1. Continue to plant melons
2. Plant tropical and subtropical plants
3. Plant bougainvilleas
4. Plant perennial morning glories
5. Purchase fuchsias
6. Continue to purchase epiphyllums
7. Plant seeds of heat-loving annuals
8. Use bedding plants for quick color
9. Continue to plant summer vegetables
10. Plant zoysia grass
11. Plant exotic vegetables
12. Purchase, plant and transplant succulents including cacti and euphorbias
13. Purchase alstromerias throughout summer while they are in bloom
14. Plant papayas and bananas
15. Plant and transplant palms
16. Continue to pick and deadhead roses
17. Pinch back chrysanthemums to make them bushy
18. Divide and repot cymbidiums that have outgrown their containers
19. Remove berries (seed pods) from fuchsias after flowers fall
20. Prune epiphyllums
21. Thin out deciduous fruit trees after June drop
22. Give marguerites a "butch" haircut
23. Cut back gamolepis and euryops
24. Deadhead and pick summer flowers to keep them going
25. Mow cool-season lawns longer
26. Mow warm-season grasses short
27. Clip runners off strawberries
28. Prune climbing roses that bloom once a year in spring, but wait until flowers fade
29. Divide English primroses after bloom or wait until September
30. Continue to prune and train espaliers
31. Continue to remove spent bloom stems from daylilies and to propagate the types that make proliferates
32. Deadhead alstromerias often by pulling off the stalks with a sharp tug
33. Look for yellow leaves and green veins indicating chlorosis in citrus, gardenias, azaleas, and others; treat it with chelated iron
34. Feed citrus and avocado trees
35. Feed bamboo with a slow-release fertilizer
36. Feed water lilies
37. Fertilize cymbidiums with high nitrogen for growth
38. Give camellias their second feeding for the year
39. Feed container-grown annuals and perennials with a complete fertilizer
40. Side-dress vegetable rows if you didn't do it last month
41. Give strawberries a shot of 0-10-10 to elongate the harvest
42. If peppers look yellow despite adequate nitrogen, spray them with Epsom salts

By Tamara Galbraith

Now that the growing season has begun throughout the country, it's time to shift into maintenance mode. Did you know that sidedressing is one of the best ways to feed your plants once they're in the ground and growing? Here's the how, why, what and when of this method.

Basically, sidedressing refers to the simple step of periodically adding fertilizer to the soil next to each of your plants, and then watering it in. It is a nice way of giving your plants occasional boosts before they flower or put out fruit. Compost is the ideal material to use for sidedressing.

To sidedress, dig a trench around the plant about one inch deep and three to four inches away from the stem. Put a handful of manure or compost or two to three tablespoons of a balanced fertilizer (preferably one a little lower in nitrogen, such as Dr. Earth Organic 7 All Purpose Fertilizer) in a band in the trench. Be careful not to sprinkle any fertilizer on the plants as it can burn them. Finish up by watering the soil, thus sending the fertilizer down to the roots.

Most vegetables grown during the summer are big eaters. Squash, peppers and eggplants especially all love hearty doses of well-rotted manure or compost. The blossoms of these plants eventually become fruit, so it's important to sidedress both at flowering time, and again just as the little fruits are forming on the plant.

Many flowers that rank as heavy feeders and benefit from frequent sidedressing include roses, dahlias, peonies, and most annuals and tropicals.

By Tamara Galbraith

Ok, let's get the nasty bit out of the way right now: "castings" is just a nice word for, um, poop. So when we talk about earthworm castings, it's actually the stuff that comes out of the business end of a worm.

That's the bad news. The good news is that earthworm castings are an invaluable tool in maintaining an organic garden, especially for you veggie gardeners out there.

Castings are simply one of the best fertilizers you can use, for a variety of reasons. For one thing, you can use as much as you like, and earthworm castings will not burn your plants. For another, castings contain nutrients that are more easily absorbed by plants. Mixing them into the soil will help with moisture retention too.

And buying a bag of castings isn't anything like, say, lugging home a sack of cow manure. Castings don't smell, and the medium is light and fluffy to the touch. You can use them by themselves as a soil supplement (we recommend Gardner & Bloome Worm-Gro). We also carry soil amendments, planting mixes and potting mixes that contain worm castings (for example, Gardner & Bloome Harvest Supreme).

You'll quickly get over any "ewww" factor when you see how much your plants love the gift earthworms leave behind.

By Tamara Galbraith

One of my favorite summer blooming perennials is Veronica. These hardy plants send up gorgeous candles of purple, white, and pink year after year in a stately fashion, plus they pretty much define 'low-maintenance.'

Perfect for rock gardens, Veronicas — and we're talking about the upright type of Veronica here, not the creeping kind — prefer full sun and do well in rock gardens. It's important not to overwater this lovely lady, or mildew and root rot can result.

Most types can get to a couple of feet tall. However, there are also some lovely dwarf varieties.

Veronicas are hardy to an incredible -35 degrees F, not picky about soil quality, attractive to bees and butterflies, and are even deer-resistant. Sounds like the perfect plant, doesn't it?

Better still, you can divide these plants every few years and replant the divisions. Or you can give them away...because Veronicas should be in everybody's garden.

By Tamara Galbraith

Plants and their habits can be cruel sometimes. How else can you explain the reason for basil being an annual instead of a perennial? One of the most beautiful, fragrant and delicious herbs known to man, 'Ocimum basilicum' is very sensitive to cold. That we are denied its wonderful qualities year-round is just torturous.

Give it heat, sun and well-draining soil, though, and it'll do wonderful things for you. Like most herbs, little fertilization is required.

Choose from several varieties ranging in leaf color and flavor, but keep the flowers pinched off to maintain a nice plant shape and to prevent the stems from getting woody. (Some of the purple varieties do have pretty pink flowers, however.) Basil makes a good companion plant for tomatoes and peppers.

Use basil leaves, either fresh or dried, in soups, sauces, tomato dishes or with nearly any kind of meat. Basil can also be kept frozen with olive oil in ice cubes. Simply drop the frozen cube into whatever you're cooking and presto, you've got pesto! If you have any left over from cooking, dried basil is also great in a potpourri or sachet.