Gardening This Weekend: June 25, 2026
We’re heading into mid-summer, which means you have a yard filled with plants that are counting on your care and attention. Here are the guidelines.
PLANT
• Annuals for hot-weather color. Buy fully grown pots and hanging baskets for instant color. Repot into larger patio containers.
• Tomatoes (from transplants) and pumpkins (from seed) in the next two weeks for your fall garden. In both cases, stay with small to mid-sized varieties for best success.
• Crape myrtles while they are still in full bloom in Texas garden centers. Transport them home carefully. Plant them immediately. Water them deeply every 2 days the rest of the summer.
PRUNE
• Erratic and unwanted shoots from shrubs and vines to keep things tidy.
• Spent flower stalks and dead foliage from perennials.
• Keep mowing lawn at recommended height. Raising mowing height does not improve its chance of surviving heat and drought. It produces lanky, weak turf that invites weeds.
FERTILIZE
• Annual color with water-soluble, high-nitrogen food weekly to keep plants growing actively. That’s especially important for plants in patio pots and hanging baskets.
• Iron/sulfur product to correct iron deficiency (yellow leaves with dark green veins, most prominent on newest growth at tips of branches first). Sulfur helps lower soil pH to keep the iron soluble. Keep iron products off painted and masonry surfaces that could be stained.
• Bermuda turf every 8 weeks with all-nitrogen fertilizer with 30 to 40 percent of its nitrogen in slow-release or encapsulated form.
ON THE LOOKOUT
• Spot-treat (glyphosate-only herbicide) or hand-dig clumps of dallisgrass out of turf. There are no products to eliminate it in established lawns at consumer level. Make application of weedkiller spray directly to clumps. Avoid over-spray onto adjacent grass.
• Leafrollers tying leaves of redbuds, sweetgums, vinca groundcover, pyracanthas, cotoneasters, and other landscape plants together. Systemic insecticide Imidacloprid gives best prevention, but it requires 2-3 weeks of lead time. Mark calendar to make earlier application next year.
• Lacebugs turning leaves of pyracanthas, azaleas, boxwoods, Boston ivy, and other shrubs and even trees tan. Look for black, waxy specks on backs of affected leaves. Contact insecticides work well, but you can also apply systemic insecticides for long-term prevention and control.