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When Mother Nature Doesn’t Cooperate - Ask Martha
This has been a challenging year for gardening - plenty of rain, tight budgets, and then more rain! Let me share with you how the gardens at the York Harbor Inn have survived – OR have not survived through this growing season.

Plants like nicotiana and petunias do not like wet – their blossoms rot very quickly and their fuzzy leaves tend to retain the water. I chose red for my annual color this year in memory of my Dad, so I decided to use good old fashion red geraniums that are standing up to the weather quite well. As I write this article the geraniums, red strawberry gomphrena and white scaevola have performed very well. The dahlias I had in pots just drowned – maybe I have to make bigger holes in the pots for drainage because the dahlias in the ground look fine. The cannas in front of the Yorkshire House are flowering –unfortunately they are orange, not red like I had hoped, but they are healthy! The petunias and nicotiana need 3-4 days to look revived after a good rain. Annuals generally need at least a couple of weeks to perk up after being pelted so frequently.

The perennials look like someone has been secretly injecting them with steroids – they are huge! I guess it is time to divide them because many of the plants are falling over or have an empty hole in the middle - they look like a doughnut. I plan to divide the sedum ‘stonecrop’ and the sedum ‘autumn joy’, as well as the perennial sunflower, daisies and the phlox. This will generate many more free plants to install elsewhere which is important in this tight economy. — Martha