Washington Hawthorne Trees

Compleat Gardener: Create foundation for strong autumn garden now

The middle of August is the time to take a stand, rise from your lawn chair and tend to routine maintenance. What you do now in the garden will determine how your landscape will look all autumn.

Tops on the to-do list is deadheading and fertilizing summer blooming annuals.

Your geraniums, petunias and other bloomers will flower until October if you remove their faded flowers and snip back their leggy branches. Then give your annual plants a shot of liquid fertilizer to quickly encourage new growth and new buds.

Next, consider your lawn. Instead of daily water that keeps a lawn green but lazy, switch to watering your lawn less often but more slowly allowing the water to soak deep into the top two feet of soil. One way to get the water to penetrate the soil is to set the sprinkler for 10 minutes, then turn it off for an hour. The magic of capillary action will then drawn the second application of water down deep into the soil and the grass roots will learn to follow.

August is not the time to fertilize roses, vines or tender perennials that may not survive the winter if they put on new growth this late in the summer. August is not the time to get snippy with wisteria, hardy fuchsias, rhodies or azaleas. Instead you want to encourage trees and shrubs to start going dormant as the days grow shorter. Pruning and feeding always stimulates growth.

Q. I planted two Hawthorn trees three years ago. They looked OK at first but this summer almost all the leaves have fallen from the trees. They also have never bloomed. Is there anything I can do to fix these trees or should I just get rid of them? — P.P., Olympia

A. I vote for the shovel solution when it comes to Hawthorn trees in Western Washington. This means to dig them out and consider your loss a learning lesson. Hawthorns have lovely blooms and fine foliage in climates that get less rain but in our area they almost always suffer from leaf blight and drop leaves all summer in their struggle to survive. Not only are your leafless Hawthorns guilty of looking ugly but they even refuse to bloom. Life is too short to put up with ugly plants or trees and shrubs that need spraying and pampering to keep them healthy. Consider the many varieties of Japanese maples, smoke trees or cedars that thrive in our climate to replace your haughty hawthorns.

Washington, a life

Washington

Trees, Revised and Updated

Frommer's Washington D.C. with Kids

Hawthorne