Gardening This Weekend: July 25, 2024
Knowing there are still 7 or 8 weeks of summer ahead, here are the prime tasks for this weekend. It’s a completely new list each week. Be sure to check here first.
PLANT
• Order Texas spring wildflower seeds for planting in 4-6 weeks. They establish their root systems with fall’s rains so they’ll be ready to bloom with the first warm days of spring. You must plant them on time.
• Fall vegetables, including beans, corn, squash, cucumbers, peppers and Irish potatoes in the next 7-10 days.
• Fall bulbs such as spider lilies, oxblood (schoolhouse) lilies, surprise lilies, autumn crocus (Sternbergia). Buy bulbs now to plant immediately. Better independent retail garden centers offer them, and online sources are also available.
• Turf from sod or plugs, including St. Augustine, zoysia and bermuda. You can seed bermuda now as well, but in all cases watering will be critical. Do not allow new grass plantings to become dry for even a few hours. Their roots are shallow and delicate.
PRUNE
• Trim purple wintercreeper and Asian jasmine beds that have become uneven. Cut trailing Vinca major groundcover beds that have been infested with leafrollers, then apply a high-nitrogen, lawn-type fertilizer to stimulate regrowth and water deeply.
• Oak wilt mats are inactive from mid-summer through fall and into late winter, so mid-July through Valentine’s Day are the prime times for pruning oaks. Seal all cuts on oaks with paint or pruning sealant at any time of the year.
• Deadhead perennial and annual beds to remove seed stalks and dead foliage.
FERTILIZE
• Patio pots and hanging baskets will respond wonderfully to high-nitrogen, water-soluble plant food. Nutrients are used by the plants rapidly, plus they leach out of the porous potting soils. Get into the habit of applying them weekly.
• Apply a combination iron/sulfur product to correct chlorosis (yellowed leaves with dark green veins, most prominent on newest growth). Keep it off masonry or painted surfaces that could be stained.
• New flower and vegetable transplants with high-nitrogen, water-soluble plant food to help them establish most rapidly. Repeat weekly for a couple of weeks, then switch over to a granular food.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• New plantings of trees and shrubs from this spring must be watered by hand using a hose and water breaker or bubbler. Sprinkler irrigation alone will not be sufficient. See related story on proper ways to water, this issue.
• Lacebugs suck the color out of leaves of loropetalums (fringeflowers), azaleas, Boston ivy, pyracanthas, cotoneasters, bur oaks, chinquapin oaks, sycamores, and many other types of plants. Most insecticides will control them, but the green won’t return to the old leaves. New growth should be normal.
• Chinch bug populations have started to build in Texas St. Augustine lawns. If you have areas of St. Augustine that appear dry, but that don’t respond to thorough waterings overnight, and if they are primarily in the hottest, sunniest parts of your yard, that would almost assuredly be damage of chinch bugs. You’ll be able to see the BB-sized insects with white diamonds on their wings flitting around on the ground if you examine the turf carefully at the level of the runners. There are many dependable insecticide products on the market that will eliminate the chinch bugs before they completely ruin your lawn.
• Have armadillos? I have a humane way of dealing with them that has worked in our rural landscape.
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