July - July days are long, hot and humid! Watering your lawn and plants properly is key to keeping them healthy. Some spring planted annuals and perennials may need deadheading and fertilizing to keep them blooming. Tent caterpillars and spittle bug my begin to show up on your conifers. Be sure to check out our simple July gardening tips below.
For Your Lawn
- Maintenance: Set your lawn mower blade 3 to 3½ inches high and leave the grass clippings to provide nutrients as they decompose. Water the turf sparingly to increase drought tolerance during summer heat.
- Prevention: Water in the morning to reduce the chance of fungal diseases in turf.
For Your Trees and Shrubs
- Fertilize: Continue to fertilize roses once a month with Rose-Tone through September. Also help keep your annuals blooming by fertilizing with a bloom booster food through the summer.
- Prevention: Watch for bagworms on evergreens and pick or spray as necessary. Look for the Spittle bugs on Leyland Cypress and treat with Cygon if present.
- Prune: July 15th is the final cut for pruning Mums back to ensure fall color. Keep annuals and perennials deadheaded to continue to promote continuous flowering.
- Mulch: Keep gardens mulched to help control unwanted weeds and retain moisture. It can also reduce the incidence of some soil-borne diseases and keep roots cool during hot weather.
- Water: Watering your plants this month is important. In late July & August water Azaleas, Dogwoods and any other spring flowering shrubs and trees to ensure good bud set for the fall and spring.
For Your Garden
- Apply Epsom Salt to gardenia when the older leaves yellow at a rate of 1 TB per foot of height. This corrects the magnesium deficiency.
- Apply milky spore in late July to early August to control the Japanese Beetle grubs and the Green June beetle.
- Reduce the mosquito population by emptying standing water every two or three days; including saucers under plants and birdbaths. Mosquito larvae need only a small amount of water to grow.
- Tomato and pepper blossoms may drop off plants in months that are extremely
hot and dry – try misting plants daily to help keep them cool and help blossoms set
fruit.
|
