As June rolls in, your garden enters a dynamic phase—one of transition from early spring into full summer mode. As your garden becomes more established in June, you may find more opportunities (sometimes more necessity) to prune, stake, or thin out overgrown plants to keep them healthy and flourishing.
In addition, your garden is going to need your attention to ensure it has what it needs to achieve its highest potential. This includes ensuring your plants receive the right nutrition and hydration, while keeping up with the weeds, pests, harvesting, pruning and yes - planting.
As the days get longer and the temperature climbs, your plantings face hotter days and dryer spells, making it essential to water deeply and regularly. June often demands a more proactive watering strategy to combat evaporation and stress the heat places on plants.
When it comes to hydration, avoid overhead watering and deliver water to the root zone. An easy way to accomplish this is to build a moat around the plant and water the moat with a hose-end attachment. Soaker hoses also help ensure that the water you apply to your garden is being used by your plants and not lost to evaporation.
A 6-8″ layer of organic mulch can optimize water usage by blocking thirsty weeds and reducing evaporation. Organic mulches retain some water themselves and increase the humidity level around plants. Soil Pep is a good choice for mulch in your garden.
Optimal nutrition is achieved by choosing and adding the right fertilizer for the crops you’re growing. Every garden fertilizer lists the three major ingredients on the front of the container, in this order: Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potash. The first number on the label is always Nitrogen. Nitrogen promotes plant growth. The second number is Phosphate. Phosphate plays a major role in rooting and blooming. The third number is Potassium, which plays a key role in overall plant development.
All three numbers are important and using a fertilizer designed for the plants you are growing will give you the best results. Tomatoes, peppers and other fruiting crops need fertilizers with a high middle number to promote rooting and blooming, such as 5-7-3 or 4-5-6. The presence of an OMRI seal on the package is your assurance the product has been certified organic according to the Organic Material Review Board.
Beyond basic ingredients, fertilizer effectiveness is determined by several factors, including soil pH, soil structure and soil microbiome. If you have questions, stop in and let’s have a conversation about which fertilizer is best for your vegetable garden.
The shift in season also brings changes in pest activity. June’s warmth can accelerate the lifecycle of insects and diseases. This means your pest monitoring and organic treatments will need to ramp up as well.
While you’re tending your warm weather crops, don’t forget to harvest the lettuce, spinach and other cool season crops as they ripen.
Yes, you can still plant. Tomatoes, peppers and other crops that didn’t survive the spring can be replaced now with healthy transplants. From seed, you can plant beets, radishes, carrots.
Weeds are very opportunistic, seemingly springing up overnight. It’s very important to keep them from going to seed. The same is true of insect pests and diseases. Knowing what you’re dealing with is the first step to effective control. Bring a sample of the problem to our Diagnostic Center. We’ll identify it and recommend a solution.
By keeping on top of tasks — such as weeding, thinning, pruning and monitoring pests — your garden will be more productive this year.
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