Clearing the garden of dead leaves and perennial trimmings used to be de riguer at this time of year, but our garden wisdom has changed.  While some gardeners are “neatniks” needing swept-clean garden surfaces and perennials trimmed-back to ground level, we’ve learned that it’s much more sustainably supportive of our garden soil and beneficial insects and pollinators to leave those dead bloom stalks as fodder for overwintering beneficials and birds, and the other plant debris as mulch covering soil surfaces.
     I used to cut down my perennials to give rain a place to hit the soil more directly to be absorbed more readily, but now I leave them standing, especially if they have seed pods, for the birds and lizards and other critters needing protective housing. 
     The dried foliage from Spring-blooming plants has protected the soil from summer’s beating heat and will remain also. That wonderful rain we had earlier this month did reach the soil underneath it, and the soil still remains barely moist all these weeks later.  So the soil critters are happy, I’m sure, with all that insulation and food.
     Even pathways are strewn with dried foliage bits that’s deterred much weed-seed germination from those rains.  It’s a good place for larger-sized leaves to be left, to literally shade the soil and keep many weed seeds from sprouting.  Besides, leaving them in pathways is less laborious than shredding them for the compost pile.
     It’s been years since I turned my soil when I scattered manure and compost and organic fertilizer between changing edible crops.  The soil’s microorganisms have developed their own connective networks that I don’t want to disturb.  So, instead of turning the soil and amendments to the full depth of my spading fork, I now use a hand-fork to barely combine the different elements ready for scattering my seeds and planting my seedlings. 
     Then I use the lowest sprinkle setting on my hose wand to barely settle in the seeds and transplants, repeating the barely-wetting several times so to avoid creating rivers that redistribute the seed elsewhere and foil my labeling placement.  I repeat this barely-wetting procedure every day in the evenings to keep the soil barely moist and well-connected to the seeds to facilitate their germination, and to encourage the transplants to reach out into the soil to establish new roots that anchor them to their new home.
     Of course, any plants that were diseased or infested with insects should definitely be cut back to the ground and removed from the garden entirely to the trash – and NOT the compost pile!  I dispose of all tomato plant remains, even if the varieties were labeled as disease resistant.  I just don’t want even the merest possibility of bad stuff proliferating in my garden!
 
For more garden tasks, see November.
 
For more major-topic discussions from past blogs, see Homepage.

     “Fall Is For Planting” was a novel marketing suggestion years ago by nurseries that wanted to encourage gardeners to continue buying vegetables and flowers and shrubs and trees and houseplants through the coolness of the Fall and Winter and Early Spring seasons.
     For Southern California gardeners, this has always been a no-brainer, at least on the coast and lowlands.  Arousing ourselves after the exhaustive summer growing season, the still-warmish days and barely-coolish evenings make for even more successful growing conditions. 
​     My Mom used to sow lettuce seeds every week throughout the year, and the Fall-through-Spring harvests were always the most tasty and vibrant. 
     As we progress into the even cooler soil and air conditions of Winter, plants will grow more slowly, so it’s important that our sowings and transplantings now through Thanksgiving are plentiful and established well enough to provide sufficient harvests through Spring when we’ll concentrate on warm-season lovers.
     Here’s what I’ll be sowing, in case you’d like to join me in enjoying these particular varieties. Some are old standbys, and some are new for me this time around.  I’ve specified my source for some; varieties without a source are generally available.
 
Artichoke
Globe, Monticello
 
Beet
Early Wonder Tall Top
Little Queen
Ruby Queen
 
Broccoli
Romanesco, Gourmet
 
Carrot
Baby, Gourmet
Danvers Half Long
Little Finger
Scarlet Nantes
Tendersweet
 
Cilantro
 
Kohlrabi
Purple Vienna
White Vienna
 
Leaf Brassicas:  Bok Choy, Kale, Tatsoi
Baby Pak Choi, Peaceful
Bok Choy Purple Lady, Baker
Chinese Broccoli Kailaan, Botanical
Chinese Kale
Gai Lohn, Gourmet
Green Glaze Collards
Komatsuna Spinach Mustard, Baker
Lacinato Kale
Tatsoi, Peaceful
 
