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.
Whether you grow flowers, vegetables,
fruits or a combination of these, the chores seem endless. July is a month for
harvesting, planting second crops, pruning, deadheading, and weeding. The best time to do any kind of gardening
or maintenance is in early morning when it is not so hot, or late in the day,
after dinner. Watch the heat, dress
coolly, take frequent breaks, have plenty of water on hand and drink
frequently. Here are a few items for your “TO DO” list.
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.
Tom McNutt is a professor emeritus at The Ohio State University and a retired TV garden expert.
