IN JUST A couple of weeks, autumn will begin. But that only means another list of monthly chores, so enjoy these nice, sunny, warm days, but get this list done as well (and soon)!
1. Noxious weeds
This is the time of year when weeds are going to seed — millions and millions of seeds.
Find these plants and eradicate them or, at the very least, remove the flower heads to stop reproduction.
Taking care of all weeds now means a lot more time for other jobs later in the year.
2. Deadhead and pinch your flowers
All plants’ main purpose is to reproduce. As the days get shorter and the flower heads mount up, your flowers will start to die off to finish seed production.
Now is the time to go out and remove all old flowers.
Also, pinch back a set or two of leaves on geraniums, marigolds and other flowers for a drop-dead September or October plant.
It’s now or never.
3. Summer pruning
This is a now-or-never garden chore. Go outside and prune any errant or stringy branches, shear your hedges and thin out any overgrown plants.
Pruning too late will set up new, weak, immature growth easily damaged by fall weather and frost.
4. Roses
Many of your roses may start to look very poor now, full of black spot and rust, and are gangly and tall.
Cut them back severely — 40 percent or more — and strip away all damaged and diseased leaves (even this means all of them)!
Then fertilize well, lightly cultivate, add new mulch and watch as they become the most beautiful roses you have ever had in September and October.
5. Speaking of watering
It has been very dry and hot, so many of your trees and shrubs are dry.
Deepwater all of your fruit trees before they start to abort their fruit.
Thoroughly soak any bush or tree planted in the last year.
Make sure your flower baskets are watered twice a day when temperatures reach 75 to 80 degrees.
Always double water your fuchsia baskets.
August is the month to soak so your plant will be alive next year.
6. The lawn
With the current hot temperatures, now’s the time to heed my advice and raise the mower to the highest setting.
Give your butchered lawn a break, let it shade itself and block the ever-so-drying wind.
Remember, you must water the lawn — and you don’t have to (it goes brown and dormant naturally on its own cycle) — water it deeply, an inch so, wait before repeating.
A dormant lawn is one that does not have to be mowed or weed-whacked.
Take August off.
7. Fertilizers
August is the month of bone meal to get the proper nutrient available into the soil for fall root production.
Bone meal all bulbs, corm rhizomes and fleshy root-type plants now.
Spread it on your perennial gardens around the trees, bushes and shrubs.
Even in late August, feed to your lawn would be greatly appreciated.
Bone meal is the miracle drug of the spring bulb world, and big bags are dirt-cheap at farm and feed stores.
Get some today.
8. Sow seed
The veggie garden is ready for a rebirth as day length decreases and dew becomes heavy.
Sow new rows of spinach, beans, beats, radishes, swiss chard and other leafy greens.
Fall vegetables are so incredibly sweet, so start some today.
9. Cultivate and till
If you have not yet broken up the surface of your soil lately, now is more crucial than ever.
Soil makes a crust that repels water and greatly impedes the transfer of poisonous gases out of the soil and beneficial gases from the atmosphere into the soil.
Cultivating is the oldest and time-honored method to good soil management.
When finished, water well, and for an A+, add some new mulch or compost on top.
10. Buy plants for replacement
As summer plants begin to fade, begin replacing the spots with wonderful fall plants such as sedums, mums, kale, cabbage, heather, grasses, pansies, violas, Dusty Millers, snapdragons and, of course, the obligatory fall foliage plants.
Autumn is a great time for ornamentals. Now’s the time to buy and plant them.
11. Buy some more
Now is also the time to buy and replace any tools, equipment, hoses and the like.
Soon, vendors will begin to move items for fall and (gulp) Christmas.
If you need any garden items, this is yet another now-or-never as inventory begins a big shift in items.
12. Take a mini garden vacation
August is a great month for the garden, so go visit some.
The next few weeks are ideal to visit the Master Gardeners demo Garden at 2711 Woodcock road in Sequim.
Go see Butchart Gardens in Victoria, visit Seattle or Portland, and revel in all that is beautiful in the botanical world.
After finishing this list, you need a little break.
And do … stay well all!
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Andrew May is a freelance writer and ornamental horticulturist who dreams of having Clallam and Jefferson counties nationally recognized as “Flower Peninsula USA.” Send him questions c/o Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362, or email news@peninsuladailynews.com (subject line: Andrew May).
