Tip #1 from Pat Sabosik

May is lilac time. It’s also time to prune back or shape your lilacs. The window for pruning is one to two weeks after the lilac blooms fade and before they set new buds.

Pruning after flowering shrubs blooms fade is the same principle for Azaleas, Rhododendrons, and others.

Don’t forget to feed your flowering shrubs during bloom time and after to help them set buds for next season.

PLANT FOOD PREFERRED: Epsoma’s Plant tone Neptune’s Harvest seaweed solution

Tip#2 from Trish Helm

It’s time to fertilize your rose bushes: May, June and July. Use a low nitrogen fertilizer (remember: N P K on fertilizer bag, you want the first number lowest). I like Pro gro.Sprinkle 1 cup around the base of the plant without touching the crown of the plant and scratch it in. Ideally do this the day before it rains (we should be so lucky) or water it in.

Hopefully you pruned your roses last month. Probably still ok: prune out any dead, crossing or inward growing branches. You want the center of your rose bush open for good circulation so take out the inward growing ones. Cut at an angle just above an outward-facing bud.

Tip#3 from Judie Clark

Joyful Weeding

Just as there are many ways to garden, there are many ways to weed a garden. One man’s weed is another man’s flower. Ralph Waldo Emerson famously defined a weed as “a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered,” while agricultural scientist George Washington Carver echoed the sentiment by calling a weed “a flower growing in the wrong place.” (caes.uga.edu). Michael Pollan writes in his book, Second Nature A Gardener’s Education (1991), “The nineteenth- century romantics, who looked more kindly on the common man, also looked kindly on the weed. By the time they wrote the English countryside had been so thoroughly dominated, every acre cleared of trees and bisected by hedgerows that the idea of a wild landscape acquired a strong appeal, perhaps for the first time in European history”.

Some weeds are far from romantic, in fact they may be downright “thuggish”, even “invasive”. Thuggish plants are vigorous spreaders that bully other garden plants. Invasive plants are defined as non-native plants that have escaped home landscapes and gardens, and that cause ecological or economic harm in the wild. Connecticut based horticulturist, writer, and eco-influencer Rebecca McMackin objects to the word “invasive”. “It’s simply inaccurate…Garden mustard didn’t sneak in under cover of darkness; it was brought here, like most plants we call invasive.” And “The term ‘invasive’ deflects accountability for the plant doing what plants do while concealing the role of human choices.” She points out that nurseries still sell plants known to cause damage (Gardenrant.com). Many of our most problematic plants were brought to us for their medical benefits.

You can’t walk away from your garden (why would you?). Weeds thrive in gardens and take advantage of open soil and access to light. When gardens are neglected or the soil is deeply disturbed weeds take over. Digging and tilling disturbs the top layers of soil and soil structure, which exposes dormant weed seeds to sunlight and triggers massive new germination. How can you weed/edit your garden without destroying the soil structure and making more weeds?

The Dutch Push/Pull Hoe was designed so the gardener was not stepping in the garden bed and was standing straight, so there is no bending over. The sharp blade of the hoe cuts the plant at the root crown so it can no longer photosynthesize. This massively weakens the plant and it eventually dies. Best practice is to hoe on a dry, sunny day, leave the cut weeds on the surface to dry out and die on the soil surface, while listening to a podcast or music, once a week. Joy !

There are many Dutch push/pull hoes on the market and many garden tools are not long lasting-disposable within a few years. I have invested in a Sneeboer Garden Hoe. This company, based in Holland, has been making garden tools forged by hand since 1913. The company hosts a booth of their tools at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and has been awarded the RHS Sustainable Business of the Year Award in 2025. The company is powered by solar, is energy efficient, and is committed to sustainability. Their tools come with a 50 year warranty and with care will last generations. This sounds like an ad, but in all honesty a great tool can make the work so much more enjoyable.

Here is your reminder to garden with joy.

Budget dutch hoe
Sneeboer Dutch Push Pull Hoe
Video: Roy Demonstrates The Dutch Push-Pull Hoe
Book Recommendation: Second Nature – Michael Pollan

Tip#4 from Pat Sabosik

In June, roses are the star flower, but so are coreopsis, baptisia, and lupine who bring color to the perennial garden.

The warmer weather of June also brings its share of pests, particularly aphids and sawflies. Red aphids are attracted to plants in the Helianthus family. The yellow oleander aphids like milkweed.

Sawfly larvae look like caterpillars but are related to wasps and will destroy plants by eating leaves. Watch for pine sawflies that are common in southern Connecticut. Treat with horticultural oil and pick off the saw flies.