July Gardening Tips

 

• By now you should be seeing your corn tasseled up, your tomatoes setting fruit and you're picking lettuce and basil for wonderful salads!

• Yet to do much will be squash, peppers, potatoes, and sunflowers.

• Watch for aphids - they are the bane of gardeners everywhere.  There are a number of ways to control them.  You can simply spray plants with the garden hose and knock them off, or you can try a soap based spray.  You can either buy a prepared insecticidal soap, or just use some dishwashing liquid mixed with water in a light solution - too much soap will kill your plants and not enough won't work.  The last solution is to use an insecticide.  Believe it or not there are some newer technology products on the market with very low toxicity to people and pets.  These are the pyrethroid products made from African daisies, or synthesized versions which are man-made.  Many of these types of compounds are actually used in products used on the human body for lice.  (Please don't spray your kids with garden products!)

• Ants, ants, ants in your pants.  Watch for black ants ranging from small to huge carpenter ants running around your house.  If you see quite a few, take the time to see where they are going - if it's to your house you might have a problem.  Potentially a huge problem. These ants burrow through wood and can ruin the structure of your home.  They favor areas with some dampness for entry points.  Call a professional inspector to see if there is a problem.

• Cover potato leaves with mulch to produce more potatoes

• Your early season perennials and bulbs such as Bleeding Heart, some Hostas, may be looking leggy, yellow and bloomed out.  Feel free to aggressively cut back the bleeding heart, and pull dead leaves and flowers from blooming plants.

• All of your spring bulbs can be safely cut down to the ground or yank the leaves out.

• Beans should be making beans now!  Don't let them sit on the vine too long, or else they will get too tough.

• Broccoli was late this year and should be just about finishing up for most of you.  After cutting the main head, come back in a week or less to get the side shoots.  After that, uproot the plant and compost it.  I planted corn in-between the broccoli and once exposed to more sunlight they will take off.  Be sure to fertilize after pulling the broccoli!

• Have fun, just spend a little time every day, and you will tame that yard into something beautiful!

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