Summer is coming to an end. This is a great time to get your San Diego garden ready for fall planting.
Create a Pollinator Garden
This has been a great summer for pollinators in San Diego gardens. Mine’s been full of bees, butterflies, moths and hummingbirds. This may just be due to the last two years of decent winter rains, but hopefully the native plants and flowers I’ve added to my garden are helping too.
Over three quarters of the world’s flowering plants and more than one-third of U.S. crops depend on pollinators. Without pollinators, we wouldn’t have many of our favorite fruits, nuts and vegetables. Pollinator populations, like honeybees, native bees, bats and butterflies are declining.
You can make your San Diego garden a more beautiful place and help stop the loss of pollinators by adding plants pollinators need to feed and breed. For ideas on how to make your garden into a pollinator habitat garden, go to the University of California’s article How to Attract and Maintain Pollinators in Your Garden.
The Master Gardener Association of San Diego also has two helpful articles about attracting pollinators to your garden, Plant for the pollinators, which keep our world buzzing with life and San Diego’s native bees, plants are linked for life.
San Diego Vegetable Gardens
It’s time to pull out spring and summer vegetables that have finished producing or are badly diseased and get your beds ready for cool-season plants. You can start seeds for many of your fall and winter crops this month.
With our mild winters, we can grow about twice as many varieties of vegetables now as we can during the summer. Here’s a list of some of the many different vegetables you can grow in San Diego gardens this fall. For detailed planting, growing and harvesting information, take a look at Joyce Gemmell’s Vegetable Planting Guide.
Plant and Care for Citrus
This is a good time to plant oranges, lemons and limes. If you live in a warmer area, you can also try grapefruit and tangelos. Look for varieties that do well in your area and plant them in well-draining soil. Keep them well-watered while they are getting established. Once established, water when the soil 2-inches below the surface is dry.
If your citrus leaves are yellowing between their green veins, you may need to feed them with iron and zinc chelate and mulch them. Our alkaline soils can make it hard for citrus and other plants to get to the iron they need.
Another cause of yellowing in citrus leaves is a bacterial disease known as citrus greening or Huanglongbing (HLB). It is carried by the Asian citrus psyllid and has been found in parts of San Diego County. Does my citrus tree have huanglongbing explains more about the disease and has links to the quarantined areas in Southern California.
San Diego Gardens Tips Source
A lot of information for San Diego Gardens 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.