July is here, and so is the heat. Keep your garden thriving with these timely tips from theJuly Gardening Calendar.
• Flowers & Ornamentals: Deadhead annuals and perennials, keep up with weeding, water newly planted trees and shrubs weekly during dry weather, and watch for Japanese beetles and rose diseases.
• Vegetable Gardens: Maintain consistent soil moisture to prevent blossom-end rot, harvest onions, garlic and potatoes when ready, make successive plantings of warm-season crops, and scout regularly for pests and diseases.
• Fruits & Nuts: Remove old raspberry and blackberry canes after harvest, monitor peaches for brown rot, protect grapes and tree fruit from birds, and provide summer care for strawberries.
• Cool-Season Lawns (Tall Fescue/Kentucky Bluegrass): Limit nitrogen applications, water deeply but infrequently, mow at 3½ to 4 inches, and check for sod webworm damage.
• Warm-Season Lawns (Zoysiagrass): Apply a light nitrogen feeding, monitor for chinch bugs and billbugs, mow weekly at 1 to 2 inches, and water only during extended dry periods.
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