Five things to do in the garden this week:
Trees. If you feel the urge to plant a fruit tree now, despite the blistering heat, choose from white sapote, fig, guava, and pomegranate. Close attention to watering is necessary, but both fruit and foliage of these trees can handle the heat. In truth, any containerized plant can be planted at any time in Southern California. Monrovia Nursery, which began on ten acres in the eponymous city in 1926, revolutionized commercial plant production in the 1950’s when it switched from growing in clay to plastic pots, making it easier to ship plants to long distances throughout the year.
Vegetables. The most heat-tolerant lettuce is Romaine or Cos, and it may be planted now from seed. Especially noteworthy in this regard are Jericho, Parris Island Cos, Salvius, and Freckles varieties. Freckles is a distinctive Romaine due to its crisp chartreuse to green leaves with crimson highlights and a sweet taste. The time elapsed between germination and harvestable foliage is 55 70 days. Lettuce is perhaps the easiest vegetable to grow from seed and, unlike most others, requires sun to germinate, so plant seeds on the soil surface and cover with a thin layer of compost.
Herbs. Papalo (Porophyllum ruderale) is a fast-growing leafy annual in the daisy family. It exhibits explosive development, with a mass of foliage rising five feet in height with a girth of three feet, growing two inches a day once established, and ready for harvest six weeks after planting. The leaves’ taste combines flavors of arugula, cilantro, and rue. Papalo is commonly used for seasoning in Mexican cuisine and is a popular salsa ingredient. Find its seeds at rareseeds.com.
Flowers. Known as summer snapdragon, the botanically related Angelonia angustifolia sterile hybrids are non-stop bloomers in the hottest weather. Not distracted by seed formation, they pour all their energy into flowering from May to October. They are perennials that have no seeds to reproduce but are readily propagated from cuttings taken in the spring. Angelonia can take the sun’s most intense heat with minimal water. Its flowers do not require dead-heading, but the plants will grow more compact if they are occasionally pruned back. Similar to snapdragons, Angelonia cut lowers can last more than a week in a vase. Unlike snapdragons, Angelonia is not afflicted by insect pests or diseases, with flowers appearing in pink, red, blue, violet or white.
Fertilizer. To keep perennials flowering at maximum capacity, Try Jack’s Classic Blossom Booster, a 10-30 20 formulation, with the three numbers representing percentages of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, respectively. The reason phosphorus dominates the other two elements in fertilizers that boost flowering is because flower buds and reproductive tissues contain dense numbers of actively dividing cells — cells in which DNA, of which phosphorus is an essential constituent, is more present than in the cells of other plant parts.