Leek
Geant D’Hiver, Gourmet
Large American Flag, Gourmet
Long Mezier, Gourmet
 
Lettuce
Bibb
Black Seeded Simpson
Brown Dutch, Monticello
Buttercrunch
Ciucca, Franchi
Cosmic Crimson Mix, Baker
Freckles, Peaceful
May Queen, Baker
Passion Brune, Franchi
Quattro Stagioni, Franchi
Red Riding Butterhead, Sweet
Red Salad Bowl
Rossa Di Trento, Franchi
Sanguine Ameliore, Baker
Spotted Aleppo, Monticello
Tennis Ball, Baker
Tom Thumb, Baker
Valentine, Botanical
 
Parsley
Italian Flat Leaf
 
Peas, Edible Flat Pod
Oregon Sugar Pod II
 
Peas, Edible Full Pod
Amish Snap, Seed
Cascadia
Dwarf Sugar Grey, Gourmet
Mangetout Carouby, Gourmet
Royal II Sugar Snap, Johnny’s
Sugar Ann
Super Sugar Snap
 
Peas, Shelling
Alaska, Ferry
Frosty, Lake
Green Arrow, Botanical
Kelvedon Wonder, Baker
King Tut Purple, Baker
Laxton’s Progress #9, Baker
Lincoln, Baker
Little Marvel, Baker
Pisello Messa Rama Rondo, Franchi
Pisello Nano Piccolo Provenzale, Franchi
Pisello Rampicante Telefono, Franchi
Serpette, Gourmet
Wando
 
Spinach
Bloomsdale Longstanding
 
Swiss Chard
Fordhook Giant
Heirloom Rainbow
Neon Lights Blend, Burpee
 
SOURCES
Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company, https://www.rareseeds.com/

Botanical Interests, https://www.botanicalinterests.com/

Burpee, https://www.burpee.com/

Ferry-Morse, https://ferrymorse.com/

Franchi Seeds From Italy,  https://www.growitalian.com/

Johnny’s Selected Seeds, https://www.johnnyseeds.com/

Lake Valley Seed, https://lakevalleyseed.com/

Le Jardin du Gourmet / Artistic Gardens, https://www.artisticgardens.com/

Monticello Garden Seeds, https://www.monticelloshop.org/garden/

Peaceful Valley Farm Supply, https://www.groworganic.com/

Seed Savers Exchange, https://www.seedsavers.org/

​
For more garden tasks, see November

     Cleaning our air is accomplished by every plant in the garden and home.  Plants clean the air we breathe by taking in carbon dioxide and releasing oxygen, they increase humidity by transpiring water vapor through microscopic leaf pores, and they absorb pollutants on leaves and in the plant root-soil system.
 
Plant Foliage
     Through the process of photosynthesis, plant leaves absorb chemicals, bacteria, or harmful elements floating on the breeze, which they then filter into useful waste products like water and oxygen – “waste” products that we humans thrive upon.  That benefits us because we take in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide.  So we’re a perfect match:  When we talk to our plants, we expel the carbon dioxide that they need, and in return, they absorb our carbon dioxide and expel the oxygen that we need. Our respiration provides what they need, and their respiration provides what we need.
     Some of the best plants for cleaner air according to some studies and other sources include:

• Aloe Vera
• Areca Palm
• Anthurium
• Bamboo Palm (Chamaedorea seifrizii)
• Banana Tree
• Birds’ Nest Fern (Asplenium antiquum)
• Butterfly Palm
• Boston Fern
• Sword fern
• Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema modestum)
• Pot Mum (Chrysanthemum morifolium)
• Dieffenbachia
• Dragon Tree ‘Janet Craig’ (Dracaena fragrans ‘Janet Craig’)
• Dragon Tree ‘Marginata’ (Dracaena marginata)
• Corn Plant (Dracaena fragrans ‘Massangeana’)
• English Ivy (Hedera helix)
• Gerbera Daisy (Gerbera jamesonii)
• Golden Pothos (Epipremnum aureum)
• Lady Palm
• Money Plant (Pilea peperomioides)
• Mother-in-law's Tongue (Sansevieria laurentii)
• Orchid
• Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum "Mauna Loa")
• Philodendron
• Rubber Plant
• Snake Plant (Sansevieria fischeri, masoniana, trifasciata)
• Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum)
• Weeping Fig (Ficus)

 
Which is the best single plant?
       Chrysanthemum, especially in bloom.
 
