First Week
- Water figs deeply now as they begin to ripen. Harvest every morning, before the birds can do their damage.
- The best way to control snakes is to remove their habitat. Move log piles, leaf piles and rock piles to the edge of your yard, away from the house.
- The soil in outdoor clay pots dries out quickly. Poke holes in it with a pencil to make sure water saturates the soil when you tend your plants.
- Remove faded crape myrtle blooms and dry seed clusters now. With a little water and fertilizer, you may get more blooms in September.
Second Week
- Collect seeds from hosta, iris and blackberry lily to save for planting next spring.
- Bermuda or zoysia grass encroaching in your fescue lawn? Spray it with glyphosate (Roundup) now and again in September before you plant fescue this fall.
- To prevent ants from coming indoors, spread insecticide granules in a band 24 inches wide around the foundation of your house. Use ant bait traps near entrance doors.
- If you had tremendous numbers of Japanese beetles, you might get some control next year by poisoning the grubs. Now is the best time to do it; remember to water heavily after the insecticide application.
- Fertilize roses with 1 tablespoon of 10-10-10 per foot of height now to stimulate some new growth. As the weather cools, you'll get roses for the fall.
Third Week
- Look on the ground around your blackberry and raspberry plants. The canes snaking across the ground should be tied back on their wire arbor.
- How long has it been since your lawnmower blade was sharpened? If your grass blades appear jagged, after cutting, then it is time again to sharpen those blades.
- Cut back faded annual flowers by half, then water and lightly fertilize with liquid 20-20-20. A second season of blooms will begin to appear in two weeks.
- Plant fall blooming bulbs like colchicum, fall crocus and sternbergia.
- Water big trees. Apply at least 15 gallons per inch of trunk thickness each week.
Fourth Week
- Watch for the red or yellow, spider-like flowers of spider lily, also called surprise lily - because the foliage is nowhere to be seen when it blooms.
- Make a slug trap from a small board raised an inch off the ground by small stones. Check it at noon and scrape the slimy crawlers into a bucket of soapy water.
- Wrap cheesecloth around sunflower heads to keep the birds away. The head is ready to harvest when the back has turned from green to brown.
- Pull English ivy out of your trees. The leaves act like a sail in a thunderstorm - you don't want that tree to navigate onto your roof!
- It's easy to see the big webs of fall webworm in your trees. If you can reach it with a stick, wrap and destroy the webbing to expose worms to the elements.
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