Helpful Hints for Summer Gardening

Well, the summer heat will be settling in soon and some of the plants that were doing well in the spring will begin to look a little parched. The best seasons for plant growth here in the High Desert are spring and fall, but we still need to keep our plants and yards healthy year-round.

Roses are among those plants that could use a little extra help in the summer. Here are a few hints for your roses to perk them up a bit and help them to perform better when fall arrives:

Water deeply - A couple of times a week should be sufficient, maybe a little less depending on your specific soil type.

Mulch around the root zone - This helps retain moisture, but also helps insulate the root zone from the intense heat.

Deadhead - Removing dead flowers is a form of summer pruning.

A little fertilizer wouldn't hurt - According to Botanica's Roses, they should be fed in the spring and again in summer. Use a good rose fertilizer applied to the soil around the root zone - avoid foliar sprays, which can burn the leaves.

Different rose enthusiasts have various methods for growing gorgeous roses - If you know a successful rose grower, ask them what they do. More than likely, they will be happy to share their knowledge with you.

Bedding plants always add a nice touch of color around the yard. The problem is that many of them that were looking great in the spring, don't look great in the summer. Pansies, sweet peas and calendulas, for example, don't like the heat of summer, unless you have a cool, partly shaded microclimate somewhere in your yard.

There are numerous bedding plants available at most garden centers/nurseries that do just fine in the summer. If in doubt about what to choose, ask a knowledgeable sales person what works well in this area. Some of my recommendations include daisies, marigolds, petunias, scarlet sage, lobelia, zinnia, coreopsis, cosmos, pincushion flower, verbena, nasturtium and sweet alyssum. This is certainly not a complete list, and you may find some others that work equally well or even better.

Some hints that will keep bedding plants performing is to water regularly, and remove the dead flowers to encourage new ones to bloom. If the plant starts looking straggly, prune it back to about half its size - within a week or two, they will be back in full bloom. They can also benefit from some fertilizer. Again, mulching can help retain moisture in the soil. Pests such as aphids can be taken care of using a blast of water from the hose or spraying with a light solution of water and Ivory dish soap.

If there is some concern about bedding plants using too much water, just use a few bedding plants here and there for a splash of color. You don't have to plant the entire yard with them.

With the Memorial Day and Fourth of July holidays coming up soon, you could get a little patriotic thing going by planting various red, white and blue flowering plants around the yard or in containers.

If choosing to plant in containers, choose insulated or light colored pots, and place them in an area where they are shaded from the hot afternoon sun. Darker colored containers, especially those exposed to the sun, can quickly heat up and cook the roots of your plants.