Home » Plants & Animals » Desert Gardening » August Gardening in the Low Desert: Endless Heat and Humidity

August Gardening in the Low Desert: Endless Heat and Humidity

© Pat Kolb

Well desert dwellers, is it hot enough for you? Are you tired of hearing people ask that?

This is the month we have to deal with humidity, wind, storms, and those charming pests we have come to know and love. Whiteflies are number one on my hit list! The suggested methods for dealing with them involve sticky traps and sprays. Sticky traps can be made by smearing petroleum jelly on cardboard (preferably yellow) to attract them and hang the traps in the garden. Unfortunately, these also attract the good insects. If possible, wait it out, they won't be around long. Usually, when the bad bugs come, the good follow soon and the problem may resolve itself without any help. If immediate help is needed, there are many good horticultural oils on the market. These are preferable to many other things as most of them suffocate the insects and kill the eggs, and their impact on beneficial and benign insects is minimal. There are many types on the market now, shop carefully and read labels. Neem oil is in a somewhat different category, it is used as both an insecticide and a fungicide.

Heat Stress and Watering Summer heat and off - and - on again rain are hard on our plants. One of the sites that will give you information on helping your plants through the summer is Maricopa County Cooperative Extension Home Horticulture. This site has a variety of information - check out the Timely Tips area for information on what to do in each month. Another site for desert gardeners is theUniversity of Nevada Cooperative Extension Service and Master Gardeners of Southern Nevada.

Encourage summer annuals Cut or pinch off faded flowers, then water and fertilize. Mulch everything heavily to keep roots cool and moist. Even grass clippings are a good mulch as well as hay, straw, newspaper, purchased mulch and compost. I've read of using old carpet as well, haven't tried it because it doesn't decompose and feed the soil like the other mulches do.

Fruit and Nut Trees Apply nitrogen fertilizer in late summer to help fruit sizing, especially of fall ripening fruit.. Be sure there are wide basins on all trees so they may be watered deeply to flush away the accumulated salts and mulch well with an organic mulch.

Chlorosis is an iron deficiency which shows up on many plants and trees in hot weather. Too wet or too dry soils, not watering deeply enough and salty or caliche soils limit iron uptake. Leaves turn yellow (with green veins) and appears first on new growth. If not alleviated, leaves turn yellow, then white and then brown as tissues die. Apply iron chelate according to directions.