In Your Garden

With longer days and increased heat, August is the time of year where your garden is stressed the most. Remember three important watering tips: 1) water in the morning, 2) water the roots not the leaves, 3) it’s better to water deep occasionally than water shallow often. Now is a good time to take a serious look at your garden to determine any changes that you may want to make during cooler months.

Color: Assess your annual and perennial color. If an annual is looking peaked, it’s best just to dig it up and discard it. A perennial that’s not looking its best can be cut back a couple of inches and it should rejuvenate quickly. Continue to deadhead spent flowers for a long lasting bloom season.

Fruits & Vegetables: Trim suckers off fruit trees and vines. Supplemental water shallow root trees such as Citrus & Avocado. Watch for evidence of thrips.

Roses & Flowers: Deadhead roses and feed after the bloom cycle. Keep deadheading all flowers to prolong the bloom period. Trim back hanging baskets that may be starting to look unruly. Pinch back Impatiens that may be starting to stretch.

Prepare for the fire season by removing dead branches and leaves from trees and shrubs. Cut tall grasses and weeds to stubble. Remove dead leaves which are considered fuel from gutters and around the base of structures. If you don’t have an evacuation plan established, get one and make sure all the members of your family are aware of it.

Heat can bring on attacks from garden pests in all forms. Watch for rust, spider mites, caterpillars, thrips, scale and grubs along with a multitude of other pests. Be sure to treat effectively always following the manufacturer’s instructions to halt the problem before it gets out of control.

Your garden will respond this month to the long days of sunshine and warm weather.   The annuals you planted earlier in the year should be looking their best and the fruit trees should be loaded with fruit.  Some of the vegetables you’ve planted are being harvested and your garden overall should look spectacular.  Spend more time outside doing simple chores and enjoy what you’ve created.

Color: While many of your annuals are probably at their peak, it’s not too late to add a few plants to your beds and pots.  Marigolds, Salvia, Zinnia, Verbena and many other varieties are available to plant in the sun.  As always, bedding Begonias and Impatiens are available for the shade along with Coleus and Kalanchoe.

Fruits & Vegetables: Plums and Peaches on your fruit trees should be ready to pick and enjoy.  Early crops such as beans and cucumbers may be ready to harvest this month.  Remove fruit and vegetables as they ripen.  Leaving them on the plant can encourage pests and diseases.  You can replant now for another vegetable crop later this year.  Prune spent canes off of fruiting vines.

Roses & Flowers: Deadhead roses and feed after the bloom cycle.  Keep deadheading all flowers to prolong the bloom period.

Mulch flower beds and around shrubs and trees to help retain soil moisture through these typically hottest months.

Viewing your landscape this month you have a real feeling of satisfaction. The flowers are in full bloom, vegetables and fruit trees are both producing and the weather has warmed up just enough to be enjoyable. Spend time in your yard. Relax and enjoy the fruits of your labors.

Color: For a quick-fix to your garden, add fast growing annuals like Petunias, Vinca, Marigolds and Zinnia. There is a plethora of color available right now to add interest to your flower beds and borders. Experiment and try something different. New varieties of Alyssum, Celosia, Coreopsis, Foxglove and Gazania are all great summer color. Plant those now. Also try Dianthus, Hollyhocks and Penstemon. For color in the shade, besides Impatiens and Begonias, try Coleus, Kalanchoe and Heuchera. Continue to pinch back faded blossoms.

Fruits & Vegetables: Summer vegetables such as squash, beans and tomatoes that are planted much after the first of the month, won’t be in the ground long enough to give you a significant crop. Get them in right away. There’s still time to plant beets, beans, melons, radishes, squash and heat tolerant lettuces. Plant the last patch of corn this month. Keep fruit and vegetables picked. Remove any fallen produce that may attract unwanted pests or encourage diseases that may spread to other parts of your landscape. Be sure to keep herbs pinched back.

Roses & Flowers: Please see our blog – “How to take care of your roses when in a drought” for this month’s advice on roses.

May’s weather is often unpredictable. It can bring an occasional shower, fog and extreme heat along with what is commonly known as ‘May Gray’, overcast skies. May is also one of the busiest and most satisfying months in the garden. There is still planting to be done, some pruning, continual deadheading, mowing, weeding, mulching and much more. At the end of the day when you look back at all you’ve accomplished, you’re pleased with your efforts and satisfied with a job well done.

