July Garden Tasks 2024
A Healthy Harvest and Beautiful Blooms This Summer
Summer arrived and it brought warm temps with it! This month we're enjoying a healthy harvest in the veggie garden, while keeping an eye out for pests and disease; prolonging flower blooms and inviting pollinators into the garden—all while watering effectively and efficiently and trying to stay cool.
Make The Most Of Your Harvest
You've prepped, planted, and provided for your edible garden. Now enjoy the fruits of your labor as harvest day has arrived. Here are some tasks that you can check off as you keep your garden happy and healthy during the hot July weather.
- Avoid Blossom End Rot: Apply water at regular intervals to tomatoes and peppers, allowing the soil to dry slightly between each application. Experiencing other problems in your veggie garden? Read on for troubleshooting tips: Veggie Garden: Troubleshooting.
- Harvest berries when fruit is fully formed and well colored. Cut spent berry canes to the ground, tie up and fertilize new canes.
- Attract beneficial insects like ladybugs to your garden by planting Dill, Yarrow, Cosmos, or Coneflower.
- Pick up dropped fruit from the ground to avoid insect and fungal issues.
- Routinely pinch herbs back to prevent bolting. Harvest in the early morning for best flavors.
- Keep an eye out for fast-growing, sucker growth at the soil line or below the graft of citrus and fruit trees, and prune, as needed.
Bonide® Rot-Stop®
A mid-season solution to Blossom End Rot in fruits and vegetables. Foliar spray replenishes lost calcium in tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and melons to reduce Blossom End Rot on crops. Recommended use after periods of heavy rain or rapid plant growth.
Flower Power
It's not all about the veggies—there are flowers, too! Keep the blooms and pollinators coming with our summer maintenance tips.
- Deadhead annuals, perennials, and roses to prolong blooms.
- Add water sources for pollinators and refresh every three days to prevent mosquitoes.
- Plant a variety of flowers which bloom throughout all seasons of the year to continue to attract pollinators like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds to your garden.
- Clean up vines: Remove dead growth and reinforce trellises.
- Apply organic fertilizer to Hydrangeas and Gardenias.
- Refresh pots with summer blooming annuals like Vinca, Zinnia and Marigold.
Handling The Heat
By the time July hits, there's no doubt that summer has arrived. Read on for tips to protect your planting investments during these long, hot days.
- Water in the mornings during days of excessive heat to help avoid fungal issues.
- Add 2"-3" of mulch to retain moisture during the heat of summer, especially around stressed trees, leaving a 4”-6” space around the plant base.
- Apply Wilt Stop® to sensitive plants like Japanese Maples. Read and follow label directions before each application.
- Check your irrigation system to make sure it is providing roots with enough water. Drip emitters should be placed at the drip line, spaced 12" apart.
- Adjust mower height so cut grass is tall enough to keep the sun from hitting the soil. Taller lawn keeps moisture in longer and stops weeds from sprouting.
- Protect potted plants from excessive heat by moving them under trees.
Bonide® Wilt Stop®
Plant protector reduces moisture loss due to sun, wind, or cold weather, and can be applied year-round. Use on deciduous trees, evergreens, shrubs, roses, transplants, vegetables, and fruits.
