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Complete guide: Pennsylvania gardeners share secrets to keep garden lush all summer

Carley Bonk
Chambersburg Public Opinion

First-time growers often search for gardening tips as soon as winter's frost thaws, but most seasoned gardeners know that keeping a garden alive for fall harvest takes a lot of guidance and care throughout the summer months as well.

Getting sprouts ready in the spring is the first step to building a green space, but keeping those plants healthy all season long can be tough. Disease, drought and pests can easily destroy months of careful planning and hard work.

Whether it's a bountiful vegetable garden, serene florals or a house full of succulents you're carefully coddling to maturity, these plant-lovers have a plethora of advice to offer fellow green thumbs. 

Vegetable Gardening

Rebecca Henry, of Chambersburg, has tried growing a garden over the years but didn't have much success until she came across a book in a discount bin that changed everything.

"I stumbled upon one called Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew, and I looked through and I thought 'you know this looks interesting, it looks doable, I think I can do this,'" she said. "We live on a half-acre with a lot of animals in a barn so space is at a premium. I was fascinated by organic urban and micro-farming and just being a little bit more self-sustainable."

Instead of rows, Henry packed as much food as possible into a smaller space by gridding off square feet sections and grew as many plants as she could vertically. 

For beginners, Henry suggested growing easier, hardy crops such as beans and root vegetables. 

Rebecca Henry, of Chambersburg, packed as much food as possible into a smaller space by gridding off square feet sections and grew as many plants as she could vertically. Here, her son stands on a six-feet ladder and still can't reach the top.

With smaller spaces, she also suggests trying to grow plants that give "the most bang for your buck."

"The last time I bought a bushel of beans to can, I paid $40 for a bushel, so for $3 pack of organic bean seeds - which I try to do everything as organically as I can - the savings is huge," she said

Another tip Henry suggests is to record garden growth from year to year.

"What I learned is I'm not a planner, I'm not good at organizing, but I found that I need to plan really well with vegetable and flower gardening," she said. "I have a two-inch binder with notes, plans, I have grids - all of my raised beds are all gridded out and I also grid the beds that are in the garden."

Henry also includes pictures of her crops and flowers with specifications on their growth and needs throughout the season. 

"Trying to keep track of everything, it's all in one place," she said. "It just reminds me of what works and what didn't."

Lyndsey Roth, of Lebanon, grew up going to flower breeders and garden centers with her mom and aunts the way most families go shopping for clothing.

"My family is crazy for gardening," she said. "My mom held me in her lap as a child reading gardening catalogs."

She loves growing "anything weird and unusual."

"Petunias are fine but I like funky stuff," she said. "This year I am growing celtuce, it's an Asian vegetable I just learned about, ordered seeds and am growing it. I have yellow peas, artichokes plus all the regular things. Together my husband and I like to grow fruits in our yard: figs, kiwis, raspberries, peach trees."

Lyndsey Roth, of Lebanon City, loves growing "anything weird and unusual." This year, for vegetables, she's growing green beans, peppers, potatoes, peas, kale, swiss chard, artichoke, tomatoes, potatoes, celtuce. For assorted flowers, she has gladiolas, dahlias, lisianthus, love in a puff vine, zinnias, cleomes, sunflowers.

Roth warns first-time gardeners to take it slow at first in order to be successful and seek help from experienced gardeners.

"Don't go crazy the first year," she said. "Stay small, do something manageable. Don't plant a huge garden that you can't weed and maintain and which turns into a giant weed patch. Find someone who knows how to garden and let them give you tips."

Flower gardening

Donna Smith, of York, started planting roses in the 1980s when she discovered she had a landscaping problem on her property. Decades later, she has over 500 rose bushes growing in her yard.

She joined the York Area Rose Society in the 1990s.

"You learn how to enhance your roses," she said. "There's grooming techniques and things like that. Now, most people were just happy to grow a rose in a garden, cut it and pick it and bring it in, put it in a vase. There's many aspects -you learn to grow your roses, and then arrange with roses."

