|
 Water
As the temperatures heat up and the spigot in the sky turns off,
providing supplemental water to our plants is often necessary. There
are a variety of ways you can go about watering your plants. From
just the hose with a nozzle, over-head sprinklers, or drip
irrigation, each has its advantages and disadvantages. However you
decide to water your plants, in general, most will need 1-2 inches
of water a week, either through rainfall or irrigation. Just
remember infrequent deep watering is better than frequent shallow
watering.
Make sure to keep a close eye on your raised beds and container
gardens. Raised beds and containers dry out much quicker than plants
in the ground. Therefore, these will likely need to be watered more
frequently. It’s not uncommon to have to water potted plants daily
during particularly hot, dry stretches of weather.
Don’t forget to water recently planted trees and shrubs. These
plants will need to be watered until they are established in the
landscape, which can take several years. While shrubs will typically
establish themselves in one to two years and small trees in 2-3
years, larger trees can take much longer (over five years).
Most turf grown are cool-season species, meaning they’ll go dormant
during the summer. Once temperatures begin to cool again in the
fall, it will green back up. If you want to keep your grass green
throughout the summer, you’ll need to irrigate. If you decide to
irrigate, you need to do it consistently; sporadic watering can pull
turf in and out of dormancy, causing stress that can impact its
health.
Weeds
As the plants in our landscapes take off with the arrival of warm
weather, so do weeds. Make sure you stay on top of weeds and don’t
allow them to go to seed. Mechanical (hand pulling, hoeing, etc.) is
a good way to control small weeds or weeds in small areas.
If you have large areas of weeds, herbicides may be the best option
for management. Herbicides can be selective, which only kill certain
types of plants. For example, 2,4-D will work on broadleaf plants
but not grasses. They can also be broad spectrum and will affect a
wide variety of different plants, such as glyphosate. Identifying
what types of weeds you have can be helpful when determining what
herbicide to use. Timing can also be important with herbicide. The
larger a plant gets, the more difficult it becomes to control it,
even when using herbicides.
One concern with applying herbicides in warm weather is vapor drift.
As temperatures get warmer, particularly over 85 degrees, some
herbicides are more prone to vaporizing. When this happens, they can
move away from the area they were applied and drift onto desirable
plants. Make sure to read and follow all label directions.
Mulching your plants can also help keep weeds down not only in
flower beds and around trees, but also in vegetable gardens. Try
using organic mulches like wood chips, straw, or shredded leaves.
Not only will they help keep weeds down, as they break down they
will also add organic matter to the soil.
Pests
Just like with many of our weeds, pest populations can also explode
as the temperatures continue to heat up. It is important to go out
and scout your landscape at least once a week. This will help you
keep track of what’s going on in your garden and help you stay on
top of any pests that may be present. Like
with weeds, make sure you are properly identifying insects and
diseases in your landscape. Some of them will warrant control, some
you can live with, and others may not be pests at all!
 [to top of second
column] |
When managing pests in your landscape, try to utilize
IPM practices. Depending on the pest you’re dealing with, there may
be management options other than spraying pesticides. Often using
cultural (disease resistant cultivars, altering planting dates),
physical (netting plants, handpicking pests), and biological
(conserving natural enemies) management techniques can provide
adequate control of pests without the use of pesticides.
Make sure to remove any standing/stagnant water every 5-7 days to
prevent them from turning into mosquito breeding grounds. For
example, if you have a birdbath in your yard, make sure to change
water frequently to help prevent standing water. Also, make sure you
empty drip trays under potted plants and empty wading/kiddie pools.
Flowers
Many annual flowers don’t require much care other than the
occasional watering. However, some will benefit from deadheading
(removing old flowers). Doing this encourages the plants to produce
more flowers and helps keep them from looking ragged. This can be
done by pinching the old flowers off with your fingers or with
pruning shears. Some annuals that may benefit from deadheading are
geraniums, marigolds, salvia, and snapdragons.
Annuals can also be pinched back. Pinching removes the tips of the
plants and encourages them to branch. This causes plants to be
shorter and fuller. This increased branching can lead to more blooms
on plants too. Pinching can be done at any time, but a good time to
do it is when the plants begin to get leggy and flop.
Some perennial plants like mums and autumn joy sedum will also
benefit from being pinched back. For example, mums can be pinched
back (remove ½ to 1 inch) when they are about 6 inches tall (often
around mid-June) and then again when the plant again reaches 6-8
inches tall (around mid-July, many people do it around July 4th).
Like with annuals, this will cause plants to be more compact (and
less prone to flopping open) and have more flowers.
Vegetables
If you haven’t done so already, harvest your cool-season crops like
lettuce, broccoli, and spinach. As the temperatures get warmer, the
quality of these plants will decline, and they will begin to bolt
(flower).
Make sure you’re harvesting vegetables like cucumbers, sweet corn,
and green beans at the proper time. Cucumbers can be picked at any
stage, but make sure to pick them before they start to turn yellow.
Green beans should be picked when they are fully elongated but
before the seeds have gotten too large. Sweet corn should be
harvested when it is in the milk stage (kernels will have a milky
liquid when pierced). Also, keep up with harvesting your other
vegetables, such as tomatoes and peppers.
Come July and August, you can begin planting your fall garden. Many
cool-season vegetables that we grow in the spring, like broccoli,
cabbage, carrots, lettuce, and spinach, can be planted again in
mid-to-late summer to extend our growing season. Many of these crops
end up doing better because they are developing as the weather cools
as opposed to in the spring, where they are developing as
temperatures warm.
Finally, take some time to relax and enjoy your garden.
[Written by Ken Johnson, University of
Illinois Extension, Horticulture Educator]
|
