Gardening tips for tomatoes, fuchsia baskets, and shady or hot spots
Near the end of June, tomato plants will need secure stakes as they reach for the sky and become heavy with fruit.
Tomato cages may work for shorter growing plants called determinate varieties, but for the indeterminate or taller growing tomatoes, pound a sturdy stake into the ground and tie the main stem to the stake with strips of soft cloth or cut up nylon stockings. You can also circle the plant with three stakes and corral the stems with circles of cloth strips.
In some climates, tomato plants are allowed to just sprawl on the ground to shade the soil, but in our cool, wet climate, keeping your tomato plants off the ground cuts back on disease and insect damage.
Q. I would like to grow some perennials that return every year in a shaded part of my garden. What are the best perennials for a lazy gardener? — W.S., Olympia
A. You’ve got it made in the shade if you plant hellebores for winter and early spring color, brunnera for May blooms and summer foliage, and fill in the area with lamiums, pulmonarias and shade tolerant bulbs such as dwarf daffodils and anemone nervosa. The burnnera is more slug resistant than hosta and all of the above can handle a bit of drought should you go away for a few weeks in the summer.
Improving your soil with compost or leaf mold before adding the plants is the number one way to ensure success for your new shade garden. A mulch of bark chips on top of the roots will help to block weeds and seal in moisture.
Q. I received a hanging fuchsia basket as a gift for Mother’s Day. Well, I may have lost my mothering skills because this once-beautiful basket of flowers now looks half dead. One side of the basket has brown and yellow leaves and the other side is looking bad as well. The flowers have mostly fallen off. Can you help? — B.M., Bonney Lake
A. The most common plant parenting mistake for fuchsia baskets is allowing them to be scorched by the sun or damaged by the cold, failure to keep the soil moist or forgetting to fertilize and deadhead the faded blooms.
In your case I am going to guess that the yellow side of the basket is the half in the hot sun. If so, just move the basket to a fully shaded spot, cut back the bloomless branches by about a third and fertilize with a liquid plant food until you see signs of new growth.
You may also have let the soil dry out. Fuchsias may need water daily. Cold night temps back in May also damaged some hanging baskets so clip off any discolored leaves to encourage new growth.
Q. What small tree would you recommend for an area that gets hot sun and has lousy soil with a lot of rocks. (My dogwood tree died the first year.) — S.C., Tacoma
A. Where there is fiery, hot heat, plant a smoke tree or Cotinus Coggygria. This small, shrub-like tree has either deep purple, green or bright gold foliage, depending on what variety you purchase. In mid summer, it sends up plumes of airy, pale blooms that dry in clusters like plumes of smoke.
You can cut a smoke tree to the ground each spring to keep it compact or let it grow taller to about 15 feet. The smoke tree thrives in lean soil and full sun.
One more tip: When removing faded blooms, be sure to snip off the seed pod or berry just behind the joint of the flower petals.