Pruning & Maintenance
Fertilize & Disease Control
Misc. Yard & Garden

Divide & Plant
Garden How To's


 •  Summer Color  •  Coleus
 •  Biennials  •  Citrus and Avocado Trees
 •  Azaleas  •  Vegetables
 •  Water Lily and Other Aquatic Plants  •  Cacti and Succulents 
 •  Fuschsias and Gardenia  •  Tropicals
 •  Warm- & Cool-Season Grasses 
 •  Chrysanthemum, Euryops, Gameolepis and Marguerites
 
Purchase & Plant

Summer Color

Find pony packs and "color packs" for instant color. Don't forget to loosen the roots up when you put them in the ground. There usually isn’t much rain through the summer, so choose drought-tolerant plants and group them according to their need for water, shade, sun and type of soil. Prepare your soil well before planting. Apply a garden mulch after planting to protect the tender plants from the hot sun. Including a root stimulator/starter such as Best Start by Best or Bandini Bloom Plus at the time of planting will help your new plants get off to a good start.

Plant heat-loving celosias, marigold, portulaca, vinca and zinnias early in the month. You will have a short season of color, but thanks to the warm weather, the seeds will sprout fast. 

Impatiens are easy to grow and nearly always in bloom. Put them into the ground using loose acid soil, hang them in baskets or keep them in the containers you bought them in. They do well in shady or semi-shady spots. Wait until fall to plant them in direct sun. With new varieties constantly emerging, there is a wide assortment to choose from to suit most any area of your garden. Water impatiens often, daily if grown in containers. They are one of the few plants that you almost can't over water. 

Biennials Biennials like Canterbury bells, foxglove and sweet William can be started from seeds now. They won’t bloom for two years, but are well worth the wait. 

Mix potting soil and milled peat moss with well-dug soil. Sprinkle the tiny seeds on the surface, pressing them into the soil, but don’t cover them (they need light to germinate). Mist with water, cover with plastic to keep them moist, and place in a warm shady spot. When they have sprouted, remove the cover. Feed with a well-diluted solution of Liquinox Fish Emulsion when there are two real leaves. Transplant into the garden in late August or September.

Azaleas The best time to plant azaleas is when they are in bloom and their roots are dormant. Plant them in partial shade and once the blooms fade they will start to grow and send out new roots. They are a bit particular about watering. A drip system is the easiest way to keep them watered and healthy. (See the Pruning section for more information.)
Coleus This plant is exceptional when a single color is planted in a drift with other shade-loving plants. It is quite particular, so pay attention to where it is planted and what it is planted with. If it gets too much sun it will burn, and too much shade it will look sick. If kept too soggy, the leaves will fall off, but keep it damp and planted in slightly acidic soil. Snails particularly like it, so keep bait around it. Keep the flowers pinched back as they weaken the plant.
Fuchsias and Gardenias Choose both of these plants according to the environment that they will live in. White and lighter colored fuchsias require more shade, while darker and small single varieties can take more sun. They will not bloom in the shade. If you live inland, grow heat resistant fuchsias like bonanza, California, carnival, checkerboard, display and papoose. Swingtime is the easiest and will grow in the ground or in a container.

Keep gardenias where cool night air can help them develop and away from patios, porches or near house walls where the night temperatures will be too warm. They prefer acid soil with good drainage and adequate moisture. Keep them mulched. They can take full sun on the coast or part shade inland. They also require regular fertilizing.

Water Lily and Other Aquatic plants Water lilies and other aquatic plants can be found at many nurseries around San Diego and put into your pond. Your pond surface should be covered approximately 60% with plants and roots which will help  keep balance in your pond. Algae requires sunlight to thrive, so shading the pond with aquatic plants can help you cut down dramatically on algae as well as helping to maintain the optimum pH of 8.0. Hyacinth and water lettuce are favorite floating plants and the multiply very rapidly. Once you find the right balance of plants and fish, your pond will be very easy to maintain.

When adding any new plants to your pond, notice the depth of water they came from and place them at about that same depth. Use common bricks (on sale now) or plastic plant baskets to raise or lower them not concrete or cinder blocks. Concrete contains calcium carbonate that raises the pH very fast. In general, the pH is high here in San Diego, so putting cinder blocks or concrete of any kind is not recommended in a pond. Fish and plants have a hard time surviving. 