Color: As a guideline, most annuals and perennials take 6-8 weeks to mature from a 4″ pot. Use this timeline when planning color planting for special events you’re hosting such as graduations, weddings, and family gatherings. Plant far enough ahead so that the plants are looking their best. Feed hanging baskets and plants in pots every 3 weeks to keep them looking lush. Now is the time to plant heat loving flowers such as ageratum, asters, celosia, chrysanthemum, coleus, bedding begonias, gazania, impatiens, lobelia, marigolds, nicotiana, petunias, Shasta daisies, verbena and zinnias among many more. Try something new this season and spice up your garden. Pinch back stems to encourage full plants that will produce lots of flowers.

Fruits & Vegetables: Since the weather has warmed up, it the perfect time to plant exotic fruit trees like bananas, avocados, citrus and mangos. Keep well mulched to retain moisture. Plant beans, beets, carrots, celery, eggplant, melons and tomatoes. Pesky caterpillars are starting to appear. Treat them with a nontoxic insecticide to keep them under control. When trying to locate the elusive tomato hornworm, sprinkle the plant with water and watch for movement as they shake the water off of themselves.

Roses & Flowers: This is your last chance to plant late blooming plants such as dahlia, gladiolus and tuberoses. To keep roses in full bloom, feed and water regularly and dead head any spent blooms. Watch for mildew and treat as soon as detected to keep it under control. For fragrance, also plant gardenias, jasmine and pittosporum. Remove spent flowers from spring bulbs but leave the foliage. Feed now for strong growth and flower production in the spring.

Also:

Mulch, mulch, mulch– Mulching keeps the weeds down and water in while looking esthetically pleasing.

Thin fruit off of fruit trees to promote healthy growth. Branches weighed down by heavy fruit can break and distort the shape of the tree. Twist off excess fruit so the remaining fruit is spaced every 4-6 inches on alternate sides of the branch. Suckers on your fruit trees are taking nutrients away from fruit production. Remove them to encourage stronger, larger and tastier fruit. Feed and water fruit trees regularly to keep nutrient levels up. Leaves damaged from leaf curl or other diseases should be removed and disposed of. Do not mulch or compost as this will spread the disease.

Along with everything else, the weeds are growing substantially this month also. Keep on top of weeding so that seeds don’t spread around the garden. Weeding the day after watering makes the task much simpler.

Lightly prune winter and spring flowering trees and shrubs after the blooms have expired. Heavy pruning should be done later in the year when the heat has passed but before flower buds have set.

April in Southern California is perfect for playing in your garden. The days are longer and warmer and there’s always something to do. Plant every chance you get. Local garden centers are loaded with all that new and interesting this month. Drop by discover something exciting.

Work with what you’ve got. If you would like to grow herbs and vegetables but don’t have a large space consider establishing a container garden. A variety of inexpensive pots in various shapes and sizes can be used to cultivate a ‘patio garden’. In pots or in the ground, group tomatoes, onions, peppers and cilantro together and you have a ‘salsa garden’. Be creative in the space you’re allowed.

Color: Asters, Coleus and Zinnias are showing up in the garden centers now. April is one of the months with the largest selection of flowering plants available. Be creative and make your own hanging baskets and potted patio plants using some of your favorites. Continue to dead head all flowering plants for optimum flower production.

Fruits & Vegetables: Plant Citrus, Bananas, Avocados, Guava and other frost sensitive fruit trees this month. Fertilize existing fruit trees to help promote good fruit production. Additionally, thin excess fruit from young trees before the fruit reaches the size of an almond. This will prevent undue stress being put on the tree. Peaches should be thinned to every 5″ on alternate sides of the branch with plums, nectarines and apricots spaced at every 3″. Time to put in vegetables such as beans, corn, peppers, cucumbers and tomatoes if you haven’t done so. Also plant melons, squash and gourds.

Perennials: It’s not too late to divide perennials such as Agapanthus, Moraea and Hemerocallis. Make sure they’re planted immediately after division. Divide and transplant grasses too. For bushier flowering shrubs, pinch new growth to encourage fullness at the base of the plant.

Pests: Treat aphids, spider mites and white fly with insecticidal soap or a brisk spray of water.

Roses & Flowers: Roses should be at their peak right now. Continue to dead head and feed with a high nitrogen fertilizer.

Also: Once the weather has warmed and the plants in your garden are beginning to show signs of life, prune off any cold damage that may have been inflicted during the winter. Cut just below where the dead branches begin. If you’re not sure about what is damaged or not, wait until next month and reassess the damage.

Stake taller growing plants now while they’re smaller and easier to manage.

Sheer formal hedges and prune evergreens in preparation of their spring growth spurts.

Prune and fertilize groundcovers to remove dead patches and encourage new growth.