All the Gardening Jobs You Should Do in July
July is one of my favorite months in gardening because it feels like a pause. All your vegetables are planted and will soon begin to bear fruit. The flowers you’ve grown in the ground over the past two months should have bloomed by now, and the weather isn’t blazingly hot yet. There’s a lot of harvest to be harvested and it’s time to start thinking about fall, but I spend most of July just walking around the yard appreciating what’s there.
Daily poll
I wasn’t kidding about taking a daily walk through the garden, which I try to do before the sun gets too high in the sky. Every morning I walk with a garden cloth and a bucket. Pay attention to how things are going and what needs more water or perhaps more fertilizer and look for infestations. If you see a weed, pick it and throw it in a bucket. If something needs to be collected, add it to your turn. Stock your water features and bee stations and try to spend a few minutes just sitting and appreciating all the hard work behind the peas or raspberries.
Water, water everywhere
The headline this month is increasing irrigation, since this is probably the first time this year you’ll actually need it on a consistent basis. As temperatures rise, it is critical to have constant water at the roots of your plants. Check your sprinkler or watering systems if you haven’t already and turn them on. Check the first week or two and make sure the soil becomes moist about six inches below the top layer of soil and adjust the water as necessary. It’s never too late to mulch to conserve water and protect plant roots. Remember you want a nice thick layer of mulch, an inch isn’t that much. Be sure to separate the mulch from the plant stems.
Deadhead for stronger, more abundant blooms
Most summer blooming flowers are “cut and come back” flowers. Cut off the flowers and good stem, and the plant will come back with a stronger, more branched stem. Some flowers, such as the rootstock, are single bloomers (they only bloom once, on one stem, so cut it off and you’re done). But zinnia, echinacea and snapdragons do well with the chop. This means a summer full of cut flowers, but even if you allow the flowers to remain on the plant, remember to remove the flowers every day or so.
Turn over peas and other spring vegetables.
At some point, your peas will start to turn brown and crispy from the bottom up. It just means it’s time to redecorate the space for summer, and hopefully you have some climbing beans or something else to put in the space. Your spinach, boy choy, spring broccoli, cauliflower and kale have already bloomed, so these areas are ready for summer or fall.
Sometime this month or next, the garlic will also be ready to come out of the ground. Wait until three or four brown leaves appear, then harvest with a hand shovel (don’t try to just pull them out of the ground).
If you planted potatoes in the ground in the spring, you can start harvesting them as soon as the plants begin to bloom. Use a shovel to turn over the soil and then use your hands to find all the new potatoes. You can let very tiny seed potatoes fall back into the bed, which will help them grow into perennials.
Sequence flowers, lettuce, radishes, green onions, beets, kohlrabi and other greens.
In new empty spaces, do not forget to continue planting. Purchase seeds regularly or starting from a nursery. If you choose seeds, you’ll have to work harder to keep them hydrated and germinate once they’re in the ground.
Pick your berries
It’s berry season, so make sure you pick all your berries as they’re ready. The raspberries are already coming to an end, and the blueberries are in full swing. At some point this month, the strawberries will “dunzo,” which means you can trim them back completely so they can focus on the roots rather than the shoots next year. To do this, I drive over them with a lawnmower.
Autumn planting
If you are growing from seed, you should begin your fall preparations by the end of July. These starts won’t last for at least a month or two, giving you plenty of time to get your seed tray ready now.