PESTS & DISEASES | EXPERTS | TREES | ANGELA'S PICKS
Maintenance this month- August
- Prune mophead hydrangeas (Hydrangea macrophylla) when they finish blooming. Since these "old wood" bloomers begin forming next season's buds in August/September/October, pruning right after current season's blooms have faded minimizes chances of removing flowering wood. For more info, see HydrangeasHydrangeas.com
- Adjust irrigation system for warm-weather conditions: Download the free UC publication "Lawn Watering Guide for California". This excellent guide solves the mystery of when to water and how much to apply. Pay special attention to young or newly-planted additions to your garden and check your pots daily!
- Perennials:
Continue deadheading spent flowers. Take cuttings from geranium, salvia, verbena, and other herbaceous perennials. After dipping in rooting hormone, plant in 50/50 perlite/peat moss mix. Enclose pots in clear plastic bags or seedstarting dome (give occasional air). Roots should form in a couple weeks, but wait several more before planting out.
Dig, divide and replant bearded iris.
- Early ordering of fall-planted spring bulbs: Bulb companies like early orders and offer discounts.
- Cane berries: Cut back June-bearing blackberries, raspberries and boysenberries after harvesting. Sunset says, "Cut the woody, spent canes back to the ground and tie up the flexible new ones."
- Herbs: Keep from flowering to redirect energy to leaf production. Do this by harvesting often!
- Weed patrol: an ongoing task...
- Lawns: Adjust mower height so grass is a little taller. This will help reduce stress during summer temps.
- Feed garden plants with a balanced fertilizer if green leaves are looking chlorotic (and it's not due to other circumstances like overwatering, etc.) Liquid fert. like Miracle-Gro or a fish/kelp organic fertilizer gives the fastest results. A slow-release granular or pelletized fert. will feed slowly for months. Roses and citrus are heavy feeders. Are yours on a regular feeding program?
- Stake top-heavy perennials like dahlia and gladiolus.
- Got ants in your fruit trees? Ants don't damage trees directly, but they do nurse aphids and scale. Apply a Tanglefoot or sticky tape barrier around the lower part of the main trunk.
- Suckers & water sprouts: Watch for these in trees and shrubs. Remove so they don't sap strength of trees, shrubs.
- Watch for pests: Visit the IPM website for control measures.
- Fruit trees: Clean up fallen fruit to avoid pest and diseases. If you haven't done so already, paint trunks of young fruit trees with interior white latex paint cut 50% with water to protect against sunscald.
- Mulch, Mulch, Mulch to help conserve soil moisture, protect roots from heat, suppress weeds and protect topsoil!
- Wash off plants in early morning, not afternoon or evening, to avoid disease problems.