July Gardening Tips

 Things to Do:

         

  Things To Plant:
 Water, Water, Water! try to avoid frequent shallow watering, instead opt for deep slow soaking watering so that the roots can absorb the needed water, and encourage the roots to grow down, instead of having to grow towards the surface to get the needed water during these hot dry spells. Pick flowers from your annuals to encourage them to bloom more often, and longer. Deadhead annuals and perennials for the same reason, and for a neater look. Plant spring blooming flowers such as bluebonnets,and wildflowers.    July is a great time to plant palms. They require warm soil conditions to establish their root systems. We continue to landscape during July. The trees, shrubs, and perennials need water daily when they are first planted to help them through the hot summer months.  
       

Fertilize:

  

Flowers To Plant: 

 Apply Hasta grow to your blooming plants every 2 weeks during the growing season. Apply Cottonseed meal to the lawn to help green it up during this hot summer month. Continue to apply David's Compost Tea weekly to all of your planted areas to enrich the microbial activity in the soil. Apply a slow release fertilizer to freshly pruned shrubs. You may also apply Liquid Seaweed as a foliar fertilizer twice a month to all your plants during the growing season.

    To brighten your landscape in the heat of the summer, plant lantana, bougainvillea, mandevilla vine, hibiscus, salvia, periwinkle, marigold, zinna, portulaca, or purslane
     
     

Water:

  

 Flower Seeds:
   

 
 Your lawn should be getting 1" of water per week. Any trees or shrubs planted less than a year ago should be watered with the hose for 20 minutes on a slow trickle twice a week if we have not had much rain.  

   

 Transplant:

  

  Bulbs:
 It is best to wait on any transplanting right now until the heat breaks.    
   

 

     

Soil Preparation:

  

Vegetable Plants:
  Continue to apply compost to your planted beds, and around trees. Compost helps keep the soil cool, as well as breaks down to enrch the soil     Mid July is when you should have your pumpkins seeds planted so they will be ready for Halloween. Plant tomatos, beans, sweet corn, cucumber, eggplant, lima beans, black-eyed peas, peppers and squash now through August. Remove spent tomatoes, beans, or other veggies. They serve as hosts for disease, and insects.
     

 Lawn Care:

  

  Herbs:

  Look for brown patch in your St. Augustine, and Bermuda grass. Apply Corn Meal, David's Compost Tea, and a  light layer of compost to cure the problem. Keep your grass cut high to help shade the ground, and keep it from drying out so soon after watering. new lawns should be watered daily. Bermuda seed can be planted also this month.

     If you can still find them in your local nurseries, you can still plant any herbs at this time.
     

 Diseases/Pests to look out for:

  

Fruit:
 Insects to look for this month are chinch bugs in your lawn, white flies,  spider mites, catapillars, aphids, and grashoppers. Pretty much all of them. Look for leaf rollers on your Cannas, and bag worms in your trees. If you are not sure just what you have just put the critter, or a leaf of the damaged plant in a ziplock bag and bring it in, and we will try to figure out the problem, and help you with a solution.    Keep sufficient water on fruit trees until the fruit is harvested. Prune old canes of blackberries tomake way for the new ones next spring.
     
     

 Prune:

    
 Late July, or early August is when you prune roses to stumulate new vigorous growth for abybdabt fall blooms. Do not trim climbing roses though. Vigorous growing shrubs can be pruned not to keep them within bounds. Trim back leggy spring planted annuals to encourage a new production of flowers.    
     
     
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