Summer Gardening

Artichokes that you missed harvesting turn into beautiful blue-purple blossoms that bees love.

This bounty of tomatoes are too small to truly be the Stupice that their label proclaims.

Boysenberry tips can easily be rooted while still attached to their mother plant. Anchor the vine (see the peg at the right next to the buried watering bin), and submerge an inch or two of the tip under the soil, and water in. The leaves on the vine will continue their photosynthesis since they're attached to the mother plant, and the moisture at the buried tip will initiate rooting at the buried nodes. It may take through the summer, but you'll be able to transplant the newly-rooted plants in the fall to get the roots established in their new home before going dormant over the winter.

Bits of succulents are easy to root.

Place melons on containers to keep them away from moist soil or crawling critters. Direct sun will help them sweeten up, as well.

Oro Blanco grapefruits ripening - the yellow one from last year will fall of its own accord when it's ripe, and the green one from this year's set will take just as long.

First Conadria fig ripening. Green skin when ripe provides "camouflage" to critters who are attracted to colorful fruit.

Jimson weed - Datura stramonium - pure white blossoms are attractive.

Jimson weed seed pod is equally attractive.

Plumeria blossom, first of the season.

Plumeria blossom that's more colorful.

Sweet Pea Shrub - Polygala myrtifolia - blooms much longer than the annual sweet peas, but only in this nice pinky-purple.

Brilliant bougainvillea continues blooming.

     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