August Gardening In The Low Desert 2000

August brings the humidity, wind, and storms. This is not the greatest month for working outside but certain things need to be done.

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 by cutting or pinching 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.

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. To help roses prepare for fall bloom, acidify soil with a soluble sulfur like DisperSul, and a complete fertilizer, and apply iron chelate if needed to correct chlorosis. Be sure to water everything in thoroughly. Acid loving palms are also susceptible to iron chlorisis. Treat with DisperSul, Ironite or gypsum and fertilize with a good palm food.

Sow Annuals: Plant them now so they will have time to grow strong roots - they will slow down during the winter and burst into bloom in warmer weather. Some perennials sown now may bloom next year. Don't forget to gather seeds of those perennials and annuals that you want to share or plant.

To continue on with the pest/critter control problems covered in the July 2000 article, here are some ideas that many gardeners have found helpful.

For deer, those things that have been suggested are: Deer-Off which is supposed to deter deer, rabbits and squirrels and is safe for edibles although you may not like the taste, and other plants. Other ideas are hair, human or dog, spread around the edge of the garden and hanging bars of strong smelling soap in trees. Hinder and Milorganite are also supposed to be effective though they, like the soap, will wash away with heavy rain and have to be reapplied.

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