As spring gives way to summer, the “June blues” bring with them grey skies, especially along the coast, which means spring flowers hang on a little longer while we wait for summer vegetables to ripen.
Vegetable garden
Celebrate National Garden Week (June 2-8) by saving an unused, overgrown patch of land in your community, creating a pollinator garden with your kids or helping an older neighbor plant containers. Visit bit.ly/GardenWeek2024 to find more ways to celebrate gardening in your community.
Don't worry if your tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, etc. haven't yet produced any fruit. As temperatures rise, so will flowering and fruiting. If you still have room, start planting tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, eggplants, basil, etc. Plant from seeds or seedlings now for a fall harvest. Don't overplant. Overcrowded plants will grow like a jungle, reducing fruit production and making your plants vulnerable to pests and disease. Pinch off any flowers or buds before planting and until your seedlings are in the ground for at least two weeks. Good air circulation will help prevent powdery mildew (white powder on the leaves). Select and remove branches to improve air flow. Also, rinse the leaves with water early in the morning to wash away any powdery mildew spores. Make sure the leaves are dry by late evening. Remove the bottom leaves and branches of your tomato plants to prevent soil bacteria from splashing onto the leaves and infecting your plants. Don't listen to advice to prune your tomato plants. All leaves produce energy for the plant to produce flowers and fruit. If you remove the leaves, the plant will make less energy and produce fewer fruits. Leave the leaves alone. Cover vegetable plants with a thick layer of straw (3 inches or more) instead of hay, bark or wood.
These voracious wasps will quickly devour your tomato plants, reducing the leaves to bones, so if you come across one, pull it out and throw it to the birds. Look closely – wasps blend in well with their surroundings.
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Fertilize your vegetables:
Fertilize vegetable seedlings with organic fertilizer. Mix fertilizer into the soil before planting and add fertilizer to the planting hole (mix well). During the season, remove the mulch, sprinkle fertilizer on top of the soil, water, and replace the mulch. Follow the label instructions for the amount and frequency. Or add liquid fertilizer to your irrigation water. This process is called “fertilizing” and you should halve the concentration each time you water. Also, use liquid fertilizer as a first aid foliar spray for plants that show signs of nutrient deficiency. If your tomato leaves turn bone-white and have little green orbs, look for the tomato grasshopper. The larvae are striped green, white, and black. Don't be shy, pull out the bugs and place them where hungry birds and lizards can find them. The bone-white leaves of sunflowers and pumpkins are the work of a small bird called the little finch. These birds also eat aphids, so welcome them into your garden. To prevent end rot on tomatoes and squash, keep the soil moist (but not wet). In some areas, end rot is caused by a calcium deficiency, but in our climate and soil, it's caused by uneven watering. Trellis your cucumbers to keep the vines off the ground. This also makes it easier to find the fruit. Plant cilantro in the shade of a cucumber trellis. Partial shade encourages longer, more abundant leaves. Give watermelon, pumpkin and climbing squash plants plenty of space. The vines of one plant can easily cover a space 20 feet long and 20 feet wide.
Now is the time to fertilize your apple trees and stone fruit trees with organic fertilizer. During the fruiting season, generous and regular watering is essential.
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Fruit trees
Protect figs from new fig flies. As soon as small fruits appear, cover them with a mesh bag with a drawstring. The bag also protects them from mice and green beetles. Fertilize stone fruit, apple, pear and persimmon trees with organic fertilizer according to label directions. Water regularly and deeply during the fruiting and growing season. Feed citrus and avocados with a granular organic fertilizer. Water citrus deeply every few weeks. Water avocados deeply once or twice a week. Pomegranates, figs, tropical guavas and pineapples Guavas do not need fertilizer, but they do best when watered every 2-3 weeks, depending on temperature. Got too many ripe fruits? Cut them in half, remove the seeds and pits, then freeze them for winter cooking. Be sure to label your containers. Share your excess harvest with those in need. Contact organizations that pick fruit and donate it to food banks and other school lunch programs. Find a list of harvesters in your county online. If you have the time, please help out – it's fun! Clean up fallen fruit and practice good yard sanitation to keep hungry birds, fig beetles, squirrels and mice away. Harvest fruit when it's ripe and before it spoils.
Ornamental plants
Drought-tolerant shrubs require little care at this time of year. Trim by removing dead flowers and dead leaves. Mulch and water deeply only once every few weeks. Potted plants require more care in summer. For non-succulent potted plants, fertilize with an all-purpose organic fertilizer (liquid indoors, liquid or granular outdoors) according to label directions. Potting soil dries out faster than soil. When watering, water slowly until the entire pot, including the soil, is soaked. Wait until the water drains away before watering again. Place lightweight pots in a pot filled with water so that the water can wick up to the top. For plants that have been in pots for many years, refresh the potting soil by repotting them. Sprinkle on some new earthworm castings and top off the soil with a little organic granular all-purpose fertilizer. Place a layer of pebbles on top of the potting soil to improve appearance and keep mold gnats at bay. Potted plants that do not like sunlight, such as fuchsias and orchid cacti (epiphyllum), can be moved to the shade of a leafy tree or under an east-facing eaves.
