July Maintenance Guide
GARDENING WITH CONFIDENCE™
THIS MONTH IN THE GARDEN
Mid-Atlantic Region
INTRO
July is your reward to many months of gardening efforts. Whether you vacate to see what the rest of the gardening world is doing or staycate to reap your rewards with fresh fruits, vegetables, and flowers, either way, now is the time to put down your trowel to travel and tour!
ANNUALS
Cut back summer annuals so they don’t become leggy. A good time to do this is right before you go on vacation. You will be gone, thus missing the unsightliness of the haircut. This will help the plants look good through the fall.
Petunias will benefit from a summer pinch. By removing an inch or two from the ends of the stems throughout the summer, encourages branching, resulting in a bushier plant.
Cleome, cosmos and zinnias, can still be planted or sown for continuous blooms ’til frost.
PERENNIALS
Continue to deadhead to tidy the garden and encourage more flowering. There are many perennials grown for the wildlife so don’t be to tidy; ‘leave some seed heads.’ Not only will the birds enjoy the seed, you will enjoy watching them retrieve the seed.
Perennials that benefit most from deadheading include bee-balm, black-eyed Susan, daylilies, coneflowers, salvia, Stoke’s aster, yarrow. Also Coreopsis will benefit from a shearing to encourage a second bloom.
Garden centers may have reduced prices on earlier blooming perennials. A great opportunity to save some money, but this is not a good time to plant. If you proceed, provide extra nurturing (and watering) until established.
As a butterfly gardener, a purple coneflower is a staple in my Mixed Border.’Even if I was just gardening for the flowers, Echinacea purpureawould be at the top of my list of must have plants. ‘There is now a wide range of colors ‘ ‘Sunrise’, Sundown’, Twilight’, Harvest Moon’, Summer Sky’, ‘After Midnight’ and more. Sadly, the bunnies find all the colors tasty.
Did you know there is no research showing that English Ivy climbing up your trees will actually harm the tree? It is not one of my favorite looks and I encourage others to keep it from climbing. If you want to remove it, cut it at the base and wait a year or so for it to die back before pulling it off; otherwise, removing it will harm the tree (taking bark with it.) When it climbs, the adult ivy forms. Here is where it seeds and makes more ivy. If not able to climb, it will spread, but can more easily be kept in check. Just keep an eye on it.
TREES AND SHRUBS
This is not a good time for planting trees and shrubs. If you find some good deals at the garden center, by all means purchase. But wait until fall for planting.
As the new growth emerges on your specimen conifer, candle-prune to maintain the shape.
ROSES
HERBS
Harvest Provence lavender. Cut stems, bundle, hang upside down and in a dark, dry place. Within 2 weeks, the florets will easily fall from the stems. To make lavender sugar, grind dried florets in a coffee grinder and mix with sugar
Cut back basil to keep from going to seed. Don’t forget to use it!
Keep oregano cut back to keep from going to seed.
VEGETABLES
WATERWISE
As summer begins, so do summer vacations. This also arises the need to have your garden looked after while you are gone! When preparing to go on summer vacation, there are three main areas in the garden the elicit attention: Container gardens, plants in the garden not yet established, and plants in the established garden.
There is no need not to have container gardens just because you are going on vacation and don’t want to be bothered. Why let a week or two away keep you from coming home to some nice plantings? Here are some tips to caring for your container gardens and houseplants while you are on vacation. These tips are for those with and without automatic irrigation systems.
Bring houseplants outside under the cool of the porch or eves of the house.
Get a neighbor kid to come over everyday to check on things and to water. Most pots will need watering everyday.
Pool you pots together near a water source and out of the afternoon sun.
Add extra mulch to the base of the plant.
Add water lines to your containers from your irrigation system.
Don’t have an irrigation system? The garden centers and big box stores sell automatic systems that hook up to your spigot. These systems are easy to install, include a timer to turn on the water a certain time(s) of the day and for a dialed in duration.
The neighborhood kid or friend will be a big help while you are gone. In the absence of automatic irrigation, caring for the garden while you are away is a little trickery. For your convenience and to aid the person helping while you are gone, marking the plants yet to be established, thus needing additional attention, will be important. Clearly mark the plant with a survey flag. This will help remind you and your care giver who needs a drink while you are gone.
SUSTAINABLE PRACTICES
As you added annuals and perennials up to now, the spring mulch has no doubt been disturbed. Now is a good time to do an abbreviated mulching to tidy up the disturbed areas. But of course, the best reason to do so is to retain moisture, particular for these new plantings until they are established.
The best advice anyone can give you with regards to weeds, pull them when you see them. Walk your garden often. Enjoy the journey and pull a weed when you see it. It keeps weeds in check and saves you from having to tackle a major problem latter.
Like a grey hair, every weed you pull, three grow back or so it seems.
GARDEN PESTS
Bagworms abound! Bagworms can be treated with Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt).
Most established gardens should survive a week without watering. Most years, the concern is with container plants and plants that have yet to establish, both concerns are addressed above.
Even in an established bed, some plants will require more attention than others. One of the best ways to learn when you’re your garden needs watering is to identify an indicator plant. An indicator plant is usually one of your garden’s the thirsty-er plants. For my garden, Helen;s Haven, it’s an Endless Summer Hydrangea. If my indicator is looking thirsty (wilted) in the morning, it needs water. As such, I would then direct the caregiver to water while I am away. If not, then you should be good to go. It should also be noted that this same plant may look wilted in the last afternoon, but this is not a true indication. Have them check it again in the morning. If not wilted, then it is fine
It is also a good idea before you leave to weed, deadhead, and water everything thoroughly.
WILDLIFE
Continue to fill feeders, provide clean water daily, and refresh hummingbird feeders with fresh sugar water.
Formula for hummingbird nectar: 4 parts water, one part sugar. Heat until the sugar is dissolved. Once cooled, fill feeders. Nectar can be stored in the refrigerator up to a week. Change the feeder nectar often, daily when temperatures reach the upper 80s.
Helen Yoest is a garden writer, speaker and garden coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™.
Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook Friend’s page, Helen Yoest; or facebook Like page, Gardening With Confidence™
Helen is a field editor for Better Homes and Gardens and Country Gardens magazine and she also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum.
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