Gardening This Weekend: June 5, 2025
With the weather warming as June unfolds before us, here are the prime tasks to put on your list for this weekend. See which apply to your landscape and garden.
PLANT
• New lawns from sod or seed as soon as possible. Rising temperatures make it more difficult to keep the new plantings properly watered.
• Summer annuals that can handle the heat, including copper plants, firebush, purple fountaingrass, ‘Gold Star’ Esperanza, tropical hibiscus, mandevillas, crotons, bougainvilleas, caladiums, Cora XDR vincas, fanflowers, lantanas, purslane, moss rose, angelonias, pentas and Profusion zinnias.
• Crape myrtles now while nurseries have their best supplies. Check variety names and mature sizes to be sure you’re getting a type that will fit the space you have available for it.
PRUNE
• Damaged limbs from shade trees, whether caused by spring winds or winter cold spells. Take no risks. If in doubt, leave the work to a certified arborist who has the training, equipment, and insurance to do the job properly and safely.
• Pinch growing tips out of coleus, copper plants, Mexican bush salvias, mums and fall asters to keep plants shorter and to remove flowers that tend to cause new growth to stall out.
• Erratic new shoots on elaeagnus, abelias, Lady Banksia roses and other plants as needed.
• Blackberries to remove canes as soon as they finish bearing fruit completely to the ground. (They will never bear fruit again.)
FERTILIZE
• Patio pots, hanging baskets with water-soluble, high-nitrogen food weekly. Supplement the liquid fertilizer with an encapsulated, timed-release product applied every 90 days.
• Second feeding of bermuda and St. Augustine turf with all-nitrogen or high-nitrogen fertilizer with 30 to 40 percent of the N in slow-release form. Do not feed St. Augustine again until September to lessen chance of gray leaf spot fungus. It is exacerbated by applications of nitrogen in hot weather of summer.
• Iron and sulfur soil acidifier to correct chlorosis (yellowed leaves with dark green veins that show first on leaves at tip ends of branches). It will be a problem with plants such as azaleas, wisterias, loropetalums, abelias, and a few other types. It can be corrected with smaller plants, but with large shade trees such as bald cypress, pin oaks, water oaks, and sweet gums, costs are prohibitive.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• It’s time for the second application of pre-emergent granules (Dimension, Balan or Halts) to prevent germination of crabgrass and grassburs. First application should have been in late February in South Texas or early March in North Texas. If you did not make that application, there is no point in making this one.
• Bagworms on cone-bearing plants such as cedars, junipers, cypresses and arborvitae. Spray with Bacillus thuringiensis biological worm spray or most general-purpose insecticides while the larvae are still small and actively feeding.
• Chiggers in bermuda turf, also in pastures, vacant lots, and patches of weeds. Spray your arms, feet, legs, socks, and pants with a DEET insect repellent. There are insecticides that will kill them in turf areas, but it’s generally much easier and less expensive simply to spray the repellent on yourself.
• Mosquito populations have been high in areas where rainfall has been plentiful. Again, DEET repellents are essential. Eliminate all standing water, even small amounts. Spray around your house’s foundation and landscape shrubs and groundcovers.
• Early blight causes lower leaves of tomatoes to turn bright yellow in rather large blotches. They quickly turn brown and die, making it essential that you apply a labeled fungicide at first signs of infection.
• Spider mites attacking tomatoes, beans, and other vegetable and flower garden plants. Lower leaves will usually turn tan first. Look for fine tan mottling that soon becomes yellowed lower leaves, then brown and crisp. Unlike early blight in tomatoes, however, the spots will be tiny. You’ll be able to see the nearly microscopic mites if you thump an infested leaf over a sheet of white paper. They will start to move about freely. Look for a general-purpose insecticide labeled for spider mites. Be sure the spray coats the bottom leaf surfaces.