How to water your lawn, grow herbs, stake your tomatoes, and use mulch

The end of June is a busy time as the garden needs clipping, weeding and in some cases watering this week.

The lawns in Western Washington grow fast this time of year, so they may need fertilizing as well as frequent mowing. If you water a lawn, tree or shrub, water less often but deeply. This means wait until the soil is dry 6 to 8 inches below ground (use a shovel or screw driver to poke deep into the soil) then water slowly but for an hour or more until you see that the soil is dark and moist 12 inches deep into the soil.

This deep watering will train the roots of your lawn and shrubs to go deep in search of that moisture. Deep rooted plants can survive the stress of drought.

Q. I was given a container garden planted with herbs. It has sage, basil and rosemary. How do I care for these herbs? I have a sunny deck but no garden space. — G.H., Tacoma

A. Herbal delight awaits if you don’t over pamper the carefree Mediterranean herbs in that container. Sage and rosemary are drought-resistant sun-lovers, and basil is a bit tricky but still an herb that does best with little to no additional fertilizer, and water only when the soil is dry to the touch. This means you need to poke your finger into the potting soil. If it is damp 1 inch down, wait a few more days before you water the container. Do not let the pot sit in drainage water. Do not add plant food to the watering can as fast-growing herbs are more likely to have problems.

Tip: The best way to enjoy home-grown herbs is to keep them close to the kitchen for frequent use. Get snippy with your herbs weekly by pinching or snipping out the new growth or bottom leaves when you harvest. Fresh herbs can be added to salads, smoked on top of meats or chopped into veggies. Herbal renewal is right at your fingertips.

Q. My tomato plants are huge! I did not expect them to get quite so big. I did not put a tomato cage around my plants and now it seems like I would break too many branches trying to stuff the plants into a cage. Must I cage tomato plants or can they just sprawl? — N.G., Enumclaw

A. Sprawling is allowed but you will lose a lot of fruit to rot as the damp soil quickly destroys heat-loving tomatoes. Slugs, rats and other critters also make a mess of tomatoes on the ground.

There is a way to stake up mature plants, whether it be tomatoes, dahlias or delphiniums. Use four stakes (rebar, bamboo or wood depending on the size of the plant) and place them in a square around the floppy plant. Use soft twine to create walls around the square as you gently lift the plant from the ground.

This is the year you learn the general rule of green thumb: Stake plants before they need it. May is a good month to provide good support. Don’t wait until June..

Q. When is a good time to mulch my plants? What is the mulch you use in your garden (you showed a picture of yourself on top of a mountain of mulch this spring)? And third question, will mulch kill all my weeds? — T., Email

A. Now is a good time to mulch. So is spring, late summer and fall. Just be sure the ground is not bone dry before you add mulch as a frosting of mulch will seal in moisture but can keep out light rainfall.

I use many types of mulch in my two-acre garden including wood chips (for free wood chips, check with your local tree cutting services), and in Tacoma you have Tagro as a mulch, and King County creates GroCo as a mulch. The beautiful, black mulch you saw on my social media is called “Super Doo’ from a local, organic dairy farm. It is weed-free and has no odor. You can order or pick up Super Doo by contacting Hygrass farm.

Now to answer your last question about weeds. No, a mulch will not kill all weeds all the time. Most mulching material such as compost, Super Doo, and beauty bark will smother smaller, annual weeds such as shot weed, but large weeds with deep roots such as thistle should be dug out before you add the mulch.

Think of mulch as a 3-for-1 deal. It blocks weeds, seals in moisture and breaks down to feed the soil. You also have the benefit of exercise as you spread it around the garden. So mulching makes both you and your garden look better.

Marianne Binetti has a degree in horticulture from Washington State University and is the author of several books. Reach her at binettigarden.com.