Chrysanthemums, Euryops, Gamolepis and  Marguerites

All of these plants root easily. For mums, bend the stalks from the tips until they snap—about 3-5" to make cuttings. Then dip the end in "Rootone". There should be at least two leaf buds. Place in flats with damp, fast-draining planting mix. Cover with plastic and put them in a brightly lit shady spot. Put them in the ground once rooted and feed for growth. Pinch them back through August to encourage bushiness once they begin to grow. Stake as needed. 
Tropicals Most tropical fruit and flowering trees, palms, flowers and vines are planted when they are actively growing. Spring is the best time to put them in the ground. The objective is to get them in early so they can take all summer to get established and hopefully they will harden in the late fall to prepare for possible frost.

Put in a bougainvillea, cassias, coral tree, crape myrtle, tree ferns, floss silk tree, gardenia, ginger, hibiscus or a palm for that Southern California feeling. If you live in a hot interior valley it may be too hot to plant them now. Keep them fed and watered throughout the summer.

Tropical fruit trees can benefit by the warm weather when planted now, but don't plant them if it's too hot. Try avocado, banana, cherimoya, citrus trees, guava, pineapple or a sapote. 

White Sapote bears a wonderful fruit with a custard-like texture. Though it is not well known, this native Mexican tree offers a dense cover for shade and can be grown wherever citrus trees grow.

Warm- and Cool-Season Grasses

Warm- and cool-season grasses can be planted from seed this month or sod any month of the year, but cool-season grasses do better when planted in October. Coastal area lawns should have a half inch of water every three days and inland, about one inch in three days. Water between midnight and dawn for best results.

Determine what type of lawn will be best suited for your needs. Warm-season grasses go dormant in the winter and are invasive. Cool-season lawns stay green but require much more water. Also consider, traffic, maintenance and water requirements before deciding. See How-to-Projects for the garden above for detailed planting information.

Zoysia planted from plugs or stolens now will take off faster and beat the weeds. Plant stolens at 12 bushels per 1,000 square feet and plugs at 9" apart on center. It will fill in if watered and weeded regularly (though it is practically immune to weeds).  Feed it when the color fades and cut at 5/8" with a reel mower.

Cacti and
Succulents
Most Southern California gardens contain at least one cactus or succulent. Many gardeners don’t know the difference between the two. All succulents store water in the leaves or stems and are drought tolerant, but most do not have spines. 

Cacti are one family within the succulent group. Cacti all have spine cushions and "aeroles" or spines. Many can be planted as ground cover or in rock gardens. Succulents can be planted year-round. When planted in the ground, many can take full sun and others need some shade, especially those grown in containers. Check with your nursery for guidelines on how much sun the plant you choose can take. Water when the soil is dry one inch below the surface, or about every 1–5 weeks starting now.

Citrus and
Avocado Trees
When planted now, avocado and citrus trees will benefit from the warm sun when they are establishing their roots. They need good draining soil. Check with a nursery on which variety of citrus trees are be best for your area. Keep them well watered, daily if in containers. 

Don’t let these trees dry out or you may not be able to keep fruit on them. Deep watering is key in July and August. Let the hose run slowly on the ground at about a third of the way from the trunk to that far past the drip line. Make sure not to water the trunk of citrus trees, as they are prone to gummosis, a fungus disease. Use a soil auger or tensiometer to determine when to water.

Vegetables The earlier the better when planting vegetables. Read the seed packages and count the days until harvest to determine what you will plant now, especially if you will need space in September for winter veggies. Make sure to clean up the rows, add soil amendment and fertilizer before planting more crops. Keep rows damp and mist a couple of times daily. You can plant corn, cucumbers, eggplant, tomatoes and turnips now. Year round plant beets radishes, turnips and Swiss chard.

Remember to rotate vegetables to cut down on pests and to prevent soil depletion. Try planting something totally different when you have cleared a row. Planting herbs and marigolds in with the vegetables will confuse insects and help control them as well.

Keep the area harvested to make room for planting more veggies and to help prevent pests and disease. Remember not to plant too much of one crop at a time and rotate vegetables you plant so you don’t become overwhelmed. For example, two or three plants of zucchini are enough for a family of four. Plant seeds in intervals of 2–3 weeks using a partial package of seeds and you’ll have veggies all summer long. Try planting different varieties of the same crop, your family will enjoy testing the differences in variety, size and sweetness.

Vegetable gardens need full sun, so arrange your garden from north to south to make the best use of light. Plant tall crops to the north and short crops to the south. If you have clay or sandy soil add plenty of organic soil amendment. Plant raised beds if the soil is hard or has poor drainage. Most vegetables need an inch or more water a week. Installing a drip system is the best way to ensure proper watering in our area. By putting the water where the roots are you will use about 50 percent less water.

   



 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 



 


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