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Gardening Calendar

Vegetable gardens are popping.  The final harvest season is upon us for the cool season vegetables and we are beginning to harvest our warm season crops.  As your cool season vegetables are harvested, replant with heat lovers.  You want to utilize as much space in the garden as possible.  Okra, southern peas and winter squash will all thrive now.  If you want pumpkins and gourds in time for Halloween, plant between June 15 and July 15.  Water and mulch to help get them established.   The temperatures are warming up, humidity is increasing and so are your chances for insects and diseases.  We have already had reports of aphids, whiteflies, stinkbugs, caterpillars and flea beetles attacking.  Early blight, anthracnose and rust have all made an appearance as well. Pay attention to your garden on a regular basis.  The earlier you can catch a problem and handle it, the less likely it will be to destroy the garden.

The first report of blossom end rot is on the horizon.  Blossom end rot is not a disease but a physiological disorder often associated with fluctuations in soil moisture levels.  Try to mulch your garden well to keep the moisture levels as even as possible.  Water early in the day to allow moisture to enter the soil with the least amount of evaporation, and to help the plants dry before nightfall.  Calcium levels are also a factor - make sure your soil pH is high enough.  A soil test can determine this, but a light application of lime to the planting soil can also help.

Annuals

Summer annuals should bloom from planting until frost.  To keep them blooming their best, deadhead those that are forming seedpods.  This directs energy back into flowering, and should give you the most blooms.  Annuals are only in the ground for one season.  If they start to look ragged, pull and replace.  There is still time to plant summer color.  Luckily for us, most nurseries now carry replacement plants all season. Tropical flowering plants are entering their favorite season and should give you constant color.  They can be planted in the ground or used in containers.  Either way, to ensure better blooming, give them full sun, even moisture and regular fertilization.   Use a slow release fertilizer along with bi-monthly applications of a water soluble fertilizer such as Miracle Gro, Peters or something similar.  Many annuals are trouble-free, but some have common problems - coleus plants can be plagued with mealybugs, while marigolds are a spidermite magnets.  Monitor for pests often.

If you have chosen wisely, you should have some perennial plant in bloom in every month.  Nurseries still have plenty of choice plants to plant.  As you add plants to your garden, be sure to choose based on plant needs - sun, shade, dry, moist - as well as season of bloom and color of blooms.  Grouping plants together that have similar colors or complimentary colors make a big color statement.  Using all colors in the rainbow has its place, but can be a bit overwhelming in the garden.  Plants for great color now include Echinacea - Purple Coneflower (which now comes in the pink form as well as white, yellow and orange), coreopsis, daylilies - thousands of varieties to choose from,  scabiosa, Shasta daisies and foxglove.  Hardy hibiscus are up and setting flower buds and will soon be in bloom.  Be sure to give them plenty of sunlight and moisture.  New varieties can produce those dinner-sized blooms on much smaller plants, so there should be a variety for even the smallest sized sun garden.  Don’t forget foliage plants.  From hostas to elephant ears, heuchera and cannas, you can make some huge color statements with perennial foliage plants.

Roses

Everyone loves roses, but not everyone likes spraying weekly to keep away blackspot.  Not all roses need constant sprays.  If you are like me and would rather plant and enjoy, try some of the tougher roses.  The Knock-out rose is just that - a knockout.  New colors are coming out each year, and this rose is disease free plus requires less water and fertilizer and will even bloom in only 4-6 hours of sunlight.  Other varieties of roses for easy blooms with no spray programs include New Dawn, the Fairy, Flower Carpet and Cecile Bruner.  Many of the David Austin roses are trouble-free as well.  If you do grow varieties susceptible to blackspot, be aware that you must follow a spray program all season long - regular fungicides such as Daconil, Immunox and Funginex will need to be applied every week to ten days.  Bayer Advanced All in One Rose Care can give you more time in between applications, but we can’t go the full 6 weeks like the label says.  The combination of heat, humidity and disease levels only allows a 3-4 week delay in between applications.  Even with the hardier forms, regular care will give better results.  While I don’t recommend fungicide applications, I do think regular water and at least 1-3 applications of fertilizer per growing season will give you better blooms.

Lawns

How weed-free your lawn should be is a personal preference.  Some weeds are easier to deal with than others.  Nutgrass or nutsedge is a tough one.  Sedgehammer is the new name for a great nutsedge herbicide.  It is safe to use on all lawns, but if you have an abundance of nutsedge, don’t expect one application to do the trick.  Follow label directions, and be aware it won’t kill other weeds.  Proper weed identification makes a big difference in control.  Some products just kill grassy weeds, while others kill sedges and others kill broadleaf weeds.  It can be confusing, but if you need help, contact your local county agent.  Fertilization needs vary by lawn grass.  Bermuda will tolerate monthly applications if you feel like mowing twice a week, but would suffice with two applications.  Zoysia and St. Augustine should only have one or two applications a year.  As the temperatures increase, the fun of lawn mowing decreases.  Don’t put it off too long in between mowing.  Try to remove no more than one-third of the leaf blade at a time.  If you let it get too tall, two things can happen. One is called sheathing - the taller grass shades the grass beneath it causing the lawn to appear brown immediately after mowing.  Secondly, if you have piles of dead grass on the lawn, this can smother out the grass beneath it.  If you end up with grass piles, either bag the clippings or rake them up and add them to the compost pile.  As always water as needed - but don’t get carried away.  Instead of setting the sprinkler system timer, turn it on only as needed.