Gardening This Weekend: August 1, 2024

There are things you must do now if you intend to do them at all in 2024. I’ve made us a list. Take a gander.

PLANT
• New turf. You have only 4-6 weeks to plant new sod and less than that if you’re going to be seeding bermuda. The sooner you get it all planted, the better established it will be by the time winter arrives.
• Fall annual color: zinnias, marigolds, cosmos, celosias, copper plants, firebush, Gold Star Esperanza, purple fountaingrass, and others.
• Fall vegetables: bush beans, cucumbers, squash, corn, in South Texas peppers, and along Gulf Coast tomatoes.
• Watch for fall-flowering bulbs in your local garden center: spider lilies, oxblood lilies, sternbergias (lilies-of-the-fields, or fall crocus).

PRUNE
• “Deadhead” perennials (remove spent flower stalks, seedheads).
• Remove errant shoots from shrubs, groundcovers to keep plantings tidy.
• Dead and damaged branches from shade trees and shrubs.

FERTILIZE
• New flower and vegetable plantings for fall garden with high-nitrogen, water-soluble plant food for quickest start.
• High-phosphate root-stimulator every couple of weeks for trees and shrubs that were transplanted last winter and early spring.
• Bermuda turf with all-N food now and one more time very early October. Wait to feed St. Augustine until temperatures drop in early September to lessen chance of gray leaf spot fungus.

ON THE LOOKOUT
• Leafrollers are attacking vinca groundcovers, sweetgums, redbuds, cannas and several other plant species. Apply a systemic insecticide to stop further outbreaks, but it will take regrowth to conceal the current ugliness. You can trim vinca groundcover beds to get rid of the browned stubble. Fertilize and water to encourage regrowth.
• Chinch bugs remain extremely threatening to St. Augustine turf everywhere that it’s grown. Grass will appear dry, but it won’t respond to watering. Click here for information and photos. Scroll way down to see the details on chinch bugs.
• Water new trees and shrubs by hand every couple of days the rest of this growing season. Sprinkler irrigation alone will not be adequate.