-Be sure to uncover any irrigation heads in your landscape that are covered with pine-straw mulch, this will prevent damage to your heads and insure proper water coverage to your plants.

-Check for water leaks or wet areas in the turf and landscape beds. Also, keep lawns at about 2 or 3”, to protect from summer heat.     

-Regularly water your flower pots on average every two days during the summer. Use a moisture meter purchased from a local hardware store to help determine moisture levels.

-Remove faded and dead flowers from zinnia, salvia, coneflower and petunia’s. This will encourage new bushiness and more flowers. Do a final pinching by mid-July, of fall blooming flowers like mums and asters.

-Attention Hydrangea lovers! Remove all old stems that support faded flowers on your plants; shorten droopy, flowerless stems by one-third to promote new growth that occurs on next year’s blooms. Also, depending on your variety, try a 0-30-0 fertilizer to help promote blooms.  

-Plant your cosmos, cleome, and dwarf sunflowers now before it’s too late. They’ll make a spectacular flower display in about six weeks. Also, focus on heat and rain resistant flowers like: coleus, hibiscus and zinnias. Give plants a mid-season feeding or side dressing to get them through to the fall.

-Bermuda, and Zoysia grass sod can be successfully installed in bare spots now. Make sure to loosen the soil six inches deep before putting the sod in place and keep it very moist. Mow grass growing in the shade one-half to one inch higher than the normally recommended height. Plants need as much leaf surface as possible to take advantage of any available light.