July Gardening Tips

This month can be hot, humid, and also quite rainy.  Tropical plants thrive, as do natives such as coneflowers, coreopsis, sunflowers, and ornamental grasses.  Vegetable gardens are likely to yield abundant harvest, maybe even enough to share with local food banks.  Gardens set in late afternoon shade, providing relief in the heat of the day, may be the most productive during summer.

Below are a few gardening tips to get you through the dog days of summer.

Woody Plants

Prune overgrown hedges.

Although you can plant container-grown trees and shrubs now and plan to keep them moist throughout the season, it is best to plant in the fall, when the weather cools off.

Lawns

If weather is dry and your lawn stops growing, take a break from mowing and fertilizing until moist weather returns.

Flowers

Sow seeds of zinnias, cosmos, and sunflowers for late summer and fall bloom.

Fertilize annuals and container plants monthly.

For propagation, take cuttings of perennials.  Cut back early perennials and annuals to promote fall bloom.

Cut back diseased or tattered foliage of hostas, bee balm, lungwort, and other durable perennials and they will re-sprout clean new leaves.   Pull mildewed annuals.

Continue to cut flowers and herbs for drying.  

Make cut flower arrangements from the garden.  Use small bud vases for bedding annuals and larger urns for big-blooming perennials and shrubs.

Kitchen Garden

Prune water sprouts from fruit trees.

Fertilize vegetables with manure tea or slow-release organic fertilizer.  Fertilize strawberries, especially heavy-feeding day-neutral types with manure or organic 5-10-5 fertilizer.

Harvest potatoes and onions after tops yellow and die.

Take herb cuttings from new growth to transplant into the garden or into pots for fresh use indoors during winter.  Deadhead basil.  Check vegetables growing on trellises and poles.  Pull and compost spent crops and overgrown vegetables; replant areas with early-maturing varieties.  Prepare vacant areas for reseeding or transplants.  Spray fruit trees.

Around the Yard

Remove weeds before they set seed.

Lightly cultivate soil in beds to reduce compaction and weeds.  Re-mulch beds as needed.

If vacationing, water and mulch garden well.  Remove blossoms on long-blooming perennials and annuals to encourage rebloom upon your return.  Invite a neighbor to harvest beans and summer squash while you’re away.