June Yard and Garden Tips

Summertime has arrived! With school out and family vacations on the horizon, it’s easy to overlook yard maintenance. This spring’s ample rainfall has everything flourishing. Here are some essential yard tips for June.

Watch out for:

Flowers

• Japanese beetles – these pests will defoliate plants in short order. Keep a sharp lookout for them. If you find an infestation use carbaryl (Sevin, etc.), which is very effective. Observe all label precautions on mixing and use. Do not use dusts due to the problem with application – a spray made using the liquid form of the product will work fine.  And spray after 5:00 pm to give your bees time to “go home.”

Fruits

• Fireblight – inspect fruit trees for fireblight. If you had problems with fireblight last year, you will need to spray your blooms this year to prevent the spread. The best defense is a fireblight-resistant variety. Infected branches must be pruned out 12 inches below the infected area.  See Fireblight for more information.

Lawns

• Lawn diseases – continue watching for problems with brown patch and dollar spot in warm season grasses, especially if you had problems with one of them last year. See Brown Patch Disease of Lawns and Leaf Diseases of Lawns for more information.
• Chinch bugs – watch for chinch bugs in your warm season lawn. See Chinch Bugs for more information.
• Mole crickets – inspect warm season lawns for mole crickets this month. Eliminating these critters requires diligent work in June, July, and early August. See Mole Cricket Management for the Home Lawn for more information.
• Spittle bugs – watch for spittlebugs in warm season lawns and on hollies. See Two-Lined Spittlebug for more information.
• White grubs – the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis does a nice job on Japanese Beetle grubs, but it does take a little time to build up in the soil. Bacillus thuringiensis does not, however, control other types of grubs. See White Grub Management in Turfgrass for more information.

Trees

• Bag worms – bag worms can kill a tree if it is heavily infested. Inspect your trees periodically – bagworms seem to like juniper, arborvitae, and pines, but they are will attack many broadleaf shrubs and trees such as rose, sycamore, maple, elm, and black locust.. Hand-picking light infestations works well; applying the bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis will also take care of the problem. See Integrated Pest Management (I.P.M.) for Evergreen Bagwormsfor more information.

Vegetables

• Garden insects – keep an eye out for corn earworm, cucumber beetle, and squash vine borer in the garden. See Insect Pests of Sweet Corn and Cucumber, Squash, Melon & Other Cucurbit Insect Pests for more information.
• Blossom end rot – check your tomatoes for blossom end rot on the fruit as it begins to form. This is usually an indication of a calcium deficiency. Place a handful of gypsum (land plaster) in the soil beside the tomato at planting (or later) to prevent this. Foliar sprays such as blossom end rot spray will also help alleviate the problem. Nothing will “heal” the fruit with rot on it, so remove and discard them. See Tomato for more information.

Things to do:

Fruits

• Spray fruit trees – continue spraying your fruit trees with a fungicide (Captan, etc.) every 7 to 10 days to provide the beautiful fruit you look forward to. Do not use any insecticides on the trees until less than 10% of the blooms remain – you certainly do not want to hurt your bee pollinators. The fungicide will have no effect on them. After the blooms have fallen you may begin to also spray malathion insecticide.

Lawns

• Lawn Fertilizer – you should apply nitrogen to Bermuda lawns this month. You can also apply a slow-release fertilizer to St. Augustine lawns to help reduce chinch bug problems. See Fertilizing Lawns for more information.
• Fire ants – if you have not yet broadcast fire ant baits apply your first treatment any time this month. Be sure to apply fresh bait, and do it at the correct time of day (fire ants only forage actively when the ground temperature is between 70 and 95 degrees F). See Fire Ant Management in the Home Lawn for more information.
• Lawn Aeration – any time your warm season lawn is actively growing is a good time to aerate. This can help alleviate compaction and thatch issues.  David Parker relates that you should “aerate as long as you can stand it, then go over the yard once more.” See Aerating Lawns for more information.
• Lawn Establishment – if you plan to plant a warm-season (centipede, zoysia, Bermuda, St. Augustine) lawn, the best time to plant is in the spring and summer. It’s too late to plant Bermuda by seed (unless you seed with unhulled seed in the fall). Wait until next fall for cool-season grasses (fescue). See Lawn Establishment for more information.
• Crabgrass and goosegrass – make the second attack on your war with these weeds this month. You will need an application of a pre-emergent herbicide this month to compliment the one applied in March. See Grassy Weeds for more information.
• Irrigation – your irrigation cycle should be in full swing by this time. See the Home and Garden Center’s irrigation publications for more information, especially the publication on Irrigation Time of Day. One inch per week is the appropriate amount for most lawns and vegetables (except sweet corn and yellow squash, which may require up to two inches depending on growth stage). Include rainfall in this amount, and see How Much Water to determine how much water you are actually applying. And make sure that you adjust your water applications with plant growth stage and time of year – one size definitely does not fit all for the entire year. Also see Determining When to Irrigateto help determine when your plants need water. Do not irrigate every day! There are a few exceptions to this rule (such as potted plants), but only a few.

Ponds

• Pond Stocking – May, June, and July are good months to stock bass in a fishing pond. See Stocking & Harvesting Recreational Fish Ponds for more information.

Trees

• Tree fertilization – apply a second, light fertilizer application to trees in June if there is sufficient moisture and conditions promote good growth. Do not apply if growing conditions are poor or if there is a drought. See Fertilizing Trees and Shrubs for more information.
• Pruning – now is another good time to prune most trees and shrubs. July and August are the months to prune azalea, dogwood, forsythia, redbud and rhododendron. They should be pruned after they bloom, but before bloom set in the fall. Oakleaf hydrangea and late-flowering azalea cultivars might also be considered now. Avoid any pruning in the spring and fall if possible. See Pruning Trees and Pruning Shrubs for more information.

Vegetables

• Vegetables – Some planting times for more common vegetables (See Planning a Garden for a full list and planting depths and spacings):
  • Cantaloupe – Jun. 15 – 30
  • Melons – Apr. 20 – Jun. 30
  • Okra – Jun. 15 – 30
  • Pumpkins – Jun. 1 – 15
  • Southern peas – May 1 – June 30
  • Sweet potato – May 10 – June 10

All pamphlets referenced in this calendar may be found online:  http://www.clemson.edu/hgic.

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