How many plants in a room?
     Two “good sized” plants in a room of 100 square feet.  But a whole nursery-full would be even more enjoyable!
 
Plant Roots
     Plant roots also help to take in any errant chemicals or heavy metals that might be lurking in your soil.  This process is called phytoremediation.  The roots then “lock up” those toxins, and the plants can then be burned. The resulting ash is light, small, and easy to store.  Some effective plants include alfalfa, corn, Date palms, mustard greens, sunflowers, poplar and willow trees, and water ferns and water hyacinths.
 

​     I’ve just begun to feel back to normal following our week of over-100-degree temperatures, and my garden is showing its relief as well.  Foliage is perky enough, a tribute to my earlier “training” plants to grow deeply for their water since they haven’t been watered in 3 weeks.  I’m sure they’ll continue to do well until we’re allowed to water again (however minimally) when the Metropolitan Water District repairs are completed.
  Now, with mild daytime and nighttime temperatures, it's time to get started with Fall gardening opportunities!  
 
Propagating Overgrown Succulents
  I’m doing lots of trimming overgrowth of my succulents that have thrived through the summer, and potting up the cuttings. 
     I’ve watered the cuttings using the water evacuated from my room air conditioner.  Boy, what a surprise benefit!  I’ve found that when the AC was on for a full day – from about 11am through 8pm – the water pulled from the air filled a 5-gallon bin.  It was too heavy to move when it was full, and initially I used a smaller bucket to transfer the water to my container plants ten feet away.  Then I figured out to put the empty large bucket onto a roller cart that I could roll to my long row of container plants to water them.  Talk about recycling!  I’ll almost be sorry when I won’t need to use the air conditioner and not have that “free” water any longer.
 
Sow and Transplant Veggies and Posies
   With daytime temperatures in the low 80s and nighttime temperatures in the low 60s, seeds will germinate well and transplants will establish themselves nicely. 
     There’s no way of knowing whether these pleasant conditions will continue, or shift back to heat or proceed further toward cold.  So, I suggest that you provide for both.  That’s my usual September suggestion, when even in a “normal” gardening year, the weather could go either way.  Instead of deciding to go one way or the other, I cover all my bets with doing both:  sow and transplant the last of the summer crops, and also sow and transplant the first of the fall-through-spring overwintering crops.  That way, I’m sure to have something thrive no matter which way the weather goes.  It’s a win-win!
     However, when you choose the summer crops to sow and plant for the last time this year, do choose varieties with the shortest to-maturity time, just to make sure that you’ll get something to mature before the weather truly turns too chilly and the plants stop growing vigorously.
     When you choose the fall-into-spring crops to sow and plant, choose varieties with short maturity times but also other varieties with long maturity times so you can sow or plant a few of each every month or so for a very long growing and harvesting period.  All of it will slow down as the weather gets chillier, so now’s the time to get things started while the weather and the soil is warmer.
     Besides, it’s always fun to grow more than one variety of each kind of vegetable or flower.  You may find that you prefer some of the varieties more than others, either for their growing peculiarities or their flavor or color.  Definitely playtime in the garden!
 
Plant Flower Bulbs
     Now’s the time to check out your local nurseries for their selection of flower bulbs to plant now for spring color.  You’ll want to choose the largest bulbs to assure that they’re the healthiest and to plant them immediately so they have as long a growing season as possible prior to they’re finally blooming.  This is definitely NOT the time to wait for the bargain bin!
     For more details on choosing and planting flower bulbs and my favorite online vendors, see my 8/21/21 blog, Fall Bulb Planting for Spring Color.
 
