Number one August assignment is to sit back, relax and enjoy your summer garden in all its glory! Invite friends and neighbors over to show off and celebrate all your hard work!
If you can’t sit back and relax…there is plenty to do….
Consider seeding a fall crop of lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, peas etc. Basil and cilantro may also be sown now as there is still enough time for them to mature. Fresh 2019 Botanical Interests seeds now available.
Keep dead-heading flowers and harvesting ripe vegetables! This will encourage the plants to continue producing flowers and fruit all summer.
Prune summer flowering shrubs as flowers fade. It may be too late to prune spring flowering shrubs as you may remove next year’s flower buds. Remove any dead or diseased branches.
Keep up with your regular fertilizer applications and consider switching to a Blossom Booster formulation or reducing the rate by half.
How are your tomatoes growing? Now is the time to apply Fertilome Tomato & Pepper set to help promote flowering, increase blossom set and increase fruit yield. It is a natural plant hormone that provides Biological Grow Power when applied to flowers and adjacent foliage.
Problems with Blossom End Rot? The dark grey, black-sunken area on the blossom end of tomatoes. Fertilome Yield Booster with help stop and prevent blossom end rot caused by calcium deficiency when applied to foliage after fruit initiation and during sizing period. Or consider adding an application of Hi-Yield Calcium nitrate to boost calcium levels in the soil.
Budworms are showing up again!
Now is the time to treat for Budworm again. These little light green worms have two cycles per summer – early July and early August. Budworms prefer to feed on petunia, geranium and verbena plants. They feed on the flower buds of these species. You might notice that there are less and less flowers, flowers that looked chewed upon, or little black worm droppings in the leaves. Treat with the biological Natural Guard BT (Bacillus thurengiensis), available in ready to use spray or dust or spray with Bonide Eight or Captain Jack’s Deadbug. Treat now to help keep these flowers in full bloom all summer long.
