Helpful Garden Tips for June

June means hot and dry weather, with occasional drops in temperature. Daytime temperatures average around 92 degrees Fahrenheit daytime and 58 degrees Fahrenheit at night. Expect almost 14 hours of sunshine per day, but don't expect rain: June is historically the third driest month of the year. We need to keep our gardens healthy and growing with water-efficient practices and low-water-use plants.

Planting

Your ornamental planting should be finished by the middle of the month. If you must plant ornamentals in summer, choose water-tolerant plants. In low-water-use gardens, this can be the many sage (Salvia), among them California native sage, sage hybrids and cultivars like "Hot Lips" and "Flame"; plus California fuscia (Epilobium), Yarrow (Achillea), Butterfly Bush (Buddleia), Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia), Bougainvillea, rosemary, Red yucca (Hesperaloe) and high desert plants like Apricot Mallow (Sphaeralcea), and the popular bladderpod (Peritoma arborea).

In the edible garden, plant melon, winter squash and pumpkin, basil, corn and okra. Edible gardening is a high-maintenance project and is not low-water. But as long as we don't waste or overuse water and we maximize our harvest by controlling pests and diseases, we should not be afraid to keep our edible gardens and fruit orchards.

Growing your own food, even a few herbs, is so satisfying that everyone who can should grow in containers or in the ground, balcony or porch plants, or a few acres.

Maintaining

Lawns should be watered deeply and infrequently. Keep your grass at least three inches tall to help the crowns stay cool and not dry out between watering. Consider removing your lawn or reducing the size and/or switching from a high-water-use species to a low-water-use lawn or turf substitute.

Monitor your garden, both edible and ornamental, for pest insects like scale, aphid, whitefly, stink bug, spider mite and earwigs. Edible gardens with flowers and hedgerows can be a great habitat for garden allies like lacewing, ladybug, birds, spiders, native wasp, butterflies and moths. Monitor populations of pest insects and see if the beneficials, including birds, can keep the numbers manageable. If some help is needed, follow the "least toxic first" method of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practice before you reach for the kills-everything insecticide.

Manage mosquitos by limiting standing water and using dunks containing Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (BTI). Plant trays and pet water dishes are a good breeding ground for the daytime biting Aedes aegypti mosquito, commonly called the "ankle biter," or Zika mosquito. No mosquito-carrying virus has been transmitted in California, but the mosquitos are still a nuisance because they bite multiple times.

Weed Control

Crabgrass thrives in overwatered, over-mowed lawn. Change the lawn care and reduce this weed. If you use an herbicide, be sure to follow the directions carefully; don't just throw it on by the handful.

Nutsedge also loves overwatered lawns and planting beds, and it's tough to get rid of. Be diligent with hand pulling, hoeing and spraying to remove it before it takes control of your garden or lawn.

Spurge is often a sign you also have an Argentine ant problem, and in lawns that you are mowing too short. This flat creeping weed with a red spot on the leaves must be hand pulled or hoed before plants set seeds. Also control the ants with baits, changing the active ingredient every few months.

Conserving

Follow good practices by avoiding over-watering. If you do only one thing, repair leaks! If you can do more, the SaveOurWater website has easy to follow tips for prioritizing water use and conserving water (https://saveourwater.com/how-to-save-water/around-the-yard/).

Many of these tips are easy to make into a life-long habit, drought or no drought. If you are still a holdout, trying to hold onto your water-thirsty lawn and England or New England-type landscape, perhaps some of the new garden styles appearing throughout our valley will inspire you to modernize your garden and reduce the water needs of the ornamental landscape so we can continue to use water as needed to grow our home gardens and orchards without worry.

Maybe this is the year to investigate water-storing features like cisterns, rain garden or rain barrels. Try to tolerate benign insects and keep in mind insects feed bats and birds, including those rare tri-colored blackbirds and beautiful Bullock's orioles we've seen this year.

Have a safe, healthy, full-of-garden-wonder month!

Happy Gardening!

Questions?

Call the Master Gardeners:

Tulare County: (559) 684-3325, Tuesday and Thursday 9:30-11:30 a.m.

Kings County: (559) 852-2736, Thursday only, 9:30-11:30 a.m.

Visit our website for past articles, sign up for our e-newsletter, or email us with your questions: http://ucanr.edu/sites/UC_Master_Gardeners/

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/mgtularekings14/; Instagram at: @mgtularekings

The Tulare-Kings Counties Master Gardeners will answer your questions in person:

Visalia Farmer's Market, first and third Saturdays, 8 - 11 a.m., Tulare Co. Courthouse;

Luis Nursery, second Saturday, 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., 139 S. Mariposa Ave., Visalia;

Hofman's Nursery, third Saturday, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., 12491 W. Lacey Blvd., Hanford.