Essential August Gardening Tips for San Diego County

It’s August in San Diego County, and the heat is on! August is usually the hottest month of the year, so when gardening outside, be sure to protect your skin, drink plenty of water, and wear a hat. Of course, since it’s so hot outside, you’ll want to monitor your plants’ water needs and ensure that irrigation systems are in top working order. Also, if you live in a fire hazard severity area, take the steps now to protect your family and home from wildfire dangers.

Summer is a time to enjoy your bounty of produce and your garden in the shade!

Here are a few essential August gardening tips:

Harvest Vegetable Garden

Now’s an ideal time to pick herbs, runner beans, squash, and cucumbers so that they can keep producing a tasty bounty. Harvest early in the morning when it’s nice and cool outside. Then, take your produce inside. Doing this can help extend their shelf life.

Grow More Veggies

San Diego County’s warm growing season makes it the perfect time to grow a variety of tasty veggies, such as:

• Sweet bell peppers
• Tomatoes
• Eggplant
• Genovese-type basil
• Artichoke

Harvest Fruit Trees

August is also an excellent time to harvest fruit, such as apples, plums, pears, peaches, and pluots. If you don’t have a fruit tree but wish you did, fall is an ideal time to plant one because the weather has cooled down.

Prune and Clean Up the Area Around Fruit Trees

Give your fruit trees some love and prune any dead or diseased branches on the trees. Don’t do any major pruning—for most fruit trees, that’s a task best left for fall. If you have a citrus tree, you’ll want to prune it before the end of their fruiting season (before next year’s flowers begin budding.) You can help prevent the spread of disease to healthy trees and prevent pest infestations by removing fallen fruit and old leaves below the trees.

Transplant Perennials

Transplant or divide bearded irises, lilies, peonies, daylilies, and oriental poppies. Make sure that your new plants have properly amended soil.

Keep planting cacti, succulents, and euphorbias.

Keep planting those wonderful tropical plants in the coastal areas of San Diego County.

Grow Cool-Weather Crops

The end of August is an excellent time to start directly sowing seeds of cool-weather crops like Brussels sprouts, broccoli, mustard greens, kale, and other fall crops. You can plant various crops in Southern California through late summer and early fall.

Plant a Cover Crop

Cover crops are excellent at suppressing weeds in an empty garden bed. Alfalfa, crimson clover, and lava beans can also add nitrogen to the soil as they grow, so they’re great if you plan to grow crops once you remove the cover crops.

August Gardening Tips for Your Lawn

Cool season lawn: Bluegrass, fescue, and perennial ryegrass are growing slowly in August, so they need less mowing. Also, since they grow so slow during the summer, they need little or no fertilizer (unless they show signs of yellowing.)

Warm season lawn: St. Augustine, zoysia, and bermuda grasses grow quickly in the summer. You'll have to mow frequently since these kinds of grasses thrive in the warm summer heat. Water deeply and infrequently—doing so will encourage deep root growth.

Manage lawn insects and lawn fungus: One of the best ways to prevent lawn infections is to aerate often. Reducing shade in affected areas is also helpful.

Test Your Irrigation System

It’s hot, so be sure your plants get the water they need. Unless the temperatures are extreme or prolonged drought, native plants don’t require any added water. You’ll want to test your irrigation system to ensure water reaches your plants. Look for broken sprinklers, broken lines, clogged drip irrigation emitters, or sprinkler heads spraying in areas without plants, like the sidewalk or driveway.

Watering

• Irrigate thoroughly, but not frequently. Long and deep watering.
• Use drip systems, sprinklers, or soakers.
• Reset irrigation timer so that it waters more frequently.
• Most flowering plants and vegetable gardens require about an inch of water every week (NOT Daily)
• Water warm-season lawns deeply and infrequently.
• Water cool-season lawns more frequently. Do not water too deep.

More August Gardening Tips

Care for Native Plants

Don’t transplant native plants during summer; fall is a better time. Your established native plants can go three to four weeks between watering. But if you planted native plants earlier in the year, they may need additional supplemental watering.

Ants on Trees

In most cases, ants aren’t doing any harm to the health of your trees. However, you may want to forcefully spray and wash tree foliage periodically to promote biological control of aphids, whiteflies, spider mites, and other insects.

Ants in the Home

When it’s hot, ants start marching towards pet food, potted plants, and kitchen counters in search of water and food. One of the best ways to control and keep them away is to be vigilant about cleanliness. Use soapy water to wash walls and counters where ants have marched.

Experience Quality Service. The Difference…Is Growing

When it comes to commercial landscaping in San Diego County, no one does it better than Westturf Landscape Management. We are a local Vista, CA, owned landscape management company that has served communities in San Diego County since 1972. Call us 760-650-3120 or send us a message.