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

     With all the hubbub and gnashing of teeth about pending water restrictions to once a week, I’m blasé about the issue because my productive edible garden has always done well with far less.  I’ve always conducted my watering timing as an only-when-imperative operation.  Yes, I’ve lost some plants because I did indeed wait too long, but by far my successes have taught me that generally recommended frequency and amounts of water have been way beyond what the plants needed to thrive.
      But it does take training the plants and trees from the moment they’re seeded or transplanted to grow deeply to retrieve the water that you’ll make available less frequently.  And that means now.  Even if you’ve already planted your summer garden, in the several weeks before the June 1 reduction start, you can get those plants to stretch further downward in search of the water you provide, so the once-a-week restriction will be nary a change.
 
Some guidelines:

• Water deeply – just below the genetically-determined length of the specific plant’s roots – such as 6” lawn, 1’ lettuce and ornamentals, 18-24” beans and peppers and squash, and 30-36” asparagus and tomato.  The point is to always provide those bottommost roots with the water they need so they’ll withstand the frying heat in the top 1-2 inches of soil.
• Water infrequently – only when the soil 3” down is dry.  Again, you want the water to keep the soil moist further down, where you’ve taught the plant roots to establish the bulk of their rootsystems.
• Keep soil surfaces covered with 1-3 inches of mulch to shade the soil from the beating heat of the sun and therefore lessen evaporation of moisture from the soil.
• Incorporating organic matter like compost into the growing beds will help all soil types stay both moist and well-drained.  It’s the magic for both sandy soils (holding the moisture from draining too quickly) and for clay soils (providing miniscule air pores for better drainage) that will enable plant roots to remain well-moistened like a wrung-out sponge.
• What’s the best method to water my garden?  Choosing which of the many modes of delivering water to your garden depends upon your time and effort and can be a combination.  Several options include hand-help hoses, overhead sprinklers, mini-tube drip emitters on timers, soaker “leaky” hoses under mulch, and buried 5-gallon plastic containers with bottom holes.

  
See my previous blog articles where I’ve described these specifics in more detail –

Start Watering The Garden - 2/7/22

Watering -- When, How Much, and Methods - 3/19/22

​How Deep Is “Watering Deeply”? - 7/21/18
 
For more monthly garden tasks, go to May

For other major-topic blog articles, go to Homepage