Garden Tips for June

Plant

• For adding color to perennial borders from now through fall, turn to drought-tolerant plants such as alstroemeria, coreopsis, Echinacea, yarrow, gaillardia, lavender, penstemon, and salvia.
• Sow bean, corn, and squash seed for vegetable harvesting from late summer into fall.
  
  

Maintenance

• Place a 1-inch-thick board or saucer under pots sitting on pavement to insulate them from radiated heat.
• Tie up vines.
• Stake tall plants such as dahlias, gladiolus, and lilies.
• Fertilize summer-blooming annuals and perennials.
• Cut back Shasta daisies after flowering to promote a second bloom in the fall.
• Thin grapes.
• After mid-June apply no fertilizer to citrus for the rest of the year.
• If in drought, prioritize water use in your garden! It may mean making tough decisions, but the water you save by letting a lawn go brown can be enough to grow summer edibles and save costly specimen trees. Don’t forget to water perennial trees in the lawn and landscape. Shade is valuable in the valley!
• Stake tomatoes as they grow if you did not set up trellising at planting time.
  
  

Pest control and disease

• Hand-pick stink bugs, hornworms, and other pests.
• Control codling moth larvae to protect apple and pear fruit.
• Don’t miss the last fire blight shoot strikes on apples, pears, and Asian pears before summer heat stops the problem. Remove new blight strikes weekly as needed. Always clean tools with a 10% bleach solution between cuts.