• Planting Peppers are a vegetable that every gardener should explore. There are sweet, hot, bell, ornamental, large and dwarf. They can grow in your vegetable garden, on your patio in containers, as an edging in the landscape or even in hanging baskets.
• Mulching when you plant will give them a fighting chance with the summer heat. Plants will need about two inches of mulch of an organic cedar or native hardwood about once or twice a year. Never cover the crown of any plant with soil or mulch.
• Fruit trees need some attention now as they are growing and producing fruit. A regular spray program of fungicides and insecticides will keep your fruit trees healthy.
• If you are growing blackberries, be sure that they get plenty of water during this month. The berries are developing now, and if water is in short supply, the berries will show the effects.
• Make sure before any chemical is used in the garden or landscape, to read and understand all labels thoroughly and completely before you spray. Use only those chemicals recommended for that particular plant or fruit that you are growing.
  
  
  

David Rodriguez is the County Extension Agent-Horticulture with the Texas AgriLife Extension Service in Bexar County. For more information, call the Master Gardener "Hotline" (210) 467-6575 or visit our County Extension website at http://bexar-tx.tamu.edu.

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