Summer’s almost here and the weather is warming up. We’ve started the month with our usual June Gloom, but I’m not complaining. It keeps the heat at bay and is perfect weather for working in your garden.
Here are a few June gardening tips to help you and your yard get ready for summer.
DEADHEAD ROSES & COMBAT POWDERY MILDEW
Cut the spent flowers from your roses or cut them while in bloom to fill your house with fragrance. This will help stimulate new flowers and can keep the plants blooming through October. Also give them a light, all purpose fertilizer and a deep watering.
If this month’s June Gloom is encouraging powdery mildew on those roses, take a look at May Gardening Tips for ways to fight it.
PLANT AND FEED SUMMER VEGETABLES
Set out transplants of cucumbers, eggplant, melons, peppers and tomatoes. Sow seeds of beans, corn, cucumbers, New Zealand spinach, pumpkins and squash. Use a nitrogen fertilizer on these crops to promote growth. Feed the corn when it is six inches and 24 inches tall. Fertilize the cucumbers, melons, pumpkins and squash when they begin to produce runners. The eggplant, peppers and tomatoes should be fed when they begin to bloom and again after one month. Feed the beans one month after planting or when runners start to climb.
PLANT SUBTROPICALS & HEAT LOVING PLANTS
Subtropicals and heat loving annuals and perennials are now available in nurseries and will grow quickly in warm weather. Some annuals you may want to try are coleus, cosmos, verbena, marigolds, petunias, vinca and celosia. Heat-loving perennials you can plant are lavenders, kangaroo paws, sages, pincushion flowers (Scabiosa), asters, penstemons, heliotropes, artemisia and African daisies. Subtropical plants and vines include banana, bird of paradise, cestrum, ginger, hibiscus, palms, philodendron, tree ferns, bougainvillea, bower vine, mandevilla, thunbergia and trumpet vine. Some of these subtropicals are not frost tolerant, so take care when planting.
A lot of information for June Gardening Tips 2019 comes from the Master Gardener Association of San Diego County. They are a great resource for all of your gardening needs including planting, pests, vegetables, and water use. They even have a free hotline where you can get your home gardening and pest control problems answered.