For more garden task possibilities, see September.
 
For more Major-Topic Blog Articles for this time of year, see Homepage.

     We thought it was bad enough that we were limited to a few minutes of water once or twice a week.  Now comes the notice that the Metropolitan Water District will be doing repair work on a pipeline leak from September 6-20 and requests residents in the affected areas to eliminate all outdoor watering during that time.  [For more information on who’s affected and the specific new restrictions, go to https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2022-08-15/pipeline-leak-prompts-watering-ban-in-parts-of-l-a-county] 
​     With the heat promising to continue at least another two months of blistering sun, this feels pretty desperate for our gardens.  But with my tomatoes finishing up their harvests (since I didn’t plant successive plants in May in expectation of the extreme heat now), and beans and squash and cucumbers already done some time ago, I was looking forward to preparing my soil for cool-season crops and getting seeds started.  Now with this added water ban, I will hold off on the seeds and plants but can proceed with the soil prep.
 
Holding Off On Seeds and Plants
     Between the heat probably continuing through at least October and into November (as in past years), and the complete lack of irrigation water through the end of September (and who knows what we’ll be allowed following that) – it feels unwise to start seeds or plant seedlings before mid-November (if we’re lucky) since we won’t be able to provide them with the water they’ll need to get fully established, especially during hot weather. Best to wait for cooler weather so seeds and plants will more successfully thrive.
 
Preparing Soil for Cool-Season Crops
     Because neither pulling up dead summer-bearing plants nor incorporating amendments require water, those two tasks seem to be what we can manage at this point.  This is a good thing to accomplish, especially if your summer crops seemed less than vigorous, demonstrating the need for more nutrition to break down in the soil for the new cool-season crops.
 
Plan the Layout of Your Cool-Season Garden

• Consider which new crops should follow spring and summer ones.  Follow heavy feeders with light feeders, and vice versa.
• Heavy feeders include beets, broccoli, cabbage, celery, collards, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, endive, escarole, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, okra, parsley, pumpkins, radishes, rhubarb, spinach, squash, and tomatoes.
• Light feeders include carrots, chard, garlic, leeks, mustard, onions, parsnips, peppers, potatoes, rutabaga, shallots, sweet potatoes, and turnips.
• Some vegetables are more tolerant of salty areas in the garden. If an area has received repeated applications of manure or other concentrated fertilizers, the salt content may be high. Asparagus, beets, kale, and spinach do well under these conditions, but celery, green beans, radishes, strawberries and most fruits cannot tolerate it. Other vegetables and cantaloupes, figs, and grapes are generally of medium tolerance.

 
On the Positive Side
     This warm weather is an excellent time to make cuttings of succulents.

• Cut 3-6” sections
• Let them dry for a couple of days to form dry callouses over the cut edges
• Pot them up in potting soil or garden soil
• Water once to “melt” the soil closely around the calloused edges to foster new roots
• Place pots into filtered light (just a bit of direct sun during the day)
• Water once more before September 6
• After September 20, water them once every two or three weeks, just to barely moisten the soil.
• By late November, they should have rooted nicely and can be transplanted.

 
For more task possibilities - hedged by the heat and lack of water - see September

     It’s just too hot to plant, for both me as a person and also for the plants.  Anything over 85 degrees is too much.  For me, it’s my comfort-level cut-off point, but for the plants it bodes a struggle-to-survive issue.  Even if you enjoy working outdoors in the warmth, the plants have more important concerns like reconnecting and extending their roots into the new soil so they can absorb water and nutrients – before they keel over due to the heat even if their rootballs are kept sufficiently moistened.  For a week or two, they’re still depending on their original root systems and subject to whatever new bright sun and heat may characterize their new homes, differing from their coddling shade and everyday watering at the nursery.  This more-than-85-degree weather makes that process difficult.  So, if you can, put off the planting tasks until temperatures lower.  If you can’t put it off, then be very solicitous to prepare soil,  water well, and shelter from late-afternoon direct sun.
 
     So, what to do in the garden, instead of planting? 
 
