• Plenty of Gardening Choices in May for Southern Calif. Gardeners - Wednesday, April 29, 2009 at 9:28 AM
  • Walk into any nursery during May and you can be overwhelmed with the array of flowers, landscape plants, fruit trees and summer vegetables on display. Keep focused on the needs of your garden and don't be tempted to overbuy, says Agromin, an Oxnard-based manufacturer of premium soil products and one of the state's largest green materials recycling companies.

    Ideal Month for Planting Almost Any Flower: Plant your warm season annuals in May including begonia, chrysanthemum, geranium, marigold, petunia and verbena. While annuals come and go, perennials will bring backyard enjoyment for years to come. Perennials to plant now include African daisy, delphinium, fuchsia and lavender.

    Herb Planting: If you use fresh herbs when cooking, it makes good sense to plant your own herb garden. For the price of a few cut basil leaves from the store, you can plant a small basil plant that will produce dozens of leaves through November. Other herbs to plant are chives, cilantro, dill, fennel, mint, oregano, parsley, rosemary, sage, tarragon and thyme.

    Naturally Reduce Pests: Plenty of brands of pesticides are sold at nurseries and retail stores, many even claiming to be all-natural. To be assured you are not putting harmful chemicals on your flowers, trees and garden, try truly natural options. For example, ladybugs can control infestations of aphids (small round bugs that feed in colonies on vegetable gardens, roses and other plants). If ladybugs are not plentiful in your yard, you can purchase them at most nurseries. To keep the ladybugs in your yard instead of migrating to your neighbors, release them after dark. They only fly in daylight.

    Rethink Your Lawn: Lawn care accounts for about 32 percent of outdoor water use. With water restrictions right around the corner, now is a good time to consider alternatives to a traditional lawn. Low maintenance, drought-tolerant ground cover such as lantana and Acacia redolens and ornamental grasses including fountain grass and deer grass can easily fill in a location where grass once grew. If you can't part with your entire lawn, consider reducing its size.

    For more gardening tips, go to www.agromin.com.

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  • Cut Down On Outdoor Watering Even As Weather Heats Up - Thursday, July 3, 2008 at 9:32 AM
  • July temperatures can easily reach triple digits. Smart watering techniques can keep gardens and lawns from wilting during the summer's hottest days, say experts at Agromin, a Camarillo-based manufacturer of premium soil products.

    Place Mulch Around Your Plants, Gardens And Trees: Mulch consists of various sizes of chopped wood, usually made from recycled trees and other wood materials. Place about 2 inches of mulch around plants and trees to keep roots cool even during the heat of the day. This reduces moisture loss and suppresses weed growth. It also reduces erosion so its use on hillsides and slopes is ideal.

    Water In Early Morning: Use trickle irrigation, soaker hoses or other water-conserving methods. It's also best to water in the early morning, especially during hot summer months, to reduce evaporation. Apply about an inch of water-- enough that it soaks 6 to 8 inches into the soil. With a mulched landscape, you can usually reduce watering schedules to two or three times a week.

    Lawn Water Care: It's best to water only when the lawn really needs it, and then to water slowly and deeply. This trains the grass roots to reach deeper into the ground. Frequent shallow watering trains roots to stay near the surface, making the lawn less able to find moisture during dry periods. Every lawn's watering needs are unique: they depend on rainfall, grass and soil type and the general health of the lawn, but even in very dry areas, no established home lawn requires daily watering.

    Summer Garden Planting: If you haven't had time to plant a garden, you still can grow a variety of vegetables in July and enjoy vegetables by late summer and early fall. These include beans, beets, carrots, corn, cantaloupe, okra squash and spinach. Flowers such as gladiolus, calla lilies, marigolds, zinnias and dahlias can also be planted in July

    Caring For Your Rose Bushes: Remove dried flowers by cutting back to the first leaf after rose flower clusters. This will stimulate growth.

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