8 Late June Garden Tasks for Gardeners in Southern California's Areas of Coastal Influence
For those gardeners living in areas of Southern California with coastal influence, June can be a busy month in the garden. Here are some tasks that should be on your list:
- Monitor plants regularly, at least every other day during warm weather and every day during hot weather to catch wilting, irrigation, pest, disease, weed, and other problems early.
- Maintain or add mulch.
- Harvest thinnings, spring crops, and summer crops. Harvest more aggressively before heat waves, including whole plants or all vegetables for cool-season crops such as basil and red-or-multi-colored chard and sensitive warm-season crops such as zucchini.
- Use caution when adding nitrogen.
- Provide consistent soil moisture and partial shade during heat waves to extend harvests; see GardenZeus Tips for Shading Vegetables During Hot Weather for creative ideas for providing shade.
- Harvest and save seeds from spring-bolted vegetables and herbs such as arugula, basil, beets, chard, and lettuce after seed stalks are brown and dry; and from warm-season vegetables such as tomatoes.
- Cut off expired plant stems at ground level after harvest or as plants die, leaving roots in place to feed soil.
- Plan and complete irrigation, seed-starting, transplanting, soil testing, soil amending, and garden projects for summer.
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Other articles of interest:
Tips for Summer Tomato Planting in Southern California Coastal-Influence Areas