Gardeners enjoy the summer outdoors

    The recent warm weather and frequent rain have been a boon for plants and the gardeners who tend to them. Shelia Gerot is a woman who knows a thing or two about gardening. She is the president of Washington County Master Gardeners and boasts an array of plants in the gardens that surround her country home. Gerot grew up in a household with six siblings who feasted on homegrown vegetables.

    ?My mother always had a vegetable garden,? she said. ?We did a lot of canning. Gardening wasn?t fun at that time and there was a lot of weeding. Now it?s fun.?

    Gerot started planting her own fruits and vegetables in 1970 and has done it every year ever since.

    ?I was surprised when everything came up. I said, ?Oh, this is what we used to do at home!?? said Gerot.

    Gerot plants strawberries and raspberries, and over the years has expanded into flowers. Now she maintains several different flowerbeds with a wide variety of species. She has a flowerbed that curves around her house, and about four years ago she decided to make another flowerbed about 50 feet from her house so she could see the plants from inside her home.

    ?I had flowers around the house, and I read an article that said ?Why do people put flowers around their house if you can?t see them?? That?s why I planted my flowers away from my house,? said Gerot.

    Gerot commented that she spends a few hours every month in her flowerbed pulling weeds and ?deadheading? the plants, which refers to the removal of spent flowers to encourage more flowering. Many plants, including most annuals, will continue to bloom throughout the growing season if deadheaded.

    ?Sometimes you get a re-bloom if you trim the plant back,? she said. ?The Salvia (a kind of sage plant) was looking pretty shabby so I deadheaded it last week.?

    Norma Stutzman is another gardener with an impressive assortment of flowers spread across many flowerbeds. Stutzman said she is particularly fond of lilies, but also enjoys the sight of hostas, bee balms, chrysanthemums and poppies, just to name a few.

    ?Whatever plant is blooming at the moment is my favorite,? she said.

    At the beginning of the growing season, Stutzman anxiously awaits the efflorescence of spring bulbs, crocus and daffodils, which bloom early in the year. She said that daffodils start blooming nearly as soon as the snow recedes.

     Stutzman purchases most of her plants at a garden center. She finds a place in her garden for each plant, digs a small hole, and then inserts the plant along with fertilizer and compost to give the young plant nutrients. After that, she puts mulch around the plant to soak up moisture and to keep the weeds down.

    ?Mulch is good for keeping the roots cool when it?s hot,? said Stutzman. ?Clematis plants need cool roots, so I put a lot of mulch around them.?

    The healthy dose of rain the area received in recent weeks has relieved many gardeners of the need to water their plants individually. Stutzman said she waters her plants the first year they?re in the ground but doesn?t baby them after that.

    ?The mulch keeps the moisture in the soil so you don?t have to water the plants everyday,? she said.

    Stutzman also said that constantly watering plants prevents their roots from growing deeply into the soil, because the roots are content to remain shallow and soak up the water sent from above rather than to grow down farther into the soil where it is stored.

For more, see our June 24 print edition.