Keep Harvesting
Continue to keep vine vegetables (especially beans, cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes) picked, whether or not you will use the harvest that day. If many fruits are allowed to overmature on the plant, production will slow and then cease because the plant “thinks” it’s accomplished its reproductive job.
 
Reinvigorate Veggies
Prune vegetable plants of their leaves that have become ragged from age, disease, or insect attacks. Then water plants well. Healthy new leaves will appear, and blossoms once the temperatures go below 85 degrees so fruit set will begin again. This is especially the case with beans, cucumbers, and squash.
 
Encourage New Strawberry Plants
Allow strawberries to root their runners after they've set their last crop. Strong new plants will be ready to transplant by October or November, which is the best time to establish new plants so plants bear well next Spring.
 
Last Fertilizing of Summer Crops
Fertilize tasseling corn and other vegetables that are setting fruit – including beans, cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, squash -- for increased yields. Plants appreciate this extra boost in food to use immediately in maturing their fruits. But during our extra-hot weather, be sure to water the plants well before incorporating fertilizer so it won't "burn" the roots.
 
Propagate Cuttings

• Trim and propagate some of the maturing stem cuttings of plants like brugsmania and begonia and woody herbs that are actively growing through the summer.  Prime cuttings are those that are sturdy and partly but not fully mature.  Not too tender, and not too hard.  For most plants, the best place to make the cutting is where the stem color is transitioning between the new green foliage and the tannish-brown firmer wood.
• See my 10/29/16 Propagating Begonias From Cuttings blog for specific steps to take.

 
Wait to Start Cool-Season Seeds
One thing to NOT do while it’s still so hot – consistently over 85 degrees – is to start seeds.  Hold off on starting both your first cool-season seeds and also your last crops of warm-season seeds, unless you can accomplish the task indoors in temperatures that are much lower than that.  If you tried to start them outdoors in the heat, the natural hormones in many types of seeds will result in unsuccessful germination because they’re programmed to not germinate until temperatures are more desirable.  Starting them indoors in cooler temperatures is a possibility you may want to pursue.
 
For more tasks to consider, see August Tips

​     I purchased my first plumeria “stick” many years ago at one of those big fairs.  I was seduced by the many colors on the posters adorning the booth’s walls, and the promise that this mere leafless stick could become a real live plant with exquisite blooms and fragrance.  At only $5 each, I decided to splurge and give one a try.  I asked the vendor which might be the easiest to grow and have the most fragrance. I went home with the one that ultimately produced multi-colored blossoms and intoxicating fragrance that I call Rainbow. 
     Over the years, it’s branched many times and I’ve enjoyed its many yearly blooms and fragrance.  I also was pleased that it thrived in my garden’s all-day direct sun and needed very little water. 
     But when it grew so tall that I could see only the bottoms of the bloom clusters, I knew I’d have to trim it back.
     Although I’d propagated many kinds of plants over the years, I didn’t know whether I had to cut the plumeria branches at the base of their branching, or whether I could also cut in the middle of their 2-foot-long branches – whether they’d resprout or die back completely.  So I did both.  Luckily, both techniques worked.  So, I “evened out” my trimmings on the original plant so the branching would produce blooms on each of its remaining branches at about the 4-foot height, guaranteeing many more years of enjoyment and more cutting possibilities for future “sticks” to pass along to gardener friends and at plant sales.
     Cutting the branch straight across is necessary for a clean cut.  This will enable the main plant to resprout new leaves from the top surfaces.   Even with some dieback, the new leaves covered the unattractive spots.
     The base of the cut branch must be allowed to callous over completely before potting it up to root. Keep it in the shade, laid flat so the cut edge is completely open to the air so it can callous completely, and leaves are allowed to have their upper surfaces upright so they can continue their limited photosynthesis.  The sap will continue dripping for an hour or so, so you may want to put some newspaper or soil to catch the drips where they fall.
     It may take up to three weeks for the callous to completely dry and form a seal that’ll be impervious to water.  So don’t try to rush the process or pot it up too soon.
       I did initially pot up some branch cuttings as soon as I’d cut them, and while the leaves stayed perky for a couple of weeks, ultimately the branches did shrivel and rot without forming any roots.
      Once the branches are fully calloused, pot up the branches so the base – from which the roots will emerge – is about 2 inches above the bottom of the container.  I use gallon-size pots for short branches perhaps a foot or so long.  If the branches are multi-branched like in the shape of a “Y”, then I use a 5-gallon container and fill the potting mix to within an inch of the top.  While the roots will develop only from the bottom calloused area, having the rest of the multi-branched trunk buried in potting soil stabilizes it.
     I’ve found that staking and tying the branch will help keep it stable through waterings and moving the container until sufficient roots develop to anchor the plant.  Before I provided this support, even minor movement dislodged larger unbalanced Y-shaped branches, and I had to repot them up.  So, now I provide this support at the very beginning when I pot them up initially.
     Once potted up, place the container in a location in bright light but out of direct sun.  Water it several times to thoroughly moisten the potting mix and make sturdy contact holding the cutting in place.  Water again perhaps once a week just to keep the potting mix barely moist so roots can get well established.  

