{"id":9912,"date":"2023-06-05T13:08:10","date_gmt":"2023-06-05T17:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?p=9912"},"modified":"2023-06-05T13:08:12","modified_gmt":"2023-06-05T17:08:12","slug":"gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/","title":{"rendered":"Gardening | Dry season woes and summer planning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Master Gardener Volunteer Lesley Arrandale
mail@floridanewsline.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As someone who tries to avoid watering her yard, I\u2019ve been a bit anxious lately. Although the NOAA long range forecast predicted higher than usual rainfall in May, our position in relation to the St. Johns River seems to deflect rain clouds away from us. And it\u2019s been hotter than average, which at least makes the NOAA forecast right in that regard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps I need to plan a water-saving irrigation system. Since I don\u2019t water very often, it would be more of an emergency measure, so I\u2019ll weigh up the cost first; however, these systems are comparatively inexpensive, and the average gardener can devise them to suit their landscape fairly easily. For guidance, check out https:\/\/edis.ifas.ufl.edu\/publication\/AE524.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the lack of rain, the front garden beds are still looking reasonably attractive \u2013 at least to my eyes. Indian blanket (Gaillardia sp.<\/em>) plants are holding up well, and the cheerful red and yellow daisy-like flowers sing in the sun. There is fruit on the native Darrow\u2019s blueberries (Vaccinium darrowii<\/em>). The berries are turning dusty pink, which blends beautifully with the subtle blue green of the foliage. New shoots are delightfully pink tinged. The fruit is better suited to the birds as it\u2019s not as luscious as our cultivated varieties, which is fine by me. I hope the birds enjoy them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year the dwarf Simpson\u2019s stoppers (Myrcianthes fragrans<\/em>) were full of flowers and their perfume filled the air. They were insect magnets. Now the flowers have faded, and many tiny fruits are beginning to develop. With adequate moisture, they will be bright red, half-inch round berries, usually with two seeds inside. I can\u2019t wait to see the display. And doubtless the birds will appreciate them too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year two dark pink wandflower plants attracted a host of pink aphids. I had hoped it wouldn\u2019t happen again, but sadly the flower stems are full of them. This is a dilemma: to spray or not to spray. Last year the plants never really recovered from the onslaught, as I left the aphids for the predator insects to eat. This year I\u2019ve half-heartedly tried to squish them, while hoping to avoid the lady beetle larvae which eat them voraciously. But although the larvae have made a meal of some of the aphids, they really haven\u2019t eaten enough. I may just move the plants from the front yard to somewhere out of the way and let nature get on with its, in this case, rather uneven balancing act. Considering those pink gaura are cultivars of the native Gaura lindheimeri, I do wonder if that makes them more susceptible to insects and less resilient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been concentrating on growing flowering plants from seed, and it takes time away from the vegetables. Instead of food crops, I\u2019ll sow a cover crop, which will benefit the soil in those beds. It should flourish during the summer, and in time I\u2019ll turn it into the soil as green \u201cmanure.\u201d Check out this article to discover the benefits: https:\/\/edis.ifas.ufl.edu\/publication\/vh037.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photo courtesy Lesley Arrandale<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gaillardia, or Indian blanket.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Master Gardener Volunteer Lesley Arrandalemail@floridanewsline.com As someone who tries to avoid watering her yard, I\u2019ve been a bit anxious lately. Although the NOAA long range forecast predicted higher than usual rainfall in May, our position in relation to the St. Johns River seems to deflect rain clouds away from us. And it\u2019s been hotter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9901,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[12],"class_list":{"0":"post-9912","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-creekline-st-johns","8":"category-mandarin","9":"tag-gardening"},"yoast_head":"\nGardening | Dry season woes and summer planning - Florida NewsLine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CreekLine, Mandarin NewsLineBy Master Gardener Volunteer Lesley Arrandalemail@floridanewsline.com As someone who tries to avoid watering her yard, I\u2019ve been a bit anxious lately.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gardening | Dry season woes and summer planning - Florida NewsLine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CreekLine, Mandarin NewsLineBy Master Gardener Volunteer Lesley Arrandalemail@floridanewsline.com As someone who tries to avoid watering her yard, I\u2019ve been a bit anxious lately.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Florida NewsLine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheFloridaNewsLine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-05T17:08:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-05T17:08:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/FNL-Gardening-dry-season-summer-2306A.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"531\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"709\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@floridanewsline\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@floridanewsline\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/\",\"name\":\"Gardening | Dry season woes and summer planning - Florida NewsLine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/FNL-Gardening-dry-season-summer-2306A.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-05T17:08:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-05T17:08:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#\/schema\/person\/f112e5505697e0e24f438c3562ad0fcc\"},\"description\":\"CreekLine, Mandarin NewsLineBy Master Gardener Volunteer Lesley Arrandalemail@floridanewsline.com As someone who tries to avoid watering her yard, I\u2019ve been a bit anxious lately.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/FNL-Gardening-dry-season-summer-2306A.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/FNL-Gardening-dry-season-summer-2306A.jpg\",\"width\":531,\"height\":709},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Gardening | Dry season woes and summer planning\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/\",\"name\":\"Florida NewsLine\",\"description\":\"The Newspapers Everybody Gets\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#\/schema\/person\/f112e5505697e0e24f438c3562ad0fcc\",\"name\":\"editor\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/author\/editor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Gardening | Dry season woes and summer planning - Florida NewsLine","description":"CreekLine, Mandarin NewsLineBy Master Gardener Volunteer Lesley Arrandalemail@floridanewsline.com As someone who tries to avoid watering her yard, I\u2019ve been a bit anxious lately.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Gardening | Dry season woes and summer planning - Florida NewsLine","og_description":"CreekLine, Mandarin NewsLineBy Master Gardener Volunteer Lesley Arrandalemail@floridanewsline.com As someone who tries to avoid watering her yard, I\u2019ve been a bit anxious lately.","og_url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/","og_site_name":"Florida NewsLine","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TheFloridaNewsLine\/","article_published_time":"2023-06-05T17:08:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-06-05T17:08:12+00:00","og_image":[{"width":531,"height":709,"url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/FNL-Gardening-dry-season-summer-2306A.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"editor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@floridanewsline","twitter_site":"@floridanewsline","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"editor","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/","url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/","name":"Gardening | Dry season woes and summer planning - Florida NewsLine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/FNL-Gardening-dry-season-summer-2306A.jpg","datePublished":"2023-06-05T17:08:10+00:00","dateModified":"2023-06-05T17:08:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#\/schema\/person\/f112e5505697e0e24f438c3562ad0fcc"},"description":"CreekLine, Mandarin NewsLineBy Master Gardener Volunteer Lesley Arrandalemail@floridanewsline.com As someone who tries to avoid watering her yard, I\u2019ve been a bit anxious lately.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/FNL-Gardening-dry-season-summer-2306A.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/FNL-Gardening-dry-season-summer-2306A.jpg","width":531,"height":709},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/creekline-st-johns\/gardening-dry-season-woes-and-summer-planning\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Gardening | Dry season woes and summer planning"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/","name":"Florida NewsLine","description":"The Newspapers Everybody Gets","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/#\/schema\/person\/f112e5505697e0e24f438c3562ad0fcc","name":"editor","url":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/author\/editor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9913,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9912\/revisions\/9913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9901"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/floridanewsline.com\/Clone2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}