Weekly Garden Tip

August 6, 2006

By Gene Joyner, Extension Agent
Palm Beach County Cooperative Extension Service

This is an active time of year in most people’s landscapes. With the regular rainfall combined with good growing conditions, almost all types of plantings are doing well, in fact, too well to fit many people’s maintenance schedule. This time of year you’re required to do once a week mowing if you mow your own grass and you probably have to do some trimming in the landscape on fast growing shrubs every two to three weeks.

Because of this labor intensive schedule, many people are not having enough time for many other activities they would probably prefer. Don’t opt to do other things though and let your landscape slide because once you get behind it takes a lot longer to catch up.

This time of year we’re also seeing increases in many unpleasant things in the landscape, too, such as weeds and various types of insects and diseases. You need to really monitor your landscape and take a walk slowly and look at everything at least once a week or sometimes more often. This way you will catch invading problems quickly before they become major headaches and result in a lot of extra time to combat them.

If you like to garden and spend a lot of time in your landscape, probably you’re not doing too much in the middle of the day when it’s the hottest. Always the ideal time for working outside is in the morning hours when it’s cooler before it really begins to get steamy. The next best time to do work would be late in the afternoon after the heat of the day has worn off. For many people though late in the day is probably not as easily accomplished because by then you may be tired from other activities and not really want to get out and start doing a lot of work in the landscape.

If you want to install new plants this time of year, we plant landscape plantings virtually every day of the year. Many area retail nurseries have rebuilt their inventories nicely in the last several months so you have a good selection to choose from and prices are reasonable.
If you don’t have the physical ability to do your own planting, many local landscape companies are available to install plantings and maintain them too if you wish that service. If you get pleasure out of maintaining your own landscape though, this time of year is one of the better times of the year for doing outside gardening.

If you run into problems you can’t address easily, you can always get some free advice from the Palm Beach County Extension office. Their experts are trained to answer questions on any types of problems and the service is free. You can also pick up pamphlets on plant care at the Extension office during normal business hours.

For information over the telephone dial 233-1750 in the north and central county area or 276-1260 in the south county area.