     We’ve been lucky so far this summer, with only a couple of uncomfortably hot days.  Most days have been thoroughly pleasant to work in the garden, especially after the direct sun leaves.  I’ve appreciated even the really hot over-90-degree days since I know the tomatoes are ripening and the summer bloomers are coloring up. 
     But I must admit that I’m waiting – as the saying goes – “for the other shoe to drop,” with more of those over-100-degree temperatures, to say nothing of the unwelcome possibility of a repeat of that 116-degree July several years ago that scorched everything and cancelled harvests for the rest of the summer. 
    And with the addition of water restrictions, planting anything new in the garden doesn’t feel like a good choice, at least for me in my “inland” Pasadena garden.
     So, what to do in the garden?  Here’re several possibilities:
 
Harvesting

• Harvest beans, cucumbers, squash, and tomatoes at least every other day to encourage further production. If too many fruits are allowed to remain on the plant, the hormones will change so there will be fewer new blossoms to set new fruit.
• Pinch back herbs to encourage branching, and use the clippings either fresh or dry.
• My tomatoes have been bearing very nicely, with a total to date of 395 individual tomatoes, 325 cherry-size and 70 larger ones.  Yesterday’s haul was 148, 128 cherry-type and 20 larger ones.  Interestingly, a couple of the Celebrity and Cherokee Purple and Black Krim are producing nicely while the other plants aren’t.  Just as well that those will perhaps wait until after the currently-producing ones are close to done, to spread out the yield.  Of the cherry types, Sungold is the winner so far with 42, but Chocolate Sprinkles has 29 and two red cherry volunteers have 30 and 22.  All yummy!

 
Propagating

• Tip-root boysenberries by anchoring vine tips under an inch of soil and water in.  The tip will root, and you can transplant them in the late fall or early winter.
• Pot up succulent cuttings by removing “leaves” off an inch or so of stem, stick into potting mix or soil, and water in.  Roots will form, and you can transplant them later.
• Root cuttings of azaleas, fibrous begonias, camellias, carnations, marguerite daisies, fuchsias, gardenias, geraniums, hollies, hydrangeas, lilacs, marguerites, mock oranges, mums, and verbena.  Bare about 3 inches of stem, leave about 4 leaves on top, put stem into potting mix or soil, water in, and place in indirect light.  Transplant later.

 
Maintenance

• Encourage repeat blooming by pinching or cutting back alyssum, coreopsis, crape myrtles, dahlias, delphiniums, dianthus, fuchsias, gaillardias, lobelia, marigolds, penstemons, petunias, rose of Sharon, salvias, and verbenas.
• Dig and divide bearded iris clumps if they're crowding each other or didn't bloom much last spring.
• Strongly rip off - don't just trim - rose suckers off at their base with a harsh downward and outward pull. Also bash the base to further dissuade resprouting.  For more detail, go to Trimming and Rooting Blooming Plants - 7/13/16
• Rinse the undersides of leaves with water to discourage spider mites.
• Enclose whole grape clusters in paper bags or old pantyhose for protection from birds and wasps.
• Hold off irrigating melons about a week before you'll harvest them so their sugars will concentrate.
• Place ripening melons onto upside-down aluminum pie pans or cans to keep them off the damp soil and reflect the sun’s heat back onto the melon to help it develop more sweetness.
• If onion and garlic foliage has not yet slumped and dried, stop irrigating, and bend the stalks to the ground. You want the outer layers to thoroughly dry so they protect the flesh underneath.

