Gardening This Weekend: July 31, 2025
What’s a gardener to do when it’s still hot, but when you want to start getting ready for fall? Here are your guidelines.
PLANT
• Fall vegetables. In South Texas, small and mid-sized tomatoes immediately so they can ripen before the first killing frosts. In Central Texas you’ll need to plant them into large nursery pots (7-gal.) filled with high-quality potting soil. If necessary you’ll be able to move them into protection. Peppers, beans, squash, cucumbers, corn now.
• New sod as soon as possible to give it the most possible time to establish before weather turns cool. The same goes for bermudagrass planted from seed.
• Marigolds, zinnias and celosias. Choose transplants that are in bud, but not yet in full bloom – they establish better and will be spectacular right up to frost. Colors will be more intense in fall’s cooler weather, and again, spider mites won’t bother the marigolds like they did back in the spring.
• Fall-flowering bulbs. You may find them in local independent retail garden centers, or you may have to order them from online sources. The list includes spider lilies, oxblood lilies, fall crocus, and others. Plant as soon as they arrive.
PRUNE
• Mow lawn regularly to maintain grass at recommended height. Allowing grass to grow tall does not increase its tolerance of heat, drought. Keep it “low and dense” to crowd out weeds.
• Spent floral stalks, seedheads, and dried leaves from spring-blooming perennials. Mulch around them to prevent weeds and conserve moisture.
• Tip-prune tall mums to keep them from becoming leggy, but do so immediately so you don’t stall out their blooms. Same with Mexican bush salvia. Remove flower stalks that try to form on coleus, mint, basil, caladiums, lamb’s ear, and others to keep the plants growing vegetatively.
FERTILIZE
• Annual color beds and patio containers with water-soluble, high-nitrogen fertilizer to stimulate new growth and more color for fall.
• Iron-deficient plants every 4-6 weeks with iron additive and sulfur soil-acidifier. Keep iron products off bricks, stone and concrete to avoid staining.
• Bermuda turf if it’s been more than 8 weeks since you last did. Unless soil test suggests you do otherwise, apply all-nitrogen fertilizer with upwards of half of that nitrogen in slow-release form. Wait one more month to fertilize St. Augustine to lessen chance of gray leaf spot outbreak.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Caterpillars, grasshoppers, and other chewing pests. Observe closely to see if they’re still active. If so, apply one of the labeled general-purpose organic or inorganic insecticides. Your Texas Certified Nursery Professional can show you appropriate examples.
• Chinch bugs continue to cause problems in hot, sunny parts of St. Augustine turf. If areas that appear dry do not improve after watering, check on hands and knees for presence of BB-sized black insects with irregular white diamonds on their wings. Look in the interface of healthy and afflicted grass, not in dead areas. If you see chinch bugs treat immediately with an insecticide labeled for them.
• Gray leaf spot in St. Augustine continues to be an issue, especially in lawns that have been fertilized recently. Nitrogen exacerbates this disease, so do not fertilize again until temperatures cool in September.