Add flowers to your San Diego vegetable garden. Plant an herb garden, and care for your fruit trees this month.
Plant an Herb Garden
This is a great time to start an herb garden. You can add herbs to your vegetable garden, your flower beds or create a separate herb garden. It’s so convenient when you need a fresh herb in the kitchen to just run out to the garden and take a cutting. Good choices to plant in San Diego gardens now are parsley, basil, thyme, rosemary, sage, winter savory, chervil, dill, oregano, fennel, lemon grass and lemon balm. We can also grow lavender, bay laurel and aloe vera.
Some of these herbs like rosemary, lemon grass, thyme, bay laurel and oregano are perennials. When laying out your garden, think about placing your herbs not only in relationship to their height and size, but also with respect to their water needs and whether they are perennial or annual plants.
Many herbs are available now in nurseries. You can pick up 6-packs or 4-inch pots of your favorites, but it’s best to start dill and cilantro from seed. I’ve just added ginger to my garden. Check with me in a couple months to see if it’s growing.
Fruit Tree Care
Fruit trees should be fertilized and watered throughout the growing season. Remove weeds from under the tree’s canopy and add mulch to help maintain moisture and block new weeds from growing. Use a strong spray of water on the leaves to remove aphids, spider mites and other pests. If ants are in the tree, keep them from coming up the trunk with a sticky wrap, and trim branches so they don’t touch other plants or objects giving the ants a route into the tree.
Thin the fruit from apples, pears and stone fruits like apricots and peaches when they are the size of a marble. You should leave one fruit on the branch every four to six inches.
Add Flowers to your Vegetable Garden
Planting flowers in or near your San Diego vegetable garden will not only add beauty, it can also benefit your garden by attracting pollinators and deterring pests. And some of these flowers are even edible!
You can also add flowers you plan to use for a cutting garden. That way, you won’t have to take them from your ornamental garden beds when you want to bring them inside.
Flowers you might want to add include marigolds, milkweed, poppies, sunflowers, Zinnia, Aster, Clarkia, Cosmos, yarrow, petunias, sweet alyssum, and lavender. Edible flowers include borage, nasturtiums, pansies, violets and chamomile. Read my Grow Edible Flowers article for more information about these flowers and make sure you stick with those that are known to be safe.
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.