Having good soil, amended with organic materials like manure, and frequent watering is a must for roses, but the varieties chosen are important as well.

"You want to look for easy care varieties - low maintenance, meaning like the knockouts," she said. "There's another variety that's called Oh So Easy; they're a little shrub, but they bloom all summer long and they are widely available. But you want an easy-care, low maintenance."

Donna Smith, of York, started planting roses in the 1980s when she discovered she had a landscaping problem on her property. Decades later, she has over 500 rose bushes growing in her yard.

Space can also determine what varieties are best.

"Since a lot of people don't have room in their yards, they may want to go to the little shrubs," she said. "The smaller shrubs, the floribundas, because they are self-contained. Hybrid teas get three to five feet high and your floribundas stay shorter. They get anywhere from two to three feet, up to four. Your grandifloras are also taller."

The American Rose Society is a great resource, according to Smith.

"There is a wealth of information on the ARS website," she said. "Join the ARS for a quarterly magazine that has tips and hints and all kinds of information. They also have an area where you can post questions, and a consulting rosarian will get back with you. It's great for both beginners and seasoned growers alike."

Smith's Favorite varieties include:

  • Touch of Class
  • Peace
  • Louise Estes
  • Home and Family
  • David Austin roses
  • Playboy 

Succulents

Sage Jaques, 21, of Fayetteville, picked up the hobby of succulent and cacti gardening over quarantine and has already started to grow that hobby into a business - The Sagebrush Shack.

"My mom, she has a green thumb, so she taught me everything that I know," Jaques said. "There are so many different species, and they're just such beautiful plants. They're very easy to take care of. I mean it's a lot of work, don't get me wrong, but they're probably my favorite plants."

She has converted her basement into a succulent warehouse of sorts, utilizing UV lights and careful, daily mistings to keep her over 600 plants healthy. 

"Do not overwater them at all," she said. "They are plants that do not need watered that often. Personally, I mist mine with a spray bottle, once a day very lightly. But for most people, it's easier for them to just water it. You just kind of moisten the soil, and just wait until it dries completely and then you can water it again. I say between two weeks to a month before you want to water again unless you're spraying them every day."

Sage Jaques, 21, of Fayetteville, picked up the hobby of succulent and cacti gardening over quarantine and has already started to grow that hobby into a business - The Sagebrush Shack. Pictured here are Jelly Bean plant and Chenille.

Spider mites can become an issue for indoor plants, but Jaques said she's learned how to manage them.

"They can take over your whole plant, and you'll see a white web around your plant, but they will kill it instantly," she said. "You just take some alcohol and a cotton swab and just kind of go around it very lightly."

The app, Picture This, has been a valuable resource for Jaques.

"If you take a plant or a picture of your plant - say it has some spotting on it, or the colors are a little discolored - you just take a picture of it and it'll tell you exactly what's wrong with it," she said.

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Keeping pests at bay

Annette MaCoy is the Master Gardener Coordinator for Penn State Extension in Franklin County. She has been gardening for close to 40 years, with a particular interest in garden design and ornamental plants and trees.

Throughout her years of tending green space, MaCoy has learned a lot regarding pest and weed control.

"Overall, mulching is the best way to manage weeds," she said. "There is no such thing as a weed-free garden. In the vegetable garden, clean straw or shredded leaves are good mulches to use; gardeners can also hand-pull or hoe small weeds before they get too big. In flower beds, shredded leaves or tanbark are good mulches; just be careful not to apply more than two to three inches of mulch over the soil surface and water the mulch well after application."

Encouraging beneficial insects to take up residence can also benefit gardens and keep pests to a minimum.

Annette MaCoy, the Master Gardener Coordinator for Penn State Extension in Franklin County, said "Beneficial insects, such as lady beetles, lacewings, predatory wasps, parasitic wasps, and ground beetles, along with spiders, can provide a good level of insect pest control in the garden if the gardener is willing to let them be there."

