Five things to do in the garden this week:
Fruit trees. In 100-degree heat, you may notice that even well-watered fruit trees — particularly deciduous ones such as apple, peach, and plum — show wilted or burnt foliage on the tips of branches. The reason for this is that on super hot days, deciduous trees are not able to pull up water from the soil as fast as it is being lost into the air through its leaves. If you should observe leaves beginning to wilt, give them an overhead shower and they should soon look normal again. Search “water wands” on the Internet and you will see that most of these devices have a shower head through which water is delivered, a perfect accessory for keeping leaves hydrated on scorching hot days.
Vegetables. Beets, like other root crops, lend themselves to year round planting. The seeds of nearly all beet cultivars produce 2-5 plants per seed since individual seeds are actually seed clusters, a result of fused flower petals. These multiple seedlings must be thinned which is most easily accomplished by snipping the smaller ones (when a few inches tall) beneath the soil line as opposed to uprooting them which could disturb the roots of the single seedling in each cluster that you want to keep. A solution to this garden task is to plant monogerm beet seeds, from which single seedlings emerge. Moneta and Alvro Mono are two monogerm beets that are widely available through Internet seed vendors. Swiss chard, a relative of beets, is characterized by the same multi-seed clusters. Prius, however, is a monogerm chard variety.
Herbs. Black cumin (Nigella sativa) seeds may be planted now. The herb is frost sensitive so you might have difficulty growing it north of Granada Hills. The seeds of love-in-a-mist (Nigella Damascena) are not as pungent as those of black cumin but the ornamental qualities of this species make it a worthwhile garden selection. Love-in-a-mist flowers are either white, rose, royal blue, or baby blue — the latter color most typically seen. Flowers are followed by diaphanous seed capsules that resemble exotic globe-shaped paper lanterns. Seeds self-sow throughout the garden. The seeds of both Nigella species, when heated, have a nutty, peppery flavor resembling that of oregano and are used in the Middle East (where they are native) and India for spicing up salads, vegetables, bread and fish.
Ornamentals. A bulb lawn makes a spring and summer color display unlike any other. Now is the time to consider planting those bulbs that produce flowers year after year and will eventually cover your lawn expanse. This would mean fall planting of Narcissus (including Tazetta, jonquils, and daffodils) and Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica) for spring color, and late winter planting of Gladiolus, Crocosmia, and daylilies for summer color. You would want to do this in a Bermuda, Kikuyu, or Kurapia lawn where watering is minimal since too much irrigation could cause bulbs to rot, especially if the soil does not drain well.
To produce lots of flower spikes on your cymbidium orchids, fertilize them now with a 10-30-10 or 15-30-15 formulation. The first number is the percentage of available nitrogen, the last number is that of available potassium, and the middle number is that of available phosphorus in the product. Phosphorus encourages flower development. While cymbidiums need protection from hot sun, they do not like too much shade, so you don’t want to give them more than 50% shade cloth or that provided by a lath house. If leaves are deep green, it’s a sign they are getting too much shade and should, in fact, be somewhat yellow in color. Cymbidiums also need contrasting day and night temperatures to flower at their full potential so keep them away from patios or walls of your house that retain the day’s heat. Locate them somewhere beyond your walls where they can enjoy cooler night time temperatures.
If you have garden questions or conundrums, send it along to joshua@perfectplants.com.
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