See the
Vegetable Gardening - Quick Reference Guide for suggested varieties and spacing.
Trees & Shrubs
Conserve water
and reduce incidence of root rots by avoiding watering schedules. Let the plants tell you when they need water.
Watch for early signs of water needs such as wilting, leaf curl, or subtle changes in color. These are the plant’s strategies for conserving water
and your sign that irrigation is appropriate.
Annual & Perennial Flowers
You can divide most perennials about anytime if they have gotten crowded or you want to get them started in another location.
Be sure plants are well watered before planting. Water them in after planting to ensure
good root-to-soil contact. Watch as new growth begins, and water on an as-needed basis. If you have areas that need pumping up
or a period with nothing in bloom, it's a good time to visit garden centers or public
gardens to see what is possible. Nearby public gardens include
JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh
North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill
The Sarah P. Duke Gardens in Durham
Give them a small amount of fertilizer ocassionally and keep them mulched. Water as needed, and these plants can
provide delightful color all summer. Remember it doesn't have to take up a large area or be a water wasteland. You
can make a remarkable difference with strategic placement of small beds or even a few carefully placed containers.
Keep the
Lawn mowed as necessary.
Recommended mowing heights are based largely on the ability of the grass to suppress weeds.
Bermudagrass,
Centipedegrass, and
Zoysiagrass
suppress weeds best when mowed at 1 inch. That's probably as low as your mower will go.
Fescue does a better job when kept at least 3 inches high, and 4 inches is not too tall during summer.
Mow frequently enough so that you do not remove more than 1/3 of the grass height.
There is no good reason to remove grass clippings unless the grass has gotten too
tall between mowings. Let them fall where they may.
Grass clippings return organic matter to your soil and do not cause thatch.
Once you input some initial information about your lawn, the system uses data from local weather stations as well as remote thunderstorm monitoring to
calculate water use (transpiration) and accumulation from rainfall or irrigation. The system will advise you when irrigation is called for. You may also
use a hand trowel to probe the soil and learn how deeply your lawn is rooted. When watering, an inch of water will penetrate about 6-8 inches in clay soils.
But there is no point in watering any deeper than the extent of the roots.
Fertilize?
Bermudagrass and
Zoysiagrass may benefit from a light application of fertilizer unless you have done that recently.
Remember that fertilizers are salts; you'll need to consider the water situation along with fertility.
Fertilizing now makes fescue lawns more susceptible to disease problems.
Mow fescue at 3 inches or higher to help reduce weed pressure.
Routine Chores
Walk around the lawn and gardens at least weekly
to monitor plants for problems during the growing seasons.
Regular monitoring allows you to develop a sense of how plants look. Then if there is a problem, you’re more likely to notice it early.
Early detection allows control before damage is severe and the plant unsightly. Take your favorite beverage in one hand, pruners in the other and unwind.
We will never eliminate weeds. We can suppress them with mulch. At a minimum try to avoid letting them drop seeds. Try to avoid
introducing new weed seeds when you bring in things like mulch, compost, and manure. Hand pull annual weeds. Use a tool to get beneath
the roots when pulling perennial weeds. Be careful when using tools such as hoes around the roots of desirable plants. If you use
herbicides, pay attention to details. Make sure the product includes your site/crop on the label. Mix carefully. Check the label for
any temperature/humidity guidelines to minimize injury to desirable plants. Wear appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE)
as directed on the label.
At a minimum you should be wearing a hat, long sleeves, long pants, and close-toed washable shoes. Depending on the product, you may also
need things like gloves or goggles especially when mixing.
Mulch can help suppress weeds as well as reducing moisture loss.
Mulch helps moderate temperature in the soil and maintains moisture. It allows the soil to cool gradually in the fall.
Water conservation is good for plants. Extension Agents typically see more injury from excessive watering than from infrequent watering.
Recent plantings will need more frequent attention than established plants. But in all cases, hold off on watering until you have confirmed that the plant needs more water.
Soil testing can be done at any time of year.
Boxes and forms are available at your
County Extension Office. Summer is often not a busy season for the Agronomic Lab. Check their website for
Estimated Processing Time.
It's OK to sample now even if you won't be doing soil preparation for several months.
Get samples in as soon as possible for timely reports.
For quickest action get them directly to Raleigh yourself rather than leaving them at any local collection point where they may sit for days or weeks.
You can mail them to the address on the form or deliver them to
the lab in Raleigh. From the State Fairgrounds, go north on
Blue Ridge Road. When you see the Art Museum on the right, turn left on Reedy Creek Rd. The lab is about 1/2 mile down
Reedy Creek Rd. on the right.
Things to Watch For
Blossom-end-rot of tomatoes
BER results from calcium deficiency. Deficiency may be artificially induced by water stress. Keep plants mulched to maintain constant soil moisture.
Foliar applications of calcium nitrate or calcium chloride available at your garden center can provide temporary relief. Before next year, have a
soil sample analyzed to
determine if the calcium deficiency is part of a need for liming.
