As summer reaches its peak and the summer solstice is past, July is a bustling month in the garden-- a time of serious growth. There's much to do and plant to ensure your garden thrives through the biggest growth cycle of the year. Here’s an essential checklist to keep your garden in top shape and thriving this July.
Key Tasks for July: CELEBRATE!!
Top of the checklist! I'm celebrating all us gardeners and our gardens!! 🤩 Amazing! ✨🎇✨ July is starting off with a literal BANG! 🧨
- Watering Wisely
As the heat turns up-- make sure you and your garden stay hydrated during hot and dry spells. Water early in the morning or late in the evening to minimize evaporation and ensure deep, thorough watering-- AS NEEDED. Don't water too much-- make those roots grow deep into the earth! They'll be better able to fend for themselves during stressful bouts of heat and drought!
- Mulching
Apply a layer of mulch to cover that black soil and help retain soil moisture, suppress weeds, encourage more soil microbes and worm activity, and keep the soil and plant roots cool. Wind, rain, and the beating sun can erode and rob the soil of its nutrients. Don’t leave the soil exposed—cover with mulch or a cover crop, like buckwheat, to build soil instead.
- Weeding
Regularly remove weeds to prevent them from stealing nutrients and water from your plants. Remember-- small weeds, small problems; big weeds, [fill in the blank!]
- Harvest All and Often
When harvesting pick both the beauties and beasts! Pick everything off! Have a harvest basket for the kitchen-worthy beauties and a compost pail for the beasts. Or if you have chickens or rabbits, share the less desirable bounty with them! Picking off overripe fruit and removing spent leaves will make for healthier and often more productive plants! Don't make your plants waste energy on ripening undesirable fruit!
- Deadheading Flowers
Same concept-- remove spent blooms from flowering plants to encourage new growth and extend the blooming period. [Unless you want them to produced seed for you to collect for next year's blooms!]
- Pest Control
Keep an eye out for pests—both the crawling kind-- such as aphids, beetles, and caterpillars; and the creepy kind—diseases, like anthracnose, rust, and blight. Be on the lookout for anything amiss that you don’t wanna miss-- to prevent any major outbreaks! Use natural or organic methods to control them.
- Feeding Your Plants
Ferment and apply your own compost tea to keep your plants healthy and productive. (Click here to get my free DIY Compost Tea recipe guide!) Pay special attention to nutrient-hungry plants like tomatoes, sweet corn, and squash.
- Pruning, Trimming, and Trellis
Remove any diseased leaves or dead branches. Trim and shape your plants-- and train them where needed onto stakes and trellises for healthy vigorous growth.
What to Plant in July—plan ahead for fall bounty!
- Leafy Greens
Sow seeds for quick-growing leafy greens like lettuce, spinach, Swiss chard, and beet greens that can be harvested in the cooler days of late summer.
- Herbs
Plant basil, cilantro, and dill. They thrive in warm weather and can add fresh flavors to your summer and fall dishes.
- Summer squashes and Zucchinis
These fast-growing plants can still be planted in early July to yield a late summer harvest-- if you didn't plant enough earlier in the season! 😂
- Bush Beans
These can grow quickly and provide a continued harvest-- long after the spring planting is spent!
- Root Vegetables
You can plant carrots, parsnips, beets, and radishes NOW to enjoy fresh, crunchy vegetables come fall-- without having to cut into your winter storage harvest. Start these in early July for fall harvest. Opt for varieties that mature quickly to beat the first frost.
- Flowering Annuals
Refresh and brighten up your garden with colorful fast growing flowering annuals like calendula, zinnias, and sunflowers-- they thrive in full sun.
Cheering ya on-- to not only maintain but enhance your garden’s beauty and productivity throughout July. Happy growth and happy gardening!
Your garden coach,
Theresa