Summer’s just around the corner and days are long. June’s a good time to plant heat-loving tropicals and annuals. Make sure to adjust your watering and spread mulch to conserve water and keep weeds down.
Here are some June gardening tips to keep your yard healthy and happy.
Plant
In addition to planting heat loving annuals and vegetables, this is a good time to plant in shady spots, add fragrance to your garden and plant tropical perennials like bananas and bromeliads. If you’d like to add fragrance to warm, summer evenings, try planting Arabian jasmine, common heliotrope, gardenia, night jessamine or tuberose. Clivia, coral bells, hydrangea, fuchsias and abutilon are some good choices for filling in shady areas. Subtropicals are widely available now in nurseries and will thrive in warm weather.
Tree and Orchard Care
Trees and fruit trees need good irrigation this time of year. See May’s gardening post for irrigating tips. To control pests, wash your trees with a forceful water spray in the mornings if possible. Continue to apply fertilizer every six weeks to fruit trees, remove any suckers growing from rootstock, and thin apples, pears and stone fruit after they do their own natural June fruit drop.
Pest Control
If water spraying isn’t keeping pests and mildew under control, try to stop them using the least toxic method you can to protect your health, your garden’s health, and the health of beneficial insects. Insects are dying in huge numbers right now, so even though they can be pests, we don’t want to contribute to this die-off.
Spring and early summer weather is ideal for powdery mildew. To limit it, try planting varieties that are bred for mildew resistance. Tomato hornworms can be picked off plants. You can also use Bacillus thuringiensis which will kill the worm, but not other beneficial insects. For roses affected by roseslugs, remove the affected leaves and crush the larvae. Spray the undersides of leaves with water or coat them with horticultural oil, neem oil or insecticidal soap. These treatments won’t harm bees or other beneficial insects. If spraying isn’t keeping ants out of trees, wrap heavy paper around the trunk and coat it with something sticky like Tanglefoot.
A lot of information for June Gardening Tips 2020 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.