 
Planning for your cool-weather garden

• Can you believe that the heat of summer is the time to start thinking about the cool of winter?  In fact, I prefer gardening through the fall, winter, and early spring because there are so many goodies to be eating, and they continue developing through the cool weather to provide many months of freshly-picked delectable produce without being hassled by summer heat.
• At the end of the month, sow carrots, celery and cole crops - broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage (especially red and savoy types, which resist frost better), cauliflower, and kohlrabi. Keep the soil moist and shaded until they're up, and then gradually allow them more direct sun over a week's time.

 
What NOT to do

• Don’t prune tomato foliage.  In our bright-sun area, plants need all that foliage to accomplish their photosynthesis and to shade fruits from the burning sun.  In addition, our breezes keep foliage free of disease.  For more details, go to Why NOT to Prune Tomato Plants - 7/13/15.

 
For more monthly tasks, go to July.
 
For past blogs on many major seasonal topics, go to Home.

For many problems, go to Warm-Season Plant Problems and Solutions - 3/28/21

For specifically tomato problems, go to Tomato Growing Problems & Solutions - 6/17/20

​     Years ago, before our continuing drought forced itself into our every-day consciousness, I used to look forward to June as the time to transplant a last group of tomatoes to provide fruit through the fall cool-down and sometimes into the new year.  But, some five to seven years ago, I started noticing that those last group of plants weren’t establishing themselves well, I was having to water them more just to assure their survival, and I wasn’t getting my reward of many tomatoes setting and ripening up before they gave up due to the extreme stress of the summer heat.  So I stopped planting that late.  It turned out that even May plantings were at risk.  Instead, mid- to the end of April planting was the latest that’d result in vigorous plants and a good yield – even when we had our “usual” week of over-100-degree temperatures.  So I concentrated in choosing varieties that ranged broadly in maturity dates to assure that I benefitted from a long bearing period; and usually cherry tomatoes kept producing through the heat and into the fall. 
     Ditto for planting beans, cucumbers and squash that late. 
     And corn planted this late perhaps will develop “smut” or “huitlacoche”, a fungus that’s despised or prized according to cultural culinary appreciation or not.
     Of course, your garden may still do well planting any of these veggies now, especially if you’re in more coastal climes.  And experimenting is always fun and results in at least some goodies. 
     I’m just bringing this issue up so you’ll not be too disappointed if and when your upcoming summer pattern follows mine, especially with the water restrictions that are being mandated throughout Southern California.  And to hope that you’ll also change your soil-preparation and seeding and plant-planting practices to concentrate on our cooler-season fall, winter, and spring to get everything happily developing and bearing!
 
