September Gardening
The heat is upon us, and dusty, dry winds are making everything thirsty. June may not be Arizona’s favorite month in the garden, but knowing which chores to do and which to avoid this month can make all the difference. Learn what you can do to help Dad in the garden this month, or what you can do to keep your own garden thriving through the summer with Civano Nursery’s list of garden tasks for June.
What to Plant in June
- Annuals: cosmos, lisianthus, vinca, and portulaca
- Annual seed: Arizona poppy, Mexican sunflower, sunflower, and zinnia
- Bulbs: rain lily
- Citrus trees
- Summer-flowering perennials
- Containerized roses
- Palm trees
- Bermudagrass, buffalo grass, St. Augustine, or zoysia lawns
- Summer flowering shrubs can still be planted in cooler areas, but it’s easier on woody shrubs if you wait until fall to plant them rather than installing them during high heat
- Desert or desert-adapted trees
- be prepared to keep them adequately watered and provide them with some afternoon shade if necessary
What NOT to Plant in June
- Shrubs, perennials, or trees that go dormant for the summer
- Deciduous trees (including deciduous fruit trees)
- Woody shrubs can still be planted in cooler areas, but they’re much easier to get established if you plant them in fall
What to Fertilize
- Containerized warm-season succulents: feed once this month with a water soluble fertilizer at ½ the strength recommended for houseplants
- Turf lawns: feed once this month (and every month that they are actively growing)
- Established palms: feed once this month
- Containerized annuals, perennials and shrubs: feed every 2 weeks with a water-soluble fertilizer, or apply a slow-release granular plant food
- Containerized roses can be fed with a water-soluble fertilizer monthly through the summer, and roses in the ground can be fed at 6-week intervals with a rose formula or water soluble fertilizer
- Some rose growers, especially in warmer parts of the region, prefer to refrain from fertilizing during the hottest months of the year
What NOT to Fertilize
- refrain from fertilizing annuals in the ground this month unless it’s absolutely necessary, use fertilizer at a reduced strength if you decide to feed
- summer dormant shrubs, perennials, or trees
Prune, Divide, and Conquer
- Deadhead annuals and summer-flowering plants regularly to extend blooming
- Remove spent flowering stalks from iris, but let leaves remain on the plant until they dry up completely
- Remove spent flowering stalks from yucca and hesperaloe
- Cut back leggy or overgrown spring-flowering perennials that have finished blooming
- Wait until new growth appears before fertilizing
- Prune the blooming stalks off of palm trees if you don’t want any fruit to develop
- Remove only the dead leaves from palm trees. If the leaf has any green, then it’s still working to provide energy to the tree
For the Fruits and Veggies
- Water fruit trees more frequently (every 2-3 days) if temperatures above 110° persist for longer than a day
- Protect ripening fruit from nibbling birds with bird netting, or by slipping brown paper bags around the fruit while it’s still on the vine or tree. Use a rubber band or staples to keep the bag on the branch or vine.
For the Lawn
- Plant bermudagrass, buffalo grass, St. Augustine, or zoysia lawns
- Water established turf lawns every 3-4 days to a depth of 8-10 inches
- Newly seeded lawns need to be kept moist until the seed germinates. Water daily (sometimes as often as 2-3 times per day) until you see that the grass is growing. Once the grass has sprouted, water every other day and slowly increase the interval between watering until you’re watering every 3-4 days through the rest of the month.
- New sod or plug lawns need to be kept moist for the first 2 weeks. Water daily (sometimes as often as 4 times a day) for the first two weeks, then water deeply once a day for the following two weeks. Slowly stretch the amount of days between watering until you’re on the recommended watering schedule (every 2-3 days through June and July).
- Fertilize established turf lawns once this month (and every month that they are actively growing)
- Mow regularly, removing only 1/3 of the blades each time you mow and mowing to the proper height for each type of lawn.
- Bermudagrass: 1 – 1 ½ inches
- Hybrid bermudagrass: ½ – 1 ½ inches
- Augustine, zoysia and dichondra: 1 ½ – 2 inches
- Fescue and buffalograss: 2 – 3 inches
- Dethatch bermudagrass to ½ inch if necessary
Water Wisely
- Water in the cooler hours of the day. Morning hours are best, just before dawn.
- Check potted plants daily for water needs. Some plants may need water twice on especially hot or windy days
- make sure that all pots have adequate drainage
- If containerized plants are wilting too frequently or getting over-stressed from the heat, relocate them to a shadier spot until temperatures cool down
- Periodically run irrigation systems for 3-4 times longer than normal to leach accumulated salts away from root zones
- Cactus, ocotillos, large yuccas: water at least once this month
- other warm-season succulents can be watered every 3 weeks through the high heat of summer
- Established citrus trees: water every 7-10 days to a depth of 3 feet
- Deciduous fruit trees: water weekly to a depth of 3 feet
- Water fruit trees more frequently (every 2-3 days) if temperatures above 110° persist for longer than a day
- Established desert trees: water once this month to a depth of 3 feet
- Deciduous trees: water twice this month (every 2 weeks) to a depth of 3 feet
- Established palms: water every other week through summer to a depth of 2 feet
- Ornamental grasses: water weekly to a depth of 1-2 feet (depending on size)
- Perennials: water every 3-5 days to a depth of 1 foot
- Herbs: water twice a week through the summer to a depth of 1 foot
- Canna lily may benefit from a daily misting in the morning hours throughout the dry summer months
- Get ready for monsoons by preparing to harvest or redirect the flow of rainwater; install gutters, dig trenches, and build berms to collect rainwater or slow it down as it moves through your landscape.
- Water established turf lawns every 3-4 days to a depth of 8-10 inches
- Newly seeded lawns need to be kept moist until the seed germinates. Water daily (sometimes as often as 2-3 times per day) until you see that the grass is growing. Once the grass has sprouted, water every other day and slowly increase the interval between watering until you’re watering every 3-4 days through the rest of the month.
- New sod or plug lawns need to be kept moist for the first 2 weeks. Water daily (sometimes as often as 4 times a day) for the first two weeks, and then water to a depth of 8-10 inches once a day for the following two weeks. Slowly stretch the amount of days between watering until you’re on the recommended watering schedule (every 2-3 days through June and July).
General Chores
- Bunnies will start munching on plants that they ignored when greens and moisture were more available to them earlier in the year. Protect plants with cages made from chicken wire if necessary.
- Get ready for monsoons by preparing to harvest or redirect the flow of rainwater; install gutters, dig trenches, and build berms to collect rainwater or slow it down as is moves through your landscape.
- Provide roses with afternoon shade if they appear to be suffering from heat stress
- Some plants, like roses and other glossy-leaved shrubs, will benefit from a shower in the early morning hours to reduce dust buildup that can attract and harbor spider mites.
Sources: University of Arizona online publications, Arizona State University online publications, Desert Botanical Garden website, Tucson Botanical Garden website, Gardening in the Deserts of Arizona by Mary Irish, Arizona Master Gardener Manual
