|
Hot Gardens Newsletter - June 2003
Current
newsletter Previous Newsletters By Month
85
And Wilting.
Once the daily temperature soars above 85 degrees, most plants
begin to slow down for a summer dormancy period.
Above 90 degrees, survival is their primary goal.
They focus their energies and efforts on creating sugars in their
leaves for food, and guzzling water to prevent death from dehydration.
So don’t expect a lot of blooms and growth during the hottest
months.
 |
Some
Like It Hot.
When most flowers have faded the Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia
indica) and the Chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus) fire
up for a dazzling show of summer color. Both are naturally
shrub-like with multi-trunks, but can be trained to be a small
single trunk standard tree that will not grow much more than 20
feet tall. The Crape Myrtle will give you pink, red, white
and lavender blooms. For those who love the
cold-sensitive Jacaranda tree, the Chaste tree is a terrific
substitute.
The Chaste tree, left, will
burst forth in purple in June and its leaves smell great, too. |
Hot
Palms. Palms
love warm soil for their roots, so summer is a good time to plant
them. Other trees should be planted in either the Fall or very
early Spring for best results.
The Screwdriver Test.
Not sure if you are watering your lawn
too much or too little? Then take an 8 inch screwdriver and push
it into various places in your lawn about an hour and a half after you
have watered. If the screwdriver goes in easily, you are watering
enough. You may even want to consider cutting back a bit on water.
If you cannot push the screwdriver all the way in, you need to increase
the amount of water for the lawn. Trees, by the way, need deep,
but infrequent, irrigation so the water penetrates 24 inches into the
soil.
Trickle Down. Even
birds need extra water now and they prefer to drink from trickling
water, rather than a still bird bath. So add a small fountain--not a
gushing cascade--but one where water trickles and drips to entice wild
birds to your garden. One attractive, low-cost fountain is a terra
cotta jar with water flowing gently over the brim into a bed of small
pebbles in a plant pot saucer.
Oh, Those Ugly Brown Spots. The sudden increase in
temperatures at the onset of summer, especially the increase in
overnight low temperatures, puts a lot of stress on lawns and trees.
If your lawn is developing brown spots you are in good company --
virtually every desert lawn has brown spots now. You may want to give
those brown spots some additional water for a while.
Go to our Newsletter for June
2004 or May and June
2007
|
|
Moving
to Long Beach?
Now you can learn
more about this dynamic
ocean side city!
___________________
|
|
Save when you
replace lightbulbs
Replace one 100 watt incandescent light bulb with a
27 watt compact fluorescent light bulb and over the 4.5 year
lifespan of that one fluorescent bulb you will prevent 94 pounds
of additional greenhouse gases from going into the air. And save about $73 in energy and
bulb replacement costs.
|
|
