Garden Tips for July

July is historically our hottest and driest month. Keep things easy this month, on both you and the garden. Work in the mornings, stay hydrated and ease off the pruning and fertilizing. July is a great month to plan for autumn and do whatever preparation you can for creating a more water-efficient, California-style garden.

Planting

Avoid planting most ornamental plants in July. Instead use your water to keep the vegetable garden, orchard and existing plants (especially trees) healthy. July is a great month to start seeds for fall-harvested vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, chard, kale and cabbage. Make sure you have a way to keep those tender seedlings well-watered.

Seed starting in summer also requires more management of insect pests like snails, slugs and earwigs. You can start seeds in containers for later transplanting, but make sure you have a place with adequate light to avoid weak plants. Brush your hands lightly over seedlings to help keep them stout and sturdy or set up a little fan nearby so they get a breeze which has a similar effect.

Maintaining

Monitor and test your irrigation system at least once during summer, especially if you will be gone more than a few days. It's tempting to overwater, but not only is it a waste, but many diseases and insect problems are encouraged by too much moisture in hot months. Let the first inch or more of soil dry out between watering.

Your goal is for the water to penetrate to just below plant's root zone where the soil is cooler, and then let the top few inches dry out a little. You don't have to keep the ground wet during a heat wave, just store up a little water in the soil by watering beforehand.

Lawn diseases and pest insects are almost guaranteed in over-watered summer lawns. Water does not cool turf grass; it only replaces what the plant transpires during the day. Fescue lawns can suffer heat stress, sunburn and warm-season diseases, and all of them may look like you need to water more.

If lawn removal is your goal, July is an excellent month for solarization or mechanically removing the sod and allowing the summer heat and lack of moisture to kill any remaining bits. Nature does not like bare soil, so remember to cover it with mulch, cardboard or weed cloth until fall planting time to avoid opportunistic weeds becoming the lawn replacement!

Continue dead-heading roses and daylilies. Remove spent flower heads and the entire flowering stem from hydrangea, leaving only a few buds per stem for next year. Prune spent berry canes to the ground after harvesting. Trellis new canes as they emerge. Lightly prune bougainvillea to promote more flowers. Wait until the weather cools for major pruning unless it's for safety. You can lightly prune in the cool morning or evening hours, but not if a heat wave is predicted in the next few days.

Do not fertilize anything (including lawns) during July with high-nitrogen products. Allow plants that want to go partially or fully summer dormant to do so to extend their lives and keep them healthy. This includes many of our best climate-adapted plants: California native species like Cleveland sage, blue eyed grass and bush lupine, and Mediterranean species like lavender.

Monitor and control weeds, rodents and insect pests. For insects, hose off plants as a first treatment. Insecticidal soap sprayed in the evening is the second treatment.

We are all busy and would rather do a one-time-and-done style of pest management, but gardening is like caring for other living beings: steady observation and small corrections are the key to a garden full of beneficial wildlife, happy plants and happy humans.

Conserving

Native bees and wasps are active in the summer months. Most of these tiny insects are hardly noticed because European honeybees are also active. Leave flowering ("bolting") plants like radish, onion and carrots for beneficial insects, and if you can, leave a little bare dirt here and there for ground-nesting solitary bees. Reduce or eliminate strong, non-specific insecticides to avoid harming beneficial insects.

Adding a top dressing of compost is never wrong but you can wait until fall to add more mulch, especially if you already have a thick layer. Take care of the millions of creatures living in your garden's soil to have healthier plants. A garden in balance needs few chemicals and is less work, more pleasure.

Happy Gardening!

Questions? Call the Master Gardeners:

Tulare County: (559) 684-3325, Tuesday and Thursday, 9:30-11:30 a.m .;

Kings County: (559) 852-2736, Thursday only, 9:30-11:30 a.m.

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