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New York City Gardening Calendar
Vigilance is the word for summer. You must keep up with insects and weeds and maintain adequate moisture in your garden during dry spells. Here, straight from the gardening experts at BBG, are tips for keeping your garden in shape all summer.
June
Vegetable gardening
- Harvest remaining cool-weather crops such as lettuce, radishes, scallions, and small carrots.
- Begin sowing heat-tolerant vegetables like beans, chard, and cucumber.
- Finish setting out long-season warm-weather crops.
- Stake tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers at planting time to prevent root damage.
Perennials and annuals
- Continue pinching mums and asters.
- Deadhead peonies.
- Finish planting annuals.
Bulbs
- Continue deadheading after flowering.
Roses
- Start deadheading repeat-blooming shrub roses and climbers to encourage rebloom.
- Fertilize with a granular, balanced NPK formula.
Water gardening
- Add pots of water-lilies or other aquatic plants.
- Apply balanced slow-release fertilizer.
Trees and shrubs
- Prune dead or crossed branches; thin non-flowering trees that you think need it.
- Replace disintegrated mulch.
Lawns
- Leave nitrogen-rich clippings on the lawn.
- Water deeply when less than one inch of rain falls per week.
July
Vegetable gardening
- Continue to plant heat-resistant vegetables including beans, chard, and cucumber.
- Protect plantings of lettuce, radishes, and spinach with shade netting to discourage bolting.
- To save space and to protect fruits, construct trellises for pumpkins, winter squash, and melons.
Perennials and annuals
- Cut back perennials that have gone to seed; leave seed pods on self-sowing varieties.
- As flowers bloom, continue staking.
- Deadhead flowers to encourage reblooming.
- Feed annuals with liquid fertilizer.
Bulbs
- Remove foliage after it completely browns.
Roses
- Continue deadheading.
- Prune old, crowded canes on ramblers and climbers, and train new growth.
- Reduce risk of black spot by watering only in the morning; remove and discard lower leaves on diseased plants to allow better air circulation.
- Fertilize with a granular formula with a balanced NPK ratio.
Water gardening
- Remove dead leaves.
- Mosquitoes a problem? Buy a few goldfish.
Lawn
- Leave nitrogen-rich clippings on the lawn.
- Water when rainfall is less than one inch per week
- Mow regularly -- no more than a third of the height of the grass blades.
August
Vegetable gardening
- Begin resowing cool-weather crops such as radishes, lettuce, beans, kale, and beets.
- Construct a web of strings to support heavy fruits on pumpkin, melon, and squash vines.
Perennials and annuals
- Continue deadheading and staking.
- Water deeply during dry spells.
- Continue feeding annuals with liquid fertilizer monthly.
Bulbs
- Start ordering for fall planting.
Roses
- This is your last chance to deadhead and fertilize before winter.
- Reduce deadheading on shrub roses and climbers; allow hips to form.
- Prune to encourage repeat blooms.
- Start ordering roses for fall planting.
Water gardening
- Clean up dead leaves.
- Fertilize in early August with a balanced, slow release fertilizer.
Trees and shrubs
- After flowers are spent, prune summer-blooming varieties that flower on new wood from now until mid-April.
Lawn
- See July.