Maintaining Growth and Harvests
     For your tomatoes that are already nicely set with ripening fruit, keep them well-watered especially during over-90-degree temperatures to encourage them to continue setting new blossoms. As air temperatures rise and stay high consistently, fewer blossoms will set due to the shift in hormones.  So you want to have as much fruit already set while temperatures are below 90 so they’ll ripen until blossoming starts again once the temperatures settle down below 90 for a couple of weeks.
     After watering tomatoes, scatter a bit of general-purpose fertilizer (with all 3 NPK numbers about the same) and then water again to melt it into the moist soil.  This will provide plants with some additional nutrition for their continuing exertions in blossoming, setting fruit, and ripening the fruit.
     Hormones stop producing blossoms similarly if too many fruits are left ripening on beans, cucumbers, eggplants, and squashes.  Vegetables that are left to continue maturing too long will produce a chemical that inhibits further blossoming.  So, keep the fruits harvested every other day or so as they achieve the size you want, so the plants keep putting out more blossoms for more fruits to mature later.
     Keep harvesting herb foliage.  Nip off the tips to encourage more bushy delicately-flavored greenery.  Remove blossoms whenever they appear so the plant won’t get “side-tracked” into producing seeds instead of more tender foliage.  For tips on drying herb foliage, see my 4/26/16 blog, Harvesting Herbs for Fresh and Dry Use.
     Lift vine vegetable fruits like squash and pumpkins and melons up onto cans or berry baskets to put them out of reach of snails, slugs, other critters and soil-borne diseases, and up into the air so they’ll absorb more of the sun’s heat and therefore ripen more. 
     Planting flower bulbs can be done any time of year since they contain their own “fertilizer pack”.  However, choose to purchase and plant bulbs according to their growing and blooming seasons, and whether or not they need to have the soil where they’re planted completely dry out during their dormant season, whether this is summer or winter.  Late-summer-color bulbs to plant now include tuberous begonias, cannas, gladiolus, montbretias, and tigridias.
     Mulch, Mulch, Mulch!  Organic matter such as compost, leaves or grass clippings will temper the drying and heating effect of the sun, and irrigation will be more effective with less frequency and quantity.
 
For more garden tasks, see June and July.
 

     When I was a kid, I hated “May Gray” and “June Gloom” because it was so dreary, and I wanted “Summer Sun” to brighten and heat up my days so I’d have the excuse to go to the beach or at least lay out on my dichondra lawn listening to my favorite pop tunes on the radio. 
    Now that I’m an “experienced” gardener who prefers to not endure the heat and brilliance while playing in my garden, I appreciate the still-cool temperatures and overcast skies that mean I can do some additional sowing and transplanting and watering and harvesting and trimming and weeding – all the while knowing that the plants are also thriving because the weather is mildly warm enough to spur growth but not blazing hot enough to stress them.  Of course, that scenario is yet to come. 
​     So, enjoying being in the garden now is all the more precious.  Especially when I come into the kitchen with a bucketful of edible treasures.  Yum!
     With this year’s additional mandates of lessened water supplying our gardens, the resulting stresses for both plants and people aren’t welcome in addition to the uncomfortability of the too-hot blazing sun during our summer. But we can shift our timing and techniques to better serve ourselves and our plants:

• Provide soil and amendments with lots of nutrition and organic matter to enable plants to develop extensive root systems and bear plentiful flowers and fruit.
• Sow seeds and transplant growing plants only when air temperatures promise to stay below 90 degrees for at least a week and preferably longer.  As we move into summer, this window of opportunity lessens, so do this as soon as possible.  Coming weeks may put too much of a strain on plants trying to get established during those stressful times – and even if they do start thriving in the next couple of weeks, they may not ultimately mature and produce much fruit and flowers if the weather turns so extreme.  Because of this, planting in June is really a hit-or-miss prospect based on hope that the weather will stay satisfactory.  In gardening, there’s always hope – and also the realization that the magic may or may not work!  But then, at least, you've learned something new about trying to push the seasons!
• Group plants according to their needs for water.  For example, tomatoes need lots of water, but lavender and rosemary need very little water.  If you plant them together, everyone will be unhappy.
• Water in the evening through early morning to lessen evaporation due to breezes.
• Provide water through soaker hoses or drip irrigation systems that release water at soil level, or buried containers with holes that release it underground directly into the rootzones.
• Water long enough for the water to reach down to the bottoms of the individual plant rootzones.  For example, beets and Swiss chard roots can go down 1 foot, but tomato and cucumber and squash roots can extend to 2 feet deep.
• Water again when soil is only slightly moist 4 inches down.  When air temperatures get above 95 for several days running, you may have to water more frequently.

 
For more to do in the garden, see June’s Monthly Tips
 
For more June gardening in years past, see my previous archived June blogs since 2015
 
For specific major topics on summer gardening, see my homepage links
 
For tomato problems and solutions, see Tomato Growing Problems & Solutions - 6/17/20