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Fertilizing your lawn and watering it efficiently are the best ways to combat summer drought. It's important to take preventative measures before the hot weather hits, so if a drought does occur, your lawn will return to its vibrant and healthy state. Fertilized lawns remain greener longer than nutrient-deprived turf. Start with a Turf Builder, or an Organic that will grow a healthier lawn using less water, and will not burn your lawn. Fertilizers help develop a deeper, thicker root system, which is better able to absorb nutrients and retain water.
Avoid watering mid-day, as you'll only lose water to evaporation from sunlight. If you have an automatic system, set it to come on in the early hours between 4 a.m. and 10 a.m. Select a sprinkler that releases water slowly and close to the ground rather than one that releases a mist that tends to evaporate quickly.
Raise your mower blade during dry weather to encourage deeper rooting. Sharp blades help reduce the need for water because dull blades shred leaf tips, causing the turf to use more water than necessary. Also consider leaving clippings on the lawn. Longer grass blades provide shade and help hold in moisture longer.
Aerating your lawn also improves the movement of water and nutrients into the soil, decreases run-off and encourages the roots of grass to grow deeply and to become drought tolerant. Filling the holes with Terra Green helps hold water longer right at the root system.
Watering Tips
Continue watering all plants except well-established drought resistant and native plants regularly. Water cool-season laws more often and shallowly. Water warm-season lawns deeply and infrequently. Water corn well as it tassels out. Water cyclamen occasionally as they are semi-dormant now. Most succulents planted in the ground (not in pots) need no water this month.
Fertilize Now
Feed citrus and avocado trees. Look for yellow leaves and green veins indicating chlorosis in citrus, azaleas and gardenias; treat them with chelated iron. Feed fuchsias and tuberous begonias with a bloom formula. Fertilize corn and side dress vegetable rows with a good organic like Foxfarm or Dr. Earth. Give strawberries a shot of 0-10-10 to elongate the harvest. If peppers look yellow despite adequate nitrogen, spray them with Epsom salts (1 tsp. per pint water) Feed water lilies with fertilizer spikes specific to them. Feed ferns and cycads with an all purpose. Do not fertilize native or Mediterranean plants now, they are preparing to go dormant for the hot summer.
Trim, prune, mow and divide;
Remove seed pods from fuchsias after flowers fall. Prune to thin out deciduous fruit trees after June drop. Cut back margurites and euryops after bloom. Deadhead and pick summer flowers to keep them going longer. Mow cool season lawns longer , mow warm season lawns short. Clip runners off strawberries. Prune climbing roses that bloom once a year in spring, but wait until flowers fade. Prune and train espaliers. Pinch back chrysanthemums to make them bushy. Divide and repot cymbidiums. Divide bearded irises. Divide English primroses after bloom, or wait until September.
Control pests, disease and weeds;
Continue to control slugs and snails with Cooke’s Slug and Snail, Ortho Bug-Geta or Lily Miller snail bait. Sluggo is a good brand that is safe around pets. Control those pesky earwigs with Ortho Bug-Geta Plus, Cooke’s Pest Control, or Sluggo Plus. Watch for disease and pests on roses and vegetables. Kill and repel mosquitos with safer Mosquito Patrol or use Dunks to kill larva in standing water or water gardens. Control pests on fuchsias with Bayer Advanced Rose and Flower or Green Light Neem Oil*. Control thrips and whiteflies on non-edibles with Ortho Systemic Insect Killer. (Use Neem oil if edible.)
Control weeds in permanent plantings by mulching and cultivating or apply a pre-emergent like Weed Impede or Amaze granules. Spray tuberous begonias against mildew with a good fungicide like Safer Garden Fungicide*.
*Check out the organic controls we have available at Miner’s. |
