July  Garden Tips

Plants in Flower

Trumpet Creeper, Phlox, Butterfly Weed, Daylily, Red Hot Poker, Rose-of-Sharon, Sourwood, Crapemyrtle, Stewartia, St. John's Wort, Abelia, Peegee Hydrangea, Chaste-Tree, Canna, Dahlia, Shasta Daisy and summer annuals.

Fertilizing

• Continue sidedressing your garden vegetables. 
• July is the month we recommend giving landscape plants a second (last) feeding of fertilizer. Take soil samples form your lawn areas for testing. Soil boxes are available at the County Extension Center. 

Planting 

• Plants of brussel sprouts and collards can be set out in mid-July. 
• You can begin your fall vegetable garden this month. Plant beans, carrots,brussels sprouts, and tomatoes in July. 
• Start broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower plants in peat pots to transplant into the vegetable garden in mid-August. 
• Begin repotting overgrown houseplants. 

Pruning 

• Prune "bleeder" trees like maple, dogwood, birch and elm this month. 
• Prune the fruiting canes of raspberry and blackberry plants after harvest is over. Cut canes at ground level. 
• Prune off dieback limbs on hybrid rhododendron, azalea, mountain laurel, and blueberry. 
• Trim hedges as needed. 
• Continue pruning white pines and narrowleaf evergreens like juniper early in the month. 
• Remove faded flowers on flowering perennials to encourage a second flowering. 
• Pinch your chrysanthemums the first week only! 
• Do NOT prune spring flowering shrubs now. 

Spraying 

• Spray for Japanese beetles as needed. 
• Spray your tree fruits and bunch grapes on a regular basis. 
• Spray the following vegetables if insects are observed: cucumber (cucumber beetle), squash (aphids), tomato and eggplant (flea beetle). 
• Spray woody weeds like poison ivy, honeysuckle and kudzu with a recommended herbicide. 

Lawn Care 

• Remember to change direction when moving your lawn. Travel north to south on one mowing and east to west on the next cutting. 
• Maintain 3 inch mowing height. 

Propagation 

• This month is still a great time to take semi-hardwood cuttings of azaleas, holly, rhododendron and many other shrubs. 
• July is an ideal time to divide and transplant your iris and daylilies. 

Specific Chores 

• July is a good month to see if and where your home can use some additional shade trees. 
• Blossom-end rot may be seen on tomatoes this month. Two factors - too little water and too little lime in the soil - may be the reason. In dry weather, both your vegetable garden and landscape plants will benefit from a good soaking watering. Slow watering will penetrate the root zone better. Apply 1 inch of water early in the day.