YORKTON - Our garden tasks change as the season progresses. Now we work to pick veggies that are ready, do weeding, and maintain our plants.
Part of that maintenance is deadheading. It’s a task that we might do every second day, once a week, or just once in a while…but it is important! Deadheading keeps our plants looking neat and at their best; it helps the plant to remove dried-out leaves and flowers so that the plant’s energy goes into new growth rather than making seeds; and it encourages new blooms or in the case of veggies, new crop.
That last reason is very important. Deadheading is removing flowers that are finished blooming. We do this because once a plant blooms, and sets seed, it thinks that it has finished its job, and will start to decline. If you keep removing the spent blooms, the plant thinks it still has work to do to produce seed, and so it keeps on blooming. As gardeners, we want our plants to put their energy into making blooms, not seeds…not at this time of the year, anyway.
And with veggies, well, think of a row of beans. Picture it: one day there are lovely beans dangling on the plants, just waiting to be picked. If we don’t go out there and pick them, they will get past their peak, start to dry up, and eventually they will be too tough to enjoy. But more importantly, the plant will not be producing a nice new crop while those other beans are there. We may get a few new beans, but not the ‘lush rush’ of new growth that will come after we pick the beans thoroughly. Once again, the plant thinks that it has done what it was supposed to do, produce beans, and if we don’t pick them, it will stop producing.
From the beauty point of view, at this time of year, some plants might start to look a little bedraggled, and with a lot of heat and little rain, who can blame them. The heat makes us gardeners look bedraggled some days, too! Pinching off any spent blooms, dried up leaves, or even gangly stems on our plants will make a big difference to their appearance. There is still plenty of time left for the plants to renew and rejuvenate themselves, with our help!
I know sometimes we get plants that say “no deadheading required”. But for the amount of time it takes to deadhead them, it really does make a difference.
So there we have it: an important task to add to our gardening list, but an important task in terms of appearance, health, and productivity of our plants!
A quick note: this is a special year for some members of our hort society, for various reasons. We wish you health, happiness, and every good thing from above. We are blessed to have your friendship, and have you in the hort group. God bless you! Mnohaya Lita!
Thank you to our friends at YTW for their great work, no matter what the weather! Gardeners, visit the hort society at www.yorktonhort.ca and have a great week!
