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While you’re having fun this summer going on vacations and getting the kids ready to go back to school this month, remember that your garden friends will be extra thirsty this month too. Here’s a gardening checklist to help you keep your plants and lawns thriving during this hot summer.

Annuals

• Check all annuals often for dryness; new plantings are especially needy as they establish their roots.
• Dead blossoms - snap or snip them off to reinvigorate flowering plants; you’ll be rewarded by more flower and root growth.
• For a second bloom, cut annuals back to half their height and fertilize.
• Replace dead annuals with hardy annuals.

Perennials

• In mild climates, fertilize roses once a month throughout the summer.
• After the last iris blooms fade, stop giving them water.
• When leaves start turning brown, trim them down to green areas in a two-snip pyramid shape.
• Replant at the same depth in soil that’s been amended with processed manure and compost.

Lawns

• When mowing, recycle nutrients by letting lawn clippings stay in place, or spread them with a rake.
• Water early in the morning before the sun is at its hottest, so that plants benefit before evaporation takes place.
• Water deeply and less often — say, an hour once a week. Aim sprinklers so that their spray benefits the lawn and plants only; water on the sidewalk is water wasted!
• In dry weather, trim lawn edges.

Vegetables

• Plant potatoes early in the month.
• Sow seeds of these vegetables: spinach, chard, broccoli, lettuce, radishes, beets, carrots, peas, onions and scallions.
• Tomatoes and peppers are shameless sun lovers, so you should see lots of growth. Keep them off the ground, and harvest them as soon as they ripen so pests don’t eat them first.
• Keep mulch around tomato plants evenly spread and slightly moist.
• Plant veggies now for fall and winter harvest.

Pest control

• Root rot is a frequent hazard of wet seasons; help prevent it by thinning mulch around vulnerable plants.
• Look for slugs under moist mulch and in ground cover.
• Spray honeysuckles for aphids every 10 to 14 days; spray them with an insecticidal soap or give them a strong blast with a hose.

Container plants

• Container plants get extremely thirsty in summer months and may need water as often as once or twice a day. If you’re a newcomer to container gardening, you’re in for a treat!
• Planters can be tucked into any cranny. Fill in bare garden spots, arrange them on steps and along walkways, frame a garage door, set them on railings, or circle them around the old oak tree.
• Variety is the spice of container gardening. Combine containers of different shapes, sizes, colors and textures.
• Don’t worry about being perfect; just choose plants you like and learn as you go.
• Move pots around, from sun to shade, or just for a change of mood.
• Branch out from terra-cotta pots and window boxes. Containers made of resin and other synthetics are available in a riot of shapes and styles. Just be sure that containers have drainage holes in the bottom.

Container plants are my favorites because I can be so creative with where they sit and what they are sitting in. I have an umbrella tree, money tree, bamboo, and some other greenery plants. They thrive on water and getting a little bit of sun everyday. Even for someone without a green thumb I’m able to keep them alive and growing stronger every day.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 25th, 2007 at 11:29 am and is filed under Gardening. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.