Things to do in July

Keep after the weeds in flower and vegetable gardens. Pull weeds when they’re young.

Fertilize your perennial gardens one last time BEFORE mid-July. This can be a granular product such as10-10-10 that you scratch into the soil surface just before watering or a liquid product that you apply with a hose or bucket. A two inch layer of rotted manure or compost is an excellent organic fertilizer, but it will become available more slowly than the other two. If plants receive excessive fertilizer they are more vulnerable to fungal leaf diseases and leaf feeding insect damage. 

Many crops will thrive with a side-dressing of fertilizer in early July. Either two pounds of 10-10-10 per square feet or a couple inches of compost or rotted manure. Water in granular fertilizer.

Mulch bare soil to suppress weeds and conserve moisture. 

Keep deadheading annual flowers or they’ll stop blooming. 

Water your pepper and tomato plants with epsom salts.

Divide bearded iris soon after the flowers have faded.

Say “NO” to blanket spraying. Think of your garden as an ecosystem where pests and their predators exist in balance. A garden devoid of all bug life is an unnatural state and will force you to depend on repeated sprays to keep the damaging bugs in check.

Beware of cocoa mulch and dogs. This mulch is made from cocoa bean hulls and some dogs that have eaten the mulch have had a toxic reaction to it.

Once spinach and lettuce bolts, toss them in the compost bin. Once basil begins to flower, the flavor declines. Pick off the flowers as they form and begin a new crop.

Rather than planting all your seeds of one plant at once, plat a row every couple of weeks. This technique of successive planting works well for beans, basil, cilantro, parsley.

Cut chives down to about three inches.

If the leaves on your crabappple tree are turning brown and falling off, they may have a common fungus disease.

If any of your tomatoes develop large dead patches that enlarge rapidly, put some leaves in a plastic bag and bring them to our office for diagnosis. 

Organic mulches (grass clippings/straw) help keep the moisture supply steady in the soil, thus preventing blossom end rot in tomatoes and peppers.

If you go on vacation, mulch your garden well, preferably with organic mulch, such as straw or grass clippings Give your garden a deep soaking before leaving, ask friends to keep beans, cukes, and squash picked, and if you’re gone a long time, ask a friend for one last thorough weeding. 

Prune spring flowering shrubs.

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