Gardening This Weekend: June 13, 2024
Take advantage of these longest evenings of the year to get more done while it’s a little bit cooler. Here’s your checklist of the most critical goals.
Special Opportunity…
You’ve read him here. Now you can enjoy him in person. Our friend Steven Chamblee will be the Keynote Speaker at the Denton County Master Gardener Association’s 2024 Fruit, Vegetable, Herb & Flower Show.
Sat. June 15, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. (Steven speaks at 10) at North Texas Fair Grounds, 2217 North Carroll Blvd. in Denton.
PLANT
• Crape myrtles. Buy while they’re in full bloom. Check tags for mature height. Avoid types that will require pruning to keep in bounds.
• New turf. Bermuda by seeding. Hybrid bermuda or common bermuda by sod, plugs, or hydromulching. Zoysia or St. Augustine by sod or plugs. Water once or twice daily for first week to help roots get established, then cut back.
• Summer annuals. Buy transplants that have been grown and held in sun conditions similar to what you’ll be providing for them. Let a Texas Certified Nursery Professional guide you.
PRUNE
• Dead branches out of trees and shrubs. There still is abundant stubble from the past three winters, also from recent windstorms.
• Erratic growth from shrubs to keep them in bounds. However, avoid highly formal square or globe-like pruning.
• Blackberry stems that have just finished producing. They will never bear fruit again, so cut them flush with the soil. Tip-prune this year’s growing shoots to keep them more compact and to force them to produce side branches.
• Remove all rose bushes showing any signs of rose rosette virus.
FERTILIZE
• Container plants each time that you water them. Nutrients leach out of their root zones very quickly with watering. Use a high-nitrogen, water-soluble plant food.
• Turf, groundcovers, flowerbeds and almost all other plants with an all-nitrogen fertilizer that has 30 to 40 percent of its nutrients in slow-release form.
• Iron and sulfur to correct iron deficiency. Look for yellow leaves with dark green veins, most prominent on the newest growth first. Keep iron products off walks and walls that could be stained.
ON THE LOOKOUT
There are many things that need to be addressed now. Here’s a quick list for reminders.
• Last call: Second application of pre-emergent granules Dimension, Balan, or Halts to prevent germination of crabgrass, grassburs. If you did not make first application in March there is no need to make this one.
• Bagworms on junipers, arborvitae, cypresses, and other conifers: almost any general-purpose insecticide, but treat immediately when you see the small caterpillars feeding (before they secure themselves to the twigs).
• Spider mites causing tan mottling on many species of plants (beans, tomatoes, marigolds, etc.). You can see the mites if you thump leaves over sheet of white paper. Treat with insecticide listing mites on label. Repeat weekly until you gain control.
• Leafrollers on cannas, pyracanthas, redbuds, sweetgums, trailing periwinkle groundcover and many other types of plants: Imidicloprid systemic insecticide as a spray or drench.
• Fire blight turning branch tips of pears, apples, pyracanthas, cotoneasters, loquats, and other Rose Family members brown or black quickly. Trim off dead tissue. Cut back into healthy wood. Disinfect pruning tools with 10 percent chlorine bleach solution between cuts. Spray while plants are in flower with agricultural streptomycin.