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Bloom: Gardening checklist for July
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Anonymous user Tue Jul 11, 2006 12:21:37 PDT
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0 responses 0 comments Before I leave you with the gardening checklist for July, I would like to respond to a recent article in The Bakersfield Californian.
The article stated, and I quote:
“You can’t buy a jacaranda tree in Bakersfield from a good nursery because the nursery owners are too wise to sell them.”
If this were true, then the nursery owners would also refrain from selling bougainvilleas and Syagrus romanzoffianum (queen palms).
All should be sold with the warning that young trees or plants are tender below 25 degrees Fahrenheit to 4 degrees Celsius, but often rebound from freezes.
Just one trip around town when the jacaranda trees are in full bloom will show you why people are willing to take a chance on this tree reaching maturity.
As with all plant material that is not specified for our zone (8-9), it should not be used as a structure plant for your landscape.
I am thankful for those persons who took the chance many years ago to plant bougainvillaea and jacaranda, as they are such a great spot of color to our community and many are generations old.
JULY GARDENING CHECKLIST
• Water early in the mornings as afternoons can turn quite hot. If it is an extremely hot day, run through your watering cycle one more time after the sun goes down. Water thoroughly; ample, deep watering encourages extensive root systems that help established plants withstand heat and drought.
• Continue feeding actively growing ornamentals, edibles, container gardens and house plants. (Exceptions are most natives and other tough Mediterranean-climate plants.) Give fruit trees their second of three annual feedings (feed them again in late summer).
• Supplement iron hungry plants with a chelated iron solution or FST. Severe iron deficiencies are common on citrus, gardenia, eucalyptus and many other plants. Symptoms include yellow leaves with green veins. Follow package directions carefully.
• Thin out lush, thick growth in the shade garden to let in light and improve air circulation. Such pruning can prevent insect infestations and fungus diseases (especially powdery mildew and rust). Hedges and plant material prone to mildew will benefit from monthly feedings with a high phosphorus fertilizer.
• Care for turfgrass: Feed, water, mow; feed, water, mow.
• Care for natives: Mulch now to retain soil moisture and protect roots from summer heat. As organic mulch decomposes, it will provide all the nutrients that most natives need.
• Pest management: Protect indoor plants from warm-weather pests. Using a hand lens or magnifying glass, check the undersides of leaves for thin, black greenhouse thrips and eight-legged spider mites. Their feeding causes stippled, bleached or silvered foliage. Flat, white mealybugs live on leaves, stems  or lodged in leaf axils and surround themselves with a cottony substance.
To manage any of these tiny critters, give them an occasional shower with room temperature water and/or spray them with insecticidal soap, following package directions (be sure your coverage includes the backs of leaves). Mealybugs can be daubed off with a cotton swab dipped in alcohol.

Joanna Reed writes a regular gardening column for The Southwest Voice. She is the owner of a local garden shop.

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