Start fall vegetable garden: sow lettuce, broccoli, carrots, beets, peas, and garlic. Keep soil moist until seeds germinate.
Maintenance
Continue to mulch plants to control weeds and conserve moisture.
Cut off spent flowers for continued bloom of perennials and annuals. However, minimizing deadheading now will allow seed-bearing plants to form seeds and attract birds.
Fertilize begonias, annuals, and container plants.
Fertilize chrysanthemums until the buds start to open.
Pull up spent summer vegetables and toss them into the compost bin unless they look diseased. Diseased plants should be put in the green-waste bin.
Dig and divide overcrowded irises when the foliage dies off.
Deep-water landscape trees during heat waves. Pay special attention to young trees with more limited root zones that dry out more quickly.
Pest and disease control
Check tomatoes for fusarium wilt, evidenced by leaves that are yellowing or wilting after watering. Toss infected plants into the green-waste bin. To avoid this soil-borne fungal disease next year, select disease-resistant tomato varieties (marked with an F on their plant tag) and don’t plant tomatoes in the same spot next year.
Finish pruning apricots now to avoid Eutypa fungus. Protect limbs from sunburn by not over-pruning. Avoid pruning during the rainy season.
Address fire blight: Any apple or pear tree branches that exhibit symptoms of blight missed earlier should be removed one foot below visible disease. Be sure to clean tools with a 10% bleach solution between cuts.
