Get out of town! Head north to Colorado!  Last chance before school starts!

Planting

• Complete installation of warm season turf grasses by late August to mid-September to ensure they’re established before the first fall freeze.
• Plant ground covers and tropical and warm season annuals.
• Plant fall flowering perennials such as asters, Mexican mint marigold, Mexican bush sage (salvia leucantha), rain lilies, and garden chrysanthemums.
• Plant snap beans, lima beans, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, collards, eggplant, kohlrabi, okra, onion, parsley, Irish potatoes, squash, and watermelon for the fall.

Pruning

• Prune out any dead or broken branches of woody ornamentals (trees and shrubs) but avoid major pruning until the dormant season.
• Pinch off spent crape myrtle seeds to encourage new blooms and prune basal shoots to keep plant in tree form. This is necessary all-season long.
• Prune bush roses, and fertilize all roses according to soil test recommendation for fall blooming.
• Remove spent flowers of some perennials to encourage new blooms.
• Trim back leggy spring-planted annuals and fertilize if needed to encourage new growth and continued flowering.
• Stop pinching back chrysanthemums and Mexican mint marigold to ensure good bud development for fall blooms.

Plant Care

• Watch for powdery mildew on cedar elms, crape myrtles, and euonymus, and treat with fungicide, if necessary.
• Check pecan trees for aphids, shuck worms, webworms, and foliage diseases.
• Protect ornamental and peach trees from borers by applying a labeled borer preventive to the trunks in late August according to label directions.
• Be on alert for chinch bugs in St. Augustine lawns which will appear near paved surfaces and other hot spots in the yard.
• Watch susceptible ornamental plants for iron deficiency (yellowed leaves with darker green veins), aggravated by the hot dry weather, and treat with chelated iron if needed. Drench plants and avoid contact with hard surfaces that will stain.
• Keep young vegetable plants adequately watered and shade new plants from hot mid-day and afternoon sun.