The Northwest Voice

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Although I refuse to believe summer is here yet, I have seen signs that it is approaching, so let’s get a jump on it. I was out in my garden today, beginning to prepare for the approaching heat. After living here most of my life, I know we’ll probably have a few steamy days, then some more beautiful weather before the full-fledged Bakersfield heat arrives. But it’s definitely not too soon to get ready.

June 1 is the date to use your summer application of preemergent on your lawn and flower beds. It will help control the hot weather weeds! If you slacked off this spring and skipped seed control, then put it down immediately — don’t wait until June 1! (Four times a year is the recommended application.)

  Think about stepping up your watering times. Water longer and deeper when the ground is dry. This time of year, the temperatures may vary greatly, hence, so should your watering schedule. Keep a close eye on your garden and water accordingly. Your plants will thank you.

I can’t stand to look at my early spring bloomers any more. I have started to pull all the annuals that have gone to seed. I’ll be happy to see them again next year, but for now, they’re out of here! Goodbye to paludosum, violas, California poppies, pansies, snaps, cyclamen and primroses! 

  As I clean out the beds, I am harvesting quite a crop of snails. All this cover has given them the perfect hiding places. After a lot of stomping and with snail bait as my backup I can start planting my summer color. Check out your local nursery and get summer bloomers in before the heat really does hit.  At Robby’s we’re getting several shipments each week.

I also am doing some serious weeding and adding some forest humus to all my flower beds. The garden area will get bags of soil-building compost and some additional plantings of veggies. Oh yes, we still have lots of time to plant vegetables. It won’t cool off until late October. Yes, sad but true.

  The good news is we have a really long growing season — what fun we can still have! Peppers and tomatoes love the heat. Use a slow-release organic fertilizer for best results. Forget Miracle Gro, it has too much nitrogen for our long growing season and can contribute to blossom-end rot on your tomatoes.

I’ll be putting on more Merit to control bugs for the whole season. I already have applied it to some of my plants like the roses, but now it’s going on cypress, crape myrtles, redbud, liquid amber, weeping willows trees and some cactus — something I haven’t gotten to yet. Once a year sounds too good to be true, I know. So far it has worked well for us!  A definite time saver, not to mention dollars saved with only one application.

I guess I know what I will be doing on my days off for the next couple of weeks. I had illusions of getting all this accomplished today, but I forgot to calculate my afternoon nap and going out to breakfast!  After all, it is a day “off.” Oh well, it gives me something to look forward to before summer!