Cool-season grasses:
Just as in June, cool-season lawns such as perennial ryegrass, bluegrass, and fescue are growing slowly now, so do not mow short. Be sure to cut ryegrass and bluegrass to 2 inches. Tall fescues should be left even taller - between 2 and 3 inches after cutting. Mow tall fescues often, but never cut off more than one-third of their total height.

Extend the time between irrigation of all fescue now, and water it deeply to encourage deep roots. Most other cool-season grasses tend to seed shallower than warm-season lawns, and require more frequent watering than warm-season grasses. In hot weather most cool-season grasses need to be watered twice or three times a week in interior zones, and at least once a week in coastal zones. Early in the morning (any time between midnight and dawn) is the best time to irrigate both for water conservation purposes and also for lawn health.

Do not fertilize cool-season grasses now in interior zones. Along the coast fertilize very lightly - one half of the normal amount.

Warm-season grasses:
Warm-season lawns such as Bermuda, zoysia, kikuyu, Adalayd grass, dichondra, and St. Augustine thrive in summer and are growing at their fastest now. As in June, cut common Bermuda even shorter to 1/2 or 3/4 of an inch. Cut zoysia to between 3/4 and 1 inch and kikuyu as short as 1/2 inch, to keep it in bounds. Remember to slice down and through kikuyu and pull out escaped kikuyu stolons often, to stop their tendency to creep into flower beds. Dichondra should look billowy and lush now. Cut it high or not at all. St. Augustine grows fast, so cut it often to 3/4 or 1 inch at least once a week.

All warm-season grasses should be watered deeply and infrequently, so as to encourage deep rooting, rather than watering shallowly and often. St. Augustine needs the most water; it can die if it is allowed to go dry. Be sure to water it at least once a week, more often in sandy soils. Bermuda, zoysia, and kikuyu can often go as long as two weeks between waterings, depending on the weather and your climate zone. Water deeply, and extend the time between waterings as much as possible while still maintaining good appearance.

Feed most warm-season grasses every four to six weeks during the growing season. Feed Adalayd half-strength, early in the month. (Too much fertilizer can stress it in hot weather.) If kikuyu is growing well don't feed it at all. Too much fertilizer can make kikuyu very difficult to manage. If you want to get rid of kikuyu or Bermuda as weeds, kill them now with glyphosate, and pull them out by the roots, but be aware that they might come back from seeds.

By Tamara Galbraith

It's mid-summer, your tomato plants are humming along and even starting to bear fruit. Then one day while checking your toms, you notice lots of leaves in the middle and bottom of the plant are either munched or totally gone. Your tomatoes themselves might even show damage. What happened?

You've probably unknowingly provided a four-star restaurant for a large caterpillar known as the tomato hornworm (Manduca quinquemaculata). This chubby, ever-hungry garden pest is generally green, with several V-shaped marks down its back, and a blue/black "horn" on the tail.

Hornworms can be controlled with any organic pesticide formulated for caterpillar control such as Green Light Spinosad before planting). Hand-picking and dropping into a bucket of soapy water is also good if it doesn't freak you out to handle them (wear gloves, though). However, if it looks as if they are covered with bits of rice, please leave them - those are the cocoons of the braconid wasp pupae. When the wasps emerge from their cocoons they'll get rid of your hornworms for you - and breed more hornworm killers.

Try keeping one or two hornworms, though, and put them in a jar with holes punched in the lid and some leaves for food until they pupate. Hornworms are the larvae of a rather fascinating moth. Watching this fat ugly caterpillar turn into a lovely creature over the course of a couple of weeks is a great experience for gardeners young and old. Once they reach the moth stage, they are no longer a direct threat to plant health and can be set free (but let them go somewhere away from your tomato plants - since they will otherwise lay eggs on your plants and start the cycle all over again).

By Tamara Galbraith

If you love the huge flowers and bold tropical colors of hardy and tropical hibiscus, here's an in-between and slightly different variety to try: the Swamp Hibiscus, also known as the Texas Star.

H. coccineus is a native perennial hardy in zones 6-11, possibly up into zone 5 with good protection. And its flowers come in only one color: scarlet red.

But what's cool about these red hot flowers is their shape. The mid-summer blooms consist of five pointed petals with a much more open structure than your typical tropical hibiscus, resembling...you guessed it...a star.

The plant itself is attractive and quite upright, growing to 6' or more. As the common name suggests, Swamp Hibiscus are at home in moist, boggy soils and even in ponds. Birds, bees, butterflies and hummingbirds all flock to the flowers as a snack; you can too, for that matter. Hibiscus flowers are edible.

Take advantage of the warm summer days to plant frost-tender shrubs and trees, such as palms, bananas, bougainvilleas and hibiscus.

These are great additions to the garden as long as they are properly placed. Select a location that receives half to full day sun. A bit of frost protection, such as a wall or a corner by a fence, is best to help prevent frost kill next winter. Almost all of these subtropical plants love as much heat as possible.

Plant using equal amounts of Gardner & Bloome Harvest Supreme Planting Mix and native soil. Blending the mix with some soil is much better than replacing the total volume of soil. This blending provides a gradient to allow the roots to acclimate and grow easily into the native soil. Plant so that the root ball is 1” above the surrounding soil.

Cover this exposed soil with compost or planting mix. In a short amount of time, the hole will settle to the correct depth. Keep moist for the first 6 to 8 weeks.

Your new plant will need more frequent watering than the existing ones.