Dieback in Rhododendron
When an entire branch or section of the plant dies, pruning is in order. When you cut out the dead stem, look at the stem
cross-section. If it's all brown or brown on one side, prune further until the stem is completely green. Then sterilize
your pruners and make one more cut. The sooner you prune it out, the less damage there will be.
By this time of summer, many of these beneficial insects have built up notable populations.
Among their benefits are feeding on insects (such as caterpillars and grasshoppers) that damage plants and pollinating our food supply.
Disadvantages include those annoying stings. Careful observers will notice high activity and avoid those areas. Always look carefully
before sipping a sweet beverage that has been sitting exposed when
yellow jackets are about.
on any junipers, arbor-vitae, and especially Leyland cypress. This late in the summer, the caterpillars are harder to kill. The
gentler insecticides that might have worked earlier in the summer will likely be less effective now. Left untreated, bagworms can do
permanent long term injury to conifers. You may have to use products such as malathion or sevin at this point.
And hand removal of "bags" is always a good idea.
There are many caterpillars, the larval stage of butterflies and moths. Many feed on plants. Plants can often tolerate it. And
that's a good thing because most of us can't spray full sized trees anyway. Newly planted trees or shrubs may need protection. In
some cases protection can be achieved by quickly pruning a stem or shaking the feeders on the ground.
Observing is about as effective as anything else you can do. Fortunately, most established plants can tolerate the foliar feeding.
They may look a bit rough for a while, but they probably won't die. If you're handpicking, hold a jar of soapy water beneath them before
disturbing. Since they drop when disturbed, you're more likly to catch them that way. Traps typically attract more beetles than they
catch and may make the problem worse. Still some folks empty their traps daily or more often and say they can keep the critters under
control. The rest of us are about evenly divided between those who fret about it and those who don't; we get about the same amount of damage
whether we fret or not. The good news is - they will soon be gone. The bad news? They'll be back next year.
These tiny insects (sometimes called plant lice) tend to congregate on the tender growth of plants. The insects may be
white, green, pink, red, brown, or black. They move slowly or not at all, content to sit there sucking juices out of your plants.
Sometimes affected plant cells die causing plant parts to develop a
distorted appearance. Aphids ingest more plant sugars than they can process and their excretions, known as honey dew, serve as a
substrate for
sooty mold. This black coating interferes with photosynthesis but does not harm the plant otherwise. To control sooty mold requires
control of the aphid or other insect providing the substrate. Aphids have many natural enemies. If they are numerous, they can also
be controlled with a wide range of comparitively low hazard insecticides such as insecticidal soaps.
These insects are primarily pests of azalea and Rhododendron but sometimes show up on Pyracantha, Cotoneaster, quince, hawthorne, or
sycamore. They are especially active on new growth, which may take on a lacy white or bronzed "washed-out" appearance.
If you look for them, you may find adults or juveniles on the lower side of new leaves. You may also find dark spots about the size of a pinhead.
These dots of excrement placed over eggs inserted in the leaf are sufficient to diagnose lace bugs. Lace bugs can be controlled with a variety of
insecticides applied to the lower surface of the leaf. It usually takes two applications at about two weeks apart to get good control. Then
monitor the plants about once a month for reinfestations. For serious infestations, pruning out the most seriously affected plant parts
actually removes a lot of the insects as well as eggs.
are difficult to watch for, but monitoring traps are available (Google "dogwood borer trap"). Barriers of pyrethroid insecticides applied to
the lower trunk can be
effective but must be reapplied periodically throughout the summer. Avoid any injury to the trunk, especially with mowers and weed trimmers.
Borers are
good at finding the injury. There are no effective strategies after the borers are present, so prevention is important.
The two-spotted spider mite thrives in hot weather and affects more different host plants than
any other arthropod pest throughout the southeastern U.S. Use the white paper test to monitor for them. Hold a piece of paper (or even a white glove)
under a stem and shake the foliage vigorously. Pause and observe the debris that falls out. Ignore anything that moves quickly.
Watch for a speck smaller than a period on this page to begin moving slowly. This is likely a spider mite. If you
confirm the presence of mites, look for more information about
Two-spotted spider mites in this insect note.
Many insects will be attracted to porch lights or even lighted windows.
If any of these are particularly annoying, turning off lights may encourage them to move on. Motion sensors can be used to allow outdoor
lighting on an as-needed basis only. You may also notice
spiders find the lights attractive feeding areas. They simply build their web near the
light and wait for dinner to show up in the form of insects. Pound for pound, spiders are among the most effective insect predators
we know. There are many opportunities to introduce children to the webs of life.
The single most effective means of reducing mosquito populations is to eliminate standing water. Some commonly overlooked sources of standing water
include roof gutters; tarps on boats, lawn furniture, or firewood; children's toys; buckets (even when upside down); bird baths; and dishes under plants.
Water for pets and birds should be changed and cleaned at least weekly. In most cases, protecting yourself with
mosquito repellent products will be more practical than broadcast treatments of insecticides. But elimination of standing water is
still the best long term strategy.
This page created and maintained by
al_cooke@ncsu.edu
Monday, June 29, 2009,
Most Recent Revision June 29, 2009
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