale on my magnolia. It's a hump shaped bug that looks like a wart on the branches. You can tell you have scale if you see a multitude of bees, flies and ants that feed on the "honeydew" the scale bug excredes. Treatment for scale is easy! Neem insecticidal soap works just as well as sevin. They are tender little things.

I digress, the Elizabeth Magnolia is stunning all by itself in the yard. It's a smallish tree like the Star Magnolia and can accentuate a nook along the side of your house. The upright branching lends itself to being planted around a patio or a walkway. The root system of the magnolia in general is non intrusive.

Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)

This tree is a relative of the great redwood tree. It is one of three genus of conifer that sheds it's needles in the winter. The others are Tamarax and Larix (Larch).

Like the Tamarax and Larix, the Dawn Redwood does just fine in wet soils as well as any other soil. Versitile! Make sure you have plenty of room for this giant! Never prune it. The branch structure lends to the beauty of the tree. The Dawn Redwood also is clad with reddish brown bark that is most evident in the winter.

In this photo, the soft green needles are just breaking out. It's truely an all season plant. If you can swing it, Dawn Redwoods planted in a grove will take your breath away.