What to do in your garden in August

Sunset, August, 2004

SHOPPING

* High-quality hoses. It pays to invest in a top-of-the-line hose; it will be less likely to kink and split. Some, such as Gilmour's Flexogen, are reinforced for toughness. These hoses are available in various sizes at building-supply stores and home centers, or you can purchase them from Peaceful Valley Farm Supply (www.groworganic.com or 888/784-1722). A 5/8-inch-diameter, 50-foot hose costs about $30.

PLANTING

* Late-summer to fall color. Choice perennials for late-season color in Northern California's lower elevations include aster, chrysanthemum, coreopsis, daylily, gaillardia, gaura, Japanese anemone, lavatera, Nemesia fruticans, rudbeckia, Russian sage, sage (such as Salvia guaranitica), summer phlox, and verbena.

* Shade trees. For cooling your house, plant a tree on the structure's southwest side, where it will provide the most-needed shade. Use a deciduous tree for summer shade and winter sun. Sunset climate zones 7-9, 14-17: Try Chinese hackberry, Chinese pistache, flowering pear, Japanese pagoda tree, 'Raywood' ash, and red oak. Zones 1, 2: Good choices include American hornbeam, Eastern redbud, honey locust, Japanese pagoda tree, little-leaf linden, and 'Marshall' seedless green ash.

* Vegetables. Zones 7-9, 14-17: Start broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, lettuce, and spinach seeds in containers. Fill flats or pots with a well-draining potting mix; thoroughly moisten the mix. Direct-sow seeds of carrots, onions, peas, and radishes in freshly tilled soil that has been amended with compost and thoroughly moistened. Sow fine seeds about 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep, larger (pea-size) seeds about 1 inch deep. Zones 1, 2: Where frost isn't expected until late October, sow seeds of beets, carrots, radishes, and spinach; they should be ready to harvest by fall.

[GRAPHIC OMITTED]

MAINTENANCE

* Care for flowers. To keep warm-season annuals blooming through the end of summer and into fall, water and fertilize them regularly with fish emulsion or other fertilizer. Remove spent flowers before they go to seed.

* Cut back hydrangeas. Zones 7-9, 14-17: Most hydrangeas produce flowers on the previous year's growth (a couple of exceptions are 'All Summer Beauty' and Endless Summer, which bloom on new growth). To shape and control the plants' size, and to avoid cutting off next year's flower buds, prune them back right after blooms fade. Cut stems that have bloomed back to 12 inches. To produce fewer, larger flowers next spring, cut back some of the stems to the base of the plant.

* Deep water trees. Many sprinkler and drip-irrigation systems aren't programmed to run long enough for irrigating trees adequately or deeply. To avoid moisture stress during hot weather, water trees to a depth of up to 24 inches, depending on the size and age of the tree (see "Tip from the Test Garden," far left). Thoroughly soak the soil under the tree's canopy. Check moisture penetration by digging down with a trowel.

RELATED ARTICLE: TIP FROM THE TEST GARDEN

How to water trees

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Build watering basins. Mound soil berms around young trees to concentrate water on the root zone. Form the main berm just outside the tree's dripline; make a second berm 4 to 6 in. from the trunk to keep water off it.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Use soaker hoses. These porous hoses ooze water along their length. For a large tree, coil a 50- or 100-ft. hose out to the dripline.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Irrigate the roots. Deep-root irrigators are hose-end devices with forked or needlelike shafts that inject water into the root zone of a mature tree, 12 to 24 in, below the surface. Insert the shaft 12 in. or deeper into the soil along the dripline; after watering in one spot sufficiently, move the irrigator to other spots along the dripline.