A friend of mine asked me the other day if it was okay to plant trees and shrubs this time of year, thinking that maybe he should wait until fall. Plant away, I told him. After all, so long as you water routinely, you can plant darn near anything -- annuals, perennials, grasses, groundcovers, and more -- through the summer months.

In fact, the only exception would be large trees because their roots are severed quite a bit prior to planting, thereby upsetting the balance between the root mass and the top growth. That puts a ton of stress on the tree no matter how much you water. And once we get into the height of summer -- say mid-July through August -- I would hold off planting trees and shrubs of any size until fall, with one notable exception: crape myrtles, whose roots love growing in warm soil.

But beyond planting there are plenty of other things to get done this time of year.

You can still plant warm-season veggies, particularly from seed. That includes beans, black-eyed peas, corn, cucumbers, melons, squash…even a late crop of okra, which I recently replanted after a hail storm shredded my plants to smithereens.

It’s also harvesting time for potatoes, garlic, greens of all kinds (many of which will start bolting -- going to flower -- as temperatures go from warm to hot), summer squash, peppers, eggplant, and if you’re lucky, tomatoes. Onions might need a little more time in the ground, but if they begin to send up a flowering stalk, snip it off to divert energy back into bulb formation. And if the green tops are starting to fade, knock them over and let the bulb cure for a few days before harvesting.

For more tips on how to care for summer veggies, read my post from 2018 here:

Herb transplants can go in the grown or in containers as well, and you can still plant dill from seed. It thrives in the heat.

Weeds rob plants of nutrients and moisture. They may also harbor insects and diseases. In the lawn, most folks rely on herbicides to control weeds -- both pre- and post-emergent formulations. Elsewhere, non-selective herbicides -- those that kill anything green -- are commonly used to control vines and other nuisance weeds.

But in flower beds and especially in veggie and herb gardens, your best bet (and best friend) for controlling weeds is a hoe. And if you hoe the weeds say once a week, especially when they’re young, it’s pretty simple to keep them in check. Weeding by hand may be necessary where weeds are growing within rows or close to crops.

Keep in mind, however, that your best defense against weeds in flower and vegetable gardens is a thick layer of mulch.

And yet mulch does much more than prevent weeds from taking over the garden. It also maintains even moisture in the soil, and when it comes to peppers and tomatoes, that’s key in preventing blossom-end rot. It also stabilizes soil temperatures, something plants roots as well as soil microorganisms appreciate.

Deadheading (removing faded flowers) isn’t something plants require, but in many cases it does indeed promote a new flush of blooms. That’s especially true of the following.

We used to be told that you should only prune deciduous trees and shrubs when they're dormant, as in during the winter months. And that’s certainly the best time to do any extensive pruning. But the truth is you can lightly prune them anytime so long as you don’t get too carried away. It’s perfectly fine to remove dead, damaged, or diseased branches, and to remove inner branches to increase airflow through the plant and allow the interior of the plant to receive more light. 

Soil temps are perfect for planting Bermuda grass from seed, and the technique is the same as that for fescue; scratch the soil lightly with a rake to create miniature furrows, sow the seed according to label instructions, and water frequently enough to keep the soil moist -- at least once, and maybe twice a day -- until the seed has germinated, which usually takes 10 to 14 days.

After all the record-setting rain we’ve had lately, it’s weird to be bringing up the subject of water, but we all know that dousing our lawns and gardens routinely is just around the corner. However, rather than getting into the weeds on watering (which is the most difficult subject to write about in a way that addresses every situation), I instead refer you to my blog on the subject:

Rain + heat + humidity = bugs. Lots of bugs. No gardener, and very few garden plants, are immune to the problems they can cause. Dealing with them requires keeping a watchful eye out for their arrival, doing all you can to maintain healthy plants and, when push comes to shove, applying the proper pesticide.