Gardening This Weekend: July 2, 2026
Who would be so cruel as to assign tasks for the Independence Day weekend? You have plenty already scheduled. So, here’s that shortened list.
PLANT
• Fall tomato transplants. They must be planted soon in order to have peak production before first frost. Stick with small and mid-sized varieties. Protect from hot afternoon sun for a few days until they become acclimated.
• Crape myrtles while they’re still in full bloom in local nurseries. Check labels to be sure they’re the correct mature size for the space you have available for them.
• Sun- and heat-tolerant annuals to spruce up your landscape for weekend entertaining. Buy plants that are being held in conditions similar to what they’ll get at your house so they’ll already be acclimated.
PRUNE
• Keep mowing lawn at recommended height. Raising height in summer does not improve heat hardiness. It causes turf to thin. Weeds move in.
• Seedheads and old flower stalks off perennials to keep garden tidy.
FERTILIZE
• Patio pots and hanging baskets with high-nitrogen, water-soluble plant food weekly to replenish nutrients lost during frequent irrigation.
• Iron-deficient plants with iron/sulfur additive. Telltale symptoms are yellowed leaves with dark green veins, most prominent on newest growth first. Keep iron products off painted and masonry surfaces that could be stained.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Chiggers. If you’ll be spending time outdoors this weekend, apply DEET to your feet, ankles, and legs, also to your shoes, socks, and cuffs. In theory you could also spray your lawn, but that’s much more involved. Applying DEET to yourself also gives you protection from mosquitoes and all the diseases they carry.
• Gray leaf spot causing St. Augustine to appear yellowed in large areas of the lawn. Blades will show diamond-shaped diseased spots along midribs and elsewhere on blades and runners. Avoid nitrogen fertilizers during hot weather and apply Azoxystrobin fungicide.
• Chinch bugs will cause areas in the hottest, sunniest parts of your St. Augustine turf to appear dry, but watering won’t help. You can see the BB-sized black bugs with white diamond-shaped patches on their wings if you examine the grass closely at the edges of the damaged area during the sunniest part of the day. Their damage will get worse quickly. Apply Imidacloprid if you see them.
• Tent caterpillars are rampant this year. Break the tents open so birds can feed on them. Trim them out if you can do so without damaging the shapes of the host plants. Sprays are effective, but they’re difficult because the populations are often high in trees and their webs repel water.
• Spider mites attack tomatoes, melons, marigolds, and a host of other landscape and vegetable plants. Thump leaves in question over a sheet of white paper. If tiny specks start to move about freely those are the mites. Control with a general-purpose insecticide that is labeled for mites.
• Leafrollers tie leaves of many species together as they build their cocoons. Look for them in sweetgums, redbuds, vinca groundcover, cotoneasters, pyracanthas, and many others. Imidacloprid systemic insecticide gives the best control, but only if applied 3-4 weeks prior to the pests’ arrival.