Before enjoying those fireworks shows, tend to your garden

Holiday ahead - a long weekend, plenty of fun events to keep you entertained as we celebrate America's heritage. But there are still a few chores in the garden that cry for attention. Tending to them can carry out the spirit of the pioneers who founded this country.
One of the most important gardening tasks is controlling the beasties that beset us, threatening to thwart all our efforts.
Check over your geraniums, nicotiana, penstemons and petunias. If they appear healthy but are not bursting with bloom, budworms may be the culprits, eating the buds before they open. You may see small holes in the buds and black droppings on the leaves, sure signs that these critters have been at work. Spray with Bacillus thuringiensis (BT), a nontoxic biological control, repeating every 7 to 10 days.
The same control can be used to fight tomato hornworms, those nasty green caterpillars that can denude a tomato plant overnight. If you find chewed leaves and black droppings, hunt through the foliage and handpick and destroy the larger ones (I flush 'em down the toilet). For the smaller ones, spraying them with BT works. It's not a contact spray, however. Don't expect them to drop dead immediately. Instead they chew the sprayed leaves and develop a fatal tummy ache.
Divide and conquer is the word with bearded iris. Dig up the old clumps with a spading fork, then cut the rhizomes apart with a sharp knife, being sure to leave at least a leaf with each division. Replant the younger, vigorous sections. Grit your teeth and discard the old woody ones.
Cymbidiums need to be fertilized regularly in order to encourage bloom formation for next winter. Use liquid fertilizer diluted to ¼ strength every time you water.
With our high summer heat, you'll conserve moisture and keep roots cool and weeds down by using a 2- to 3-inch layer of organic mulch around your plants.
Extreme temperatures may be inhibiting production of melons and squash. Use an artist's brush to collect pollen from freshly opened male flowers and transfer it to female flowers. The base of the female flower is slightly enlarged. Dust the pollen onto the stigma in the center of the flower. Or, you can pull off the male flower, gently remove the petals and shake the flower directly over the female flower.
It's the berries! When harvest is over, remove old raspberry canes when they begin to die, cut off blackberry canes that have borne fruit and tie new canes to the fence or trellis.
You can still plant corn and summer squash, both heat lovers.
Get some instant color with nursery packs of ageratum, celosia, dahlias, marigolds, petunias, portulaca, salvia, alyssum and zinnias.
Take cuttings of dianthus, geraniums, scabiosa, Shasta daisies, verbena, and other herbaceous perennials. Dip the stems in rooting hormone and plant them in a mix of 2 parts perlite and 1 part peat moss.
Sow seeds of campanula, columbine, coreopsis, delphinium, forget-me-not, Purple coneflower and rudbeckia in the same mix.
Most important of all these hot days, water well, but only when necessary. Check the soil by digging down with a trowel or soil probe. Use drip irrigation or soaker hoses whenever possible. If you must hand water, build soil basins and furrows to be sure ample water gets to the plant roots. Deep watering, less frequently, is the key to success.