Today Changed Everything! A Full Days Work in the Garden Preparing for Our June Garden Tour!

It’s the middle of June here in my home garden, East Tennessee zone 7B. We just got back from a week at the beach and the gardens have exploded! It’s time to tidy things up, take care of some pruning, fertilizing, watering, and overall maintenance in the garden. I finally decided to cut back my hollyhocks completely and dispose of the foliage after giving those pesky bugs a chance. I wanted to see if they would actually damage the plant and boy did they ever! They completely sucked the life out of all the buds killing them before they ever had a chance to bloom! Twice Stabbed Stink Bugs are not your friends people! After taking care of that little problem I got busy pruning and weeding all throughout the cottage garden. Everything was large and in charge and taking over so it was definitely time to take back the reigns and get the garden back in beautiful order. I had to pull lots of delphinium, cut back some foxglove, rip out some bachelor bottoms, prune back some roses and give a general sweep through the garden making sure everything looked just right. My wisteria vine over the pergola is in full out growing mode so I pinned back some vines to help get it under control. The Shasta daisies are in full bloom and although quite lovely, they were taking over some Sting Arborvitae Trees and my Little Lime Punch hydrangeas so I had to pull quite a few of those to give breathing room to some of my more prized plants, shrubs and trees. I cut back my butterfly bush near the formal garden and went ahead and fertilized a big portion of my hydrangeas with Holly-Tone organic fertilizer. I ran out before I could finish the job, but glad I was able to fertilize the Summer Crush, Little Hottie, White Wedding, Blushing Bride, Bloomstruck, Pop Star, Little Lime and Bobo Hydrangeas around the house. I went around and watered all of my containers on the porch and in front of the garage and decided to do a good cutback of my pansies to see if they get some life back to them. I know Pansies are a cool weather flower, but I’ve not had time to replace them with a Summer Flower Combo yet, so we shall see if this puts a pep back in their step until I can get around to updating their containers. I dug up a HUGE clump of Shasta daisies in front of the house at the end of the day and boy am I wore out! I also show you how much smaller and more manageable a different clump of Shasta daisies are after giving them the Chelsea Chop earlier this Spring. It definitely worked to keep them from getting out of hand and they aren’t flopping like the ones I didn’t cut back. Such a great learning experience for me! Now after a hard days work in the garden, I’m ready to bring you my June Garden Tour! Yaaaaaayyyy!!! Coming Saturday! Stay Tuned! ‪@pwcolorchoice‬ ‪@FirstEditionsShrubsTrees‬ ‪@SouthernLivingPlants‬ ‪@EndlessSummerHydrangeasEU‬