July Gardening Tips

July

Often pleasant cool springs are followed by extreme hot weather and this year is no exception. With watering restrictions, it’s difficult to maintain the garden.  The optimum time to water is early in the morning or late in the evening. Early in the morning is best because evening watering can encourage plant diseases. Water deeply and less frequently as opposed to watering lightly and often.

Mid-summer is primarily a time to maintain your insect control and apply very light, if any, feedings. Too much nitrogen fertilizer will create lots of greenery and less blooms. A good water soluble fertilizer applied once a week is appropriate now that you are into the blooming season.

• Extreme hot temperatures seem to be ideal conditions for Japanese beetles. These pests can make short work of your plants – dust with Sevin to control them.

• Use Thuricide to control worms which will attack your foliage and vegetables now. Identify them first, though, because some of them are butterfly larvae and it is better to move them to another less valuable plant if you enjoy butterflies in your garden. Cutworms can make your plants disappear overnight so if you see signs of chewing, deal with the problem right away.

• Spider mites seem to thrive in hot weather and can quickly weaken your plants. Apply isotox on a weekly basis to keep these pests at bay. They live under the leaves of the plants and signal their infestation by “bleeding” the chlorophyl from the leaves. Light green tiny speckles on the leaves indicate spider mites.

• Continue to put out slug bait or mix a solution of four tbsp. of aluminum sulphate in a gallon of water and spray AFTER SUNDOWN.

• Be sure to stake up your taller plants such as phlox, four o’clocks, dahlias etc. Simple bamboo stakes disappear in the foliage and can often be used for more than one season.

• Continue to spray with fungicide for black spot and mildew – roses, zinnias and phlox are especially susceptible.

• Mulch your shrubbery now in advance of the hot weather.

• Continue to feed roses with 10-10-10. Alternate fertilizer with super phosphate for blooms for the rest of the season. Also spray weekly for spider mites. If less than an inch of rain per week, water.

• Begin your regular weeding program and keep the soil around your plants lightly tilled with a long handled cultivator.

• Dead head your blooming flowers – it helps keep the blossoms coming as well as making your garden prettier.

• For a beautiful lawn, be sure your lawnmower blade is sharp – chewed blades of grass make for a ragged looking lawn.