Friday, July 11, 2014

GARDENING IN JULY

      The transition into summer brings with it a change in gardening chores for the month of July.  Gardening activities usually slow down as the temperature continues to climb into the 90’s.  July is often a very dry month, and like most years, can be very hot, too.  So, we usually don’t start a lot of new garden projects, but there is always maintenance chores to do.


      By mid-summer, many petunias and other annual flowers can get leggy, producing blossoms at the tips of long leafless stems.  One exception is the wave petunias that require little pruning unless you planted them too close together.

      For most annuals, frequent pruning will keep plants bushy.  For best results, prune back one long stem each week or so, cutting back to a set of leaves or a node.  The plant will respond by sending out more shoots from that point.  Another effective technique is to shear all the stems back by a third.  However you will sacrifice flowers for a few weeks with this method.

      This is also the time to prune back perennials:  salvia, catmint, tall sedum varieties, asters, garden phlox, and some other tall perennials.  They will still bloom although sometimes a little later in the season.

      Remove the suckers from grafted roses (which means most roses) and crabapples.  These are the quite vigorous shoots that arise from the base of the plant.

      In the vegetable garden, indeterminate tomato plants such as “Better Boy” , will produce many suckers.  A sucker is that new growth that comes in where a branch connects with the main trunk.  Removing suckers will decrease the number of fruits produced but will ensure that the remaining tomatoes will be larger and will ripen sooner.

      Continue making succession plantings of vegetables to ensure a harvest well into autumn.  If possible, plant cool-season crops, such as broccoli, where they will get a little shade from the hot afternoon sun.  Early in the month, plant another row of bush beans for late summer harvest.

      We all got behind in our weeding, but it is important to remove weeds before they set seed.  Some weeds will continue to develop their seeds even after you pull them, so remove them from the garden.

Home Grown Produce

      If you are not growing it, consider buying it from a local farmer’s market.  Produce is at the peak of nutritional value when it is ripe.  Produce that travels across states or even across countries cannot be picked ripe, because it would not be edible by the time it arrives in your supermarket.  Produce may gain color and soften as it travels to your store, but nutrition comes from the stems of a living plant, so the locally grown produce will have much higher nutritional value. Picked ripe, tomatoes can contain between 20-30% more of these vitamins and minerals than tomatoes picked before they ripen

July Gardening Tips

    Cutting flowers is best done with sharp shears or a knife which will help avoid injury to the growing plant.  A slanting cut will expose a larger absorbing surface to water and will prevent the base of the stem from resting on the bottom of the vase. 

     Tall flowers should be staked to prevent damage by wind.  Use stakes which are large enough to support the plant and use soft twine or twist ties to secure.

     A garden needs one inch of rain or water each week.  Early morning is the best time to water.  Evening watering is less desirable because plant leaves that remain wet through the night are more susceptible to fungus diseases.  Mulch plants to reduce water losses and improve yields.

•           Check the soil moisture of container-grown vegetable and flowers daily.  As the temperature rises, some plants may need water twice daily.


Tom McNutt is a professor emeritus at The Ohio State University and a retired TV garden expert.