Welcome back to Regional Gardening Monday — a series that provides monthly gardening tips and tricks for each region in the United States. For today’s article, we are looking at the Southwest region of the U.S.
Southwest Region August Gardening Tips
Landscaping Tips
The best practice for watering your lawn will be to saturate the soil slowly and in the morning at dawn. The grass will then take in the water through the soil.
Better Homes and Gardens recommends deadheading flowering shrubs and trees this month. Deadheading means to remove dead flower heads to encourage further blooming.
This is a great month to start planting trees.
The fall and spring are the best times to fertilize your lawn. However, if you want to fertilize more often, doing it in mid-summer is your best bet. You are not limited to only fertilizing two times a year or three times a year.
Fruit and Vegetable Tips
It’s finally time to start your fall vegetable garden. Fall vegetable gardens can include broccoli, carrots, collards, lettuce and Brussels sprouts.
Perennial/Annual Tips
According to Ideal Home Garden, the following are the best for southwest gardens: Salvia, Gaura, Coreopsis, and Echinacea.
The Old Farmer’s Almanac recommends picking perennials and annuals often to promote more flower growth.
General Gardening Tips
Don’t let the heat beat your trees, shrubs or flowers. Install a direct to root watering system like aeration tubes to promote deep root growth and even more above ground growth. Rootwell Products Inc. provides the Pro318 for trees and Rootsticks for shrubs and plants that are scientifically proven to provide oxygen, nutrients and water to the root zone.
If you would love to keep some roses in your garden, check out the heat loving varieties Mr. Lincoln, Peace and Marilyn Monroe. Make sure to check out our article, All You Need To Know About Roses, for helpful tips on growing roses.
Summary
When gardening in August in the Southwest, it can be really helpful to choose drought-tolerant and heat loving plants. If you find that you are still having a hard time, install a direct-to-root watering system to help.
What is your favorite part of gardening in August?
