Eileen Ward
| Columnist
The official start of summer is almost here with the beginning of June. It’s the start of the rainy season as well as the first month of hurricane season. Here we go!
Temperatures and humidity begin to rise with highs in the 90s and lows in the 70s. While we may see a lot of rain, we may also experience periods with little or no rain. Due to the increased trans-evaporation rate, these higher temperatures can cause water stress on lawns, shrubs and trees in a short period of time. So, it is important to have your sprinkler system on and set to twice a week allowing for one inch of water per week with a rain sensor that will turn the system on and off with one-half-inch of rain. That way your system will water even if we have those short bursts of rain that only water a fraction of an inch.
If you have not fertilized yet you need to get this done. The plants will tolerate the higher temperatures and stress of summer much better if they are healthy and well fed. Also, it is better to not fertilize in the summer as it can cause excessive growth which thins and weakens plant cell walls allowing for disease problems. Not to mention the extra work it will create for all you gardeners out there.
Use a lawn fertilizer with 50% slow-release nitrogen and equal amounts of nitrogen and potassium. If you have palms in your landscape they will especially like this analysis. An example is a 15-0-15 analysis. For shrubs and palms choose an acid and palm mix which will help lower the ph. of your soil. The ixoras, gardenias and magnolias will do well with this fertilizer along with most of the plants in the landscape. Mulch will help with weed suppression and as it decomposes will also add organic matter to the soil and help to lower the ph.
Shrubs and trees should be prepared for hurricane season by pruning and trimming back. Formal hedges should be trimmed often enough so that you are trimming only new and supple growth. Individual shrubs that have overgrown the bounds of the garden should be brought under control before the growing season of summer gets underway. You can either head back by trimming all terminal branch ends back to your desired size or thin the shrub by trimming longer branches back into the shrub reducing the overall size of the shrub to allow for summer growth.
Trees should be thinned of crossing and interfering branches removing any that touch buildings or are too close to overhead power lines. Quite often power outages are caused by overgrown trees blowing into power lines causing short circuits or completely breaking the lines. Also, dead branches can disconnect from the trunk and damage anything nearby. So, check your trees because the month of June is a good time to contact your tree company to inspect your trees and trim as necessary.
Palm trees should only be pruned to a 3 o’clock 9 o’clock shape. Never remove so many palm fronds that it goes straight up into the air. Palm trees use their fronds to make food for the tree from the sun through a process called photosynthesis. They also take water from the air for the tree. When you remove too many green fronds the tree’s ability to make food is greatly diminished. Another reason is that the heart or growth point of a palm is in the middle of the fronds directly above the brown wood of the trunk. When you remove too many green fronds, it exposes this area and weakens it making the entire top of the palm tree susceptible to breaking off during hurricane winds. The term “hurricane cut” should not mean removing most of the green fronds. It is a bad practice so avoid doing it.
Most winter annuals are spent and need to be cleaned from your flower gardens if you have not already done so. There are many annuals and perennials that will tolerate our summer heat and rain and can be planted in June.
Following are a few: Celosia, Cosmos, Dahlia, Marigold, Portulaca, Salvia, Sunflower, Berbena, Vinca and Zinnia.
Bulbs for our area include: Caladium, Canna Lily, Crinium lily , Day Lily, Gloriosa Lily and society garlic.
Some pests to watch for include aphids, whitefly, scale and caterpillars on shrubs. And chinch bugs, grubs and mole crickets on lawns. And with the start of the rains, disease will become more prevalent.
Put on your hat, gloves and sunscreen and prepare yourselves for the hard summer months of gardening ahead. June is just the beginning.
Peter and Eileen Ward have sold Greensward of Marco after 40 years in the lawn and landscape business on Marco Island. You can reach Eileen with comments or questions on her columns via email at Gswdmarco@comcast.net or call 239-269-0192.