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Show i mry (Vi L'- I Maria Ploch and Pace Erickson help keep Park City green. Catch it while you can The Growing Season by Maria Ploch and Pace Erickson "What's summer like around here," the tourist asks the Park ! City resident during a ride on the chairlift. "I can't really say," the answer comes back. "It's usually on a day when I have to work. " Summer, that fleeting season between the last frost of one winter and the first frost of the next, can be a source of frustration to would-be 1 gardeners living at 7,000 feet above sea level. This series, written by Maria Ploch and Pace Erickson of the Park City Parks Department, is designed ' specifically to help the group. i Maria is a landscape gardener, responsible for the care of trees as well as ornamental (flowering) plants I and shrubs on city property. That property includes the Park City i ! Library, the Prospector buffer i strip, the Sixth Street Park, and , the berm on Park Avenue near ! the golf course (sometimes N known as Helen's Hill after ', former councilwoman Helen Alvarez). Maria also runs the greenhouse program which produces all the city's ornamental plants, and takes care of the interior plants in i the city offices. Another of her current projects is the installation of planters on Main Street. l i Pace Erickson is the golf course superintendent, overseeing mowing, watering,' fertilizing, seeding, weed control, sprinkler repair, tree pruning and other maintenance. ! ; The Park City Municipal Golf ', Course sits on 104 acres of which i 1 68 acres are composed of roughs and lakes, 30 acres of fairways, 133,000 square feet of putting greens and 140,000 square of tee areas. In the upcoming weeks this column will address such topics as how to seed a new lawn, when to fertilize, how much water to use at this altitude, when to plant bulbs and annual flowers, how to prepare for (shudder) winter, and how to choose grasses, plants and trees for the Park City climate. Questions may be directed to Maria or Pace through the Park City Parks Department, 649-5912. In this week's column, Maria focuses on preparing flower beds and planters for the summer. Flower beds By now you should have your flower beds weeded. If not, and you have a lot of weeds (and nothing else), you can use a post-emergent post-emergent weed killer. This type of herbicide will kill everything growing above the ground, so use it with care. Flower beds can generally be planted within one to two weeks of an application. Prepare the soil for planting by . mixing in small quantities of organic material such- as mulch or steer manure. Outdoor planters Fill your pots with a soil-less mix like one-third peat moss, one-third one-third vermiculite and one-third pearlite. This will guarantee you will have weed-free planters. Ground covers It's not too early to plant most ground covers. Some early bloomers are Rock Cress (white, pink, rose, purple), Sweet Woodruff (white), Evening Primrose (mixed colors), Creeping Phlox (pink, purple, blue) and Basket of Gold (yellow). Evening Primrose grows best in partial shade. The others can grow either in full sun or partial shade. Perennials A perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. Perennials can be planted all season long. Some early bloomers are Iceland Poppies (orange, yellow, cream), Oxeye Daisy (white), Columbine (mixed colors) and Flax (blue). Columbine grows best in partial shade. The others do well in full sun. Biennial A biennial is a plant whose life cycle is completed in its second year. Pansies (mixed colors) flower early and are long-lasting. They grow well in full sun or partial shade. Foxglove (pink, lavender, purple) grows best in shade. Annuals In this climate, it would be wise to wait -until June 15 to plant -annuals since these varieties are most susceptible to frost. A footnote This is a good time of year to wage your own clean-up campaign against the destructive tent caterpillar. You'll find colonies of them on choke cherry bushes, scrub oak, and even on roses. Prune off the affected branches and destroy them. |