July 2021 Gardening Tips

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Read July's Essay: Annuals and the Best Use of your Money

• Butterfly Attracting Plants - Achillea, Monarda, Liatris spicata, Zinnia, Helianthus angustifolius, Sedum 'Autumn Joy', Rudbeckia, Lantana.
• Perennials/Tubers - Hanging Begonias, Dahlias.
• Extras – Orbit Flow Meter (Mary’s new favorite thing) to monitor how much water is coming through the hosebib, Stakes, Wood for bracing Fruit limbs that are heavy with fruit.

• Planting Holes - Summer soil can be a challenge to dig. It's also harder on plants to be planted at this time of year.  Give plants the best chance to thrive by starting with a good planting hole:  Watch The Gardening Tutor video Ad-Free on Vimeo: How to Dig a Planting Hole. Also, for easier digging, set your plants where you want to plant them and water them daily in the container for a couple weeks so the soil will be nicely watered and workable.
• Pruning - If you haven't pruned out the spent flowers of Phlomis fruticosa yet it's time to prune out the flower stems. Phlomis fruticosa will usually sprout new growth from  bare stems (especially the younger stems) so prune down low to invigorate new bushy growth low in the foliage. This type of pruning keeps the plant from becoming woody. Very the height of the cuts so that the plant looks natural instead of cutting everything to just bare stems. Many plants, such as Erigeron can be sheared now to rejuvenate them. Watch The Gardening Tutor video Ad-Free on Vimeo: Shearing Plants to Encourage Flowers and Foliage.  Or watch on YouTube. Remember to give newly sheared plants extra showers from the hose to help encourage the new growth (it’s not a lot of water-just a short shower). Continue to remove the spent flowers with their stems (deadheading) from Fuchsias and Begonias. Fruit Trees-thin fruit. When all the fruit is left on a fruit tree the tree may respond by having one year with lots of fruit and the next year not many fruit. Given more room to grow, the fruit that remains after thinning is usually larger and more pest free. Also, fruit trees can be pruned now-summer pruning keeps them smaller. There is so much to know about Fruit Trees-Contact Mary today for a consultation.
• Pest Management - Whitefly are those little white flies that swarm up when you walk by plants infested with them. Whitefly can damage plants with their piercing mouth parts that suck the life out of leaves. Nepeta is one of the most whitefly attracting plants. Whitefly like hot, dry and dusty environments. One way to manage them is to change the environment by watering the area more often with a shower from the hose. Another management tool is to use yellow sticky traps hung close to the plant. The flies are attracted to and land on the sticky traps, get stuck and die. If the area still has multiple whitefly after trying these techniques you may need to spray with insecticidal soap or Neem oil but Whitefly are hard to spray because the spray needs to land on them to kill them. In winter you will have more success with spray by using Neem oil to spray semi-dormant plants and the surrounding soil.
• Fertilizing- Continue to fertilize repeat blooming plants throughout the growing season. Apply liquid fertilizer once a month at full strength or use half strength every two weeks (Mary uses Maxsea). This is especially helpful for plants in containers. Remember to avoid applying liquid fertilizer to dry soil. Also, fertilizing too often can encourage rapid growth that is weak and more attractive to pests. Watch The Gardening Tutor video Fertilizing: Two Quick Methods to Apply Liquid Fertilizer.