Punch List
It looks like it is going to be a phenomenal fruit producing summer. Get ready for a plentiful harvest with these tips:
• Fruit trees commonly set or grow more fruit than they can adequately support or grow to maturity. If your fruit trees haven’t been pruned in a while, then the possibility of heavy fruit loads causing limb damage or breakage is high.
• It may seem extreme to purposely thin or remove so many small fruits in June, but you’ll be rewarded later with larger and better quality fruit. Think of thinning tree fruit like thinning beets or carrots that are up three inches and are growing too closely together. If not thinned when small they won’t grow properly or to full size.
• Thinning excessive fruit also keeps the fruit tree from producing an overabundance of fruit one year and less the next year — a cycle called alternate or biennial bearing.
• Some fruit naturally thins itself from the tree usually in June. Unpollinated blossoms drop just after flower• ing and often there’s a drop of immature or smaller fruit.
• There are two ways to thin, by hand or with a pole. Thinning by hand is slower but more accurate. Pole thinning is easier on taller limbs. It is quicker to do but less accurate. Use sharp hand pruners or your bare hands to remove excess fruit. For pole pruning use a pole saw wrapped with tape or foam to knock off excess fruit. Always wear gloves, protective eyewear and use care.
• For apples and pears thin to 6 to 8 inches between fruit or one to two per cluster; 3 to 5 inches for peaches and nectarines; and 2 to 4 inches for apricots and plums. Cherries generally don’t need thinning.
General outdoors
• If the best time to enjoy your garden is in the evening after work, consider planting a “moon garden” with plants that are fragrant or open late in the day. Use plants with white, pale pink, yellow and cream flowers. Silvery or gray foliage plants add to the moon glow feeling of being outdoors at night. Perennial plants to consider include ‘white swan’ coneflower, ‘Annabelle’ hydrangea, ‘Sunday gloves’ daylily, ‘Henryi’ clematis, white roses, lamb’s ear, variegated hosta, snow-in summer, annuals include sweet alyssum, white cleome, moon flower, angel’s trumpet, and four o’clocks.
• Pinch back chrysanthemums weekly until the 4th of July to keep the plant from blooming too early.
• Fertilize hybrid tea and grandiflora roses every four to six weeks. Mile-Hi
Rose Feed is the recommended Colorado made fertilizer for roses. • Continue shopping and planting seasonal annuals in the ground or containers for instant color, texture and interest throughout your garden.
• Move houseplants outside for their summer break and your enjoyment. Allow plants to adapt to sunshine gradually. It’s also a good time to repot overgrown houseplants to a slightly larger container if they have become root bound, use quality potting soil and water well.
• The most efficient time to water the lawn is between 10 p.m. and 8 a.m.
• Check and repair sprinkler heads for poor coverage if you see dry or dead areas in the lawn.
Birds
• Feeding birds will assure new hatchlings a greater chance of survival.
• Replace hummingbird nectar solution every few days, use onepart table sugar to four parts water, no food coloring is needed and avoid artificial sweeteners. Place feeders in the shade to keep the nectar from getting too hot.
• Clean and refill bird baths regularly. Use non-harmful to people, pets, wildlife or fish Btisraelensis (Bt-i) mosquito dunks to destroy mosquito larvae, replace every 30 days.
Vegetables and herbs
• Continue transplanting warmseason crops like tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. Shorter season tomatoes need at least 55 to 65 days to grow, flower and fruit, so get everything planted this weekend. • Direct seed corn, okra, cucumbers, pumpkins, watermelon, summer and winter squash.
• Keep lettuce and spinach harvested. Cool season plants will begin to bolt (go to seed) and lose their flavor and texture as temperatures rise and remain hot. • Check the potato patch—they may need to be hilled which means adding more soil on the tubers as the foliage grows.