July 2022 Gardening Tips

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Annuals - Angelonia, Cleome, Ipomoea (morning glories), Amaranthus. 

Perennials - Lantana, Nepeta, Erigeron karvinskianus, Gazania, Lavender, Fuchsias. 

Veggies - Beets, Radish, Lettuce (may need dappled shade in heat of the day).

Extras - Stakes, Bracing for fruit tree branches.

• Fertilizing - Begonias and Fuchsias are two of the darlings of the summer garden. Keep them happy and blooming by giving them half strength, all purpose liquid fertilizer once a week or once every two weeks (Mary uses Maxsea). This is especially important for hanging basket begonias and fuchsias. In-ground plants can be fertilized once or twice a month with full strength fertilizer. Remember Dahlias perform better too with regular fertilizer. If Dahlias have plenty of leaves you can switch to bloom fertilizer.
• Pruning - Pinch out flowers from Basil to keep the leaves tasty and encourage more leaves. Continue to deadhead (remove spent flowers and their stems) summer annuals, such as Cosmos, Zinnia, Coreopsis, Gaillardia pulchella (sometimes perennial), and Marigolds so the plants continue to bloom and not go to seed yet.  Also remove spent flowers of Fuchsia and Begonias. Finish pinching off old Rhododendron flowers. Shear Erigeron to three inches before they start to look straggly, when about 60 percent of the plant has bloomed. Thin fruit from fruit trees. Thinning out some of the fruit will give more room for the fruit you leave to become a nice size and keep overly heavy branches from breaking later in the season when fruit is large. Also, thinning the fruit may help avoid having one season being a glut and the next season having few fruits. So many plants benefit from grooming now: Spiraea japonica, Veronica, Salvias, Hydrangea quercifolia, Buddleja, and many others. 
• Phlomis fruticosa – Suggested: Wear long sleeves, goggles, and a mask when working with Phlomis as it has tiny, irritating leaf hairs that fly through the air when the plant is disturbed. This beautiful, yellow flowering, low water needs plant can live for many years. Pruning back after flowering is key to keeping the foliage lush all the way through the plant in order to avoid unsightly bare stems. Once flowers have finished, cut each flower stem down to the lowest set or two sets of leaves to encourage it to branch low. Also, shorten new stems that have grown quite tall already to one or two sets of leaves. The goal is to remove all the spent flowers while creating a lush, low structure. Then let it all fill in again for next year. Rejuvenating a very old Phlomis fruticosa can be tricky. Contact Mary to set up your Tutoring Appointment. Remember to give Phlomis a shower from the hose a couple times a week for a couple  of weeks to help the new growth fill in.
• Bearded Iris – July is a good time to divide clumps of Iris that have become over crowded. Overcrowding can make the amount of blooms decline. Regular maintenance for beaded iris is to cut the leaves down to 3 inches. Cutting into a fan shape is the usual way but even if cut straight across Iris will grow new leaf blades again. One reason to clean up dead leaves and shorten all the other leaves is to manage fungal disease without having to spray. 
• Harvesting Fruit, Veg, and Flowers – Early morning is best when harvesting but if that’s not possible wait until evening. Plants can be stressed by mid day and decline in moisture content and flavor.
• Irrigation - Check inside the controller to make sure no insects have created problems with the electronics. If some plants are looking poorly due to lack of water while other plants on the same line look healthy, check the emitters to make sure they are working properly. Sometimes certain plants need more emitters or the emitters need to be changed to an emitter that puts out more water.  
• Watering - Nasturtiums will bloom more when they are not watered regularly. When watered every day, Nasturtiums grow huge leaves and stop flowering as well. When young, water regularly until the plants have grown then start to water less often. Remember to turn off the hose bib and empty hoses when finished using. On hot days, hoses under pressure can blow open. While they wait to be planted, new plants can be kept hydrated on super hot days by putting the containers in a tub with about one of water in the bottom.

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