Wildlife Management
Remember: wildlife has a place in every garden. Plants aren't perfect, and they don't have to be.
Support birds and bees through the warmer months.
Fill a shallow dish or basin with water. Add a solar-powered floating basin pump to jet and circulate the water. Moving water will discourage mosquito breeding. Add pebbles or glass marbles for birds and bees to stop and drink from. Check the water regularly to keep it clean and to make sure the pump doesn't get clogged.
Insects and other small garden creatures can be unsettling, but they rarely become a problem. Having a few pests in your garden will keep their natural enemies there. Your goal is to support the cycle to keep your garden in balance.
Caterpillars and earthworms will nibble at the leaves but rarely kill the plant. A few are fine but if they are really eating your plants, pluck them off and place them in an open area where hungry birds and lizards can find them. Birds and lizards are natural pest control. To get rid of snails, slugs and pillbugs use Sluggo Plus, an iron phosphate product that is harmless to birds, mammals (including humans), caterpillars and butterflies.
Managing Water
Abundant winter rainfall ensures that summer will not start off in drought, but it is likely to end in drought, so care must be taken with water management.
Inspect your irrigation system by zone. Turn on each zone (each irrigation zone is controlled by one irrigation valve). Check all drip lines and sprinklers. As you walk through the zones, look for leaks, broken heads, overspraying, etc. Don’t overwater. Just because you had a lot of rain in the winter doesn’t mean your plants need (or want) more water. Collect cool water from your bath or shower in a bucket. Use that water for potted plants and tropical fruits and vegetables that need a lot of water. Mulch, mulch, mulch — but only if you have a drip irrigation system. Spray irrigation is not compatible with mulch. Too much water is wasted if you allow it to soak through the mulch before it can penetrate the soil where the roots are. This is another reason to switch spray irrigation to in-line drip irrigation instead of individual emitter irrigation. As summer temperatures rise, water large trees deeply once a month. Even drought-tolerant trees need extended watering to survive.
Destroy the lawn
Grass is the most water hungry plant in your yard and the one that gets the least “used.” The long, warm days of summer are the perfect time to remove or reduce your grass. Plan now.
Not sure where to start? Learn grass removal best practices in our webinar, “Goodbye Grass: How to Remove Your Lawn,” on June 20 at 7 p.m. Sign up at bit.ly/UTByeBye. Check with your local water department for the latest grass removal rebates.
Solar treatment is a simple and highly effective way to kill grass, and I'll be talking about solar treatment in my Bye Bye Grass webinar on June 20th (bit.ly/UTByeBye).
What should I plant instead of grass?
This rolling sedge looks like grass but isn't. It grows in sun or shade, mowed or not, and requires very little water. It's pleasant to walk on barefoot. Kurapia is the trade name for Lippia nodiflora, which grows on flat green ground with small white flowers. Warning: This plant spreads. To control it, completely surround it with concrete. Kurapia will not grow in wood, plastic, or metal edging.
What shouldn't you plant instead of grass?
Artificial grass (also known as synthetic turf). Plastic “turf” gets very hot in the summer, needs to be cleaned regularly, fills up landfills, releases microplastics into the environment, and destroys the soil and all the living things that live there. Live plants are always a better choice than artificial grass.
Foliage plant
As nighttime temperatures rise above 50 degrees, it's time to move your houseplants outdoors for summer. Place them in a spot that gets plenty of indirect light and is protected from the elements, like a bright patio or covered balcony.
Orchids, Monstera, Pothos, Sansevieria, Dracaena, Spider Thrush, Fig, etc.
After moving outdoors:
Wash the leaves to remove dust and dirt. Water the plant thoroughly and fertilize after each watering. When you move the plant outdoors, natural enemies often eat the scale insects, mealybugs and aphids. If not, scrape off the pests with your fingers or a soft toothbrush, or blow them away with a strong blast of water from a hose or kitchen tap. Remove brown and dead leaves. Allow the potting soil to dry out so that the mold flies fly away. Repot plants that have outgrown their pots. Plants spend their entire lives in the potting soil. It's worth using high-quality soil. Take cuttings now and root them over the summer.
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Sterman is a garden designer, journalist and host of public television's “A Growing Passion.” She runs Nan Sterman's Garden School at waterwisegardener.com.