"Beneficial insects, such as lady beetles, lacewings, predatory wasps, parasitic wasps, and ground beetles, along with spiders, can provide a good level of insect pest control in the garden if the gardener is willing to let them be there," she said. "To attract and keep beneficial insects in the garden, planting the same types of plants that attract pollinators is the best approach, along with minimizing the use of insecticides and other pesticides in the garden."

If the gardener needs to do more to manage pests, careful application of insecticides could help.

"Select the least-toxic insecticides, such as insecticidal soaps or horticultural oils, that are labeled for use against those pests," she said. "Read and follow the directions for application carefully; but in general, using less toxic insecticides will not harm beneficial insects or pollinators in the garden."

More than just a harvest

For most gardening enthusiasts, the hard work of keeping a garden alive is something they look forward to each year.

"It's more for mental therapy I think than anything," Henry said. "It's great just for stress relief and it's a good time to just go out and think. I do it more for relaxation."

Part of the fun is sharing knowledge with others.

"We live in a time where skills like gardening, canning and sewing are dying - we're losing a generation of teachers that knew how to do these things," she said. "If you have a skill, share it with someone who is interested."

MaCoy loves how gardening can add to local landscapes.

"The satisfaction of growing your own produce or flowers; the beauty that plants bring to our landscapes and our lives; and learning to enjoy your garden as part of the larger natural environment," she said.

Jaques looks at her plants as part of the family.

"Honestly, the most rewarding thing is probably going down and seeing all of my babies growing, and it just makes me ecstatic," she said.

For Roth, the reward is visual.

"Lots of people love to pick the produce and eat it but I like to see the final product rather than eat it," she said. "To see the giant dahlia bloom, to see a trellis full of yellow peas, to look out the window and see a hummingbird in a trumpet flower - I like the visual."

Smith agrees that gardens are just as much for looking at as they are for harvesting.

"The most rewarding part is you put all that work into it just to see them bloom," she said. "I have an area that I can put in a lot of roses so I just enjoy going out on my porch, just looking at my roses. My whole front yard is roses."

Need more guidance? 

Penn State Extension offers a number of resources for beginner and experienced gardeners alike.

  • Home gardeners can call the Penn State Extension office in Franklin County (717-263-9226) for help with gardening questions, including identifying and managing problems, or they can contact Master Gardener volunteers at franklinmg@psu.edu. They can also bring samples of plants, weeds, insects, or plant problems to the office for identification, diagnosis, and recommendations. In a ‘normal’ year, Master Gardener volunteers operate a Garden Hotline at the office during the gardening season to handle these calls and samples. This year, they are currently operating the Hotline remotely, but the office is still open during regular business hours (Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm) to accept calls and samples.
  • Penn State Extension also offers soil testing kits for home gardeners. Gardeners can purchase a kit at the local Extension office, follow the instructions for sampling the soil, and send the sample directly to Penn State’s Agricultural Analytical Services Lab for analysis and a written report with recommendations for soil improvement. https://agsci.psu.edu/aasl is the Lab’s website with more detailed information about the services they can provide.

MaCoy's suggests beginners start with these varieties:

  • Easy annual flowers include petunias, marigolds, salvias, and geraniums for sunny areas. In shady areas, annual impatiens is easy to grow, but be sure to look for downy mildew resistant varieties.
  • Easy perennial flowers to grow include black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia) and purple coneflower (Echinacea), both of which are great for attracting pollinators and beneficial insects to the garden.
  • Vegetables that are easy to grow include tomatoes, peppers, squash and melons. Leafy crops such as kale and lettuce are also easy to grow, but do best in cooler weather, so gardeners can plan on seeding them in August for a fall crop of greens.
  • Many herbs are also easy to grow, including basil, dill, oregano, chives, and mint; although with mint, gardeners should contain their roots in a pot, as they like to spread far and wide.

Online Resources:

Local Facebook Gardening Groups:

Carley Bonk is a Watchdog Reporter for the USA Today Network - Pennsylvania. Her coverage spans across the southcentral region of Pennsylvania. She can be reached at cbonk@publicopinionnews.com or on Twitter at @carls_marie.