July gardening happens during our early summer monsoon; hot days punctuated (hopefully) by thunderstorms and drenching rains.
WATER & MULCH
Keep yourself hydrated; enjoy a glass of tea flavored with mint, pineapple sage, or lemon balm from the garden. Provide birds and butterflies with a shallow water source. Ground water (with soaker hoses or drip irrigation) in early morning to minimize evaporation. Inspect automatic irrigation systems; make any needed repairs and/or adjustments. Water hanging baskets and container plants twice daily.
Mulch to increase soil moisture, reduce weed competition, and improve the quality of fruits and vegetables. Use quick-decaying types (such as straw, newspaper, or leaves) in vegetable and annual flowerbeds; till it all under after the season is over. Use long-lasting mulches (such as bark chunks, cocoa bean hulls, and shredded bark) in permanent landscape settings.
INSECTS
Check for & Reduce
- Early morning & late day – squash bugs & vine borers, Japanese beetles, cabbage loopers: handpick and drown in a container of water. Inspect plants for infestations of chinch bugs, scale, slugs, snails, spider mites, tomato hornworm (use a black light at night), and thrips.
- Grubs – handpick & feed to the chickens. Consider applying beneficial nematodes or Milky Spore to further reduce their overwintering population.
- Biting Insects – Repel flies, mosquitoes, and other biting insects with a ceiling fan. Recent studies have shown that a ceiling fan is more effective than bug spray in eliminating flying insects from outdoor spaces. Attract bug-hungry songbirds to your landscape with a birdbath & perennial flowers such as coneflower, black-eyed Susan, coreopsis, and liatris. Install a bat house.
PLANTS
ANNUALS:To ensure continued blooming, remove spent flower heads & fertilize annual flowerbeds with an all-purpose fertilizer. Interplantmarigolds and nasturtium with tomatoes and squash.
BULBS, CORMS, RHIZOMES & TUBERS: Order bulbs for fall planting.
HERBS: Snip in the early morning, then freeze or dry them. Trim flower buds off regularly to promote bushy growth. Start more basil. Harvest lavender stems for use in bath sachets or drying.
PERENNIALS:Deadhead. Brighten shady spots with shade-loving perennials & annuals with colorful foliage (caladium, coleus, heuchera & hostas). Many salvia will bloom again later in the season if faded blooms are trimmed back now by one third of their height. Pinch chrysanthemums mid-July to encourage blooms for fall displays. Firewise by replacing rosemary and lavender with Russian Sage or Salvia. Replace juniper with native huckleberry, currant or salal. Replace arborvitae with viburnum.
ROSES: Feed and prune.
TREES & SHRUBS:Prune out dead, damaged, diseased wood, suckers and water sprouts. Keep thinning fruit as needed.
VEGETABLES:
Harvest regularly to encourage production & avoid attracting insects to rotting produce. Cucumbers, eggplants, green beans, & zucchini taste better when harvested young.
- Squash: Not producing? Hand-pollinate female flowers in early morning, then harvest male flowers for cooking. And/or cut back on water so squash leaves wilt slightly in the afternoon but recover in the evening.
- Tomatoes: Water consistently to prevent cracking. Prune for air circulation at the centers and bottoms. Remove suckers from indeterminate varieties ; support with stakes, trellises or cages.
FALL GARDEN PLANTING: Prep new beds with compost, add needed amendments. Rotate crops to prevent the depletion of soil nutrients & the build-up of soil-borne diseases and pests. Direct sow seed for beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, chard, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, peas, radishes, spinach, turnips and rutabagas; transplant cabbage, cauliflower, and celery.
