What you’ll want to plant right now in your garden

1. A little extra effort on your citrus trees now will make a wonderful difference at harvest time. Prune out the upright-growing new sprouts ASAP if you haven’t already gotten around to it. Then apply Citrus Grower Blend Micronutrients, according to the instructions on the label, but don’t delay. These micronutrients will help your oranges especially, and other citrus, to develop extra sweetness – a taste you’ll notice and love at harvest time.

2. Did you know that you can get your crape myrtles to bloom again this fall? Simply cut off the dead flower clusters a little below the lowest flowering stem in each cluster and feed your plants with rose food. Then water them. That will stimulate one more flush of new flowers before the plants go dormant. It works with both the bush and the tree forms of crape myrtles. (And keep watering all your plants, whether they are in containers or in the ground, as long as the weather remains warm.)

3. Plant beet seeds an inch apart and a quarter-inch deep. After germination, thin seedlings to two inches apart before the roots begin to swell. The thinnings are completely edible, both tops and roots, so plan to use them, too; for instance, you can add them to salads (after you wash them, of course). Harvest mature beets when they are one to three inches across.

4. Plant onion sets now, or as soon as you can get them. Plan to plant more every month or two. That way you can harvest green onions as they are ready all throughout the winter and spring. Be sure to let some grow on to become bulbs. They will be ready for digging next summer.

5. Plant early-ripening tomatoes now, too, for holiday harvests before nighttime frosts stop them in December or January. Choose varieties with short-maturation times, such as Early Girl or Sweet 100 cherry tomato. Some garden centers also offer special cool-season tomato varieties developed in Oregon in recent years. And for the rest of your summer garden, well, just dig it up and start planting winter crops.