July Gardening Calendar Week 3

Ornamentals

• Provide water in the garden for the birds, especially during dry weather.
• Remove infected leaves from roses. Pick up fallen leaves. Continue fungicidal sprays as needed.
• While spraying roses with fungicides, mix extra and spray hardy phlox to prevent powdery mildew.
• Newly planted trees and shrubs should continue to be watered thoroughly, once a week.
• Fertilize container plants every 2 weeks with a water soluble solution.
• Keep weeds from making seeds now. This will mean less weeding next year.
• Keep deadheading spent annual flowers for continued bloom.
• Perennials that have finished blooming should be deadheaded. Cut back the foliage some to encourage tidier appearance.
• Fall webworms begin nest building near the ends of branches of infested trees. Prune off webs. Spray with Bt if defoliation becomes severe.
• Semi-hardwood cuttings of spring flowering shrubs can be made now.
• Summer pruning of shade trees can be done now.
• Powdery mildew is unsightly on lilacs, but rarely harmful. Shrubs grown in full sun are less prone to this disease.

Lawns

• Water frequently enough to prevent wilting. Early morning irrigation allows turf to dry before nightfall and will reduce the chance of disease.
• Monitor lawns for newly hatched white grubs. If damage is occurring, apply appropriate controls, following product label directions.

Vegetables

• Blossom-end rot of tomato and peppers occurs when soil moisture is uneven. Water when soils begin to dry; maintain a 2-3 inch layer of mulch.
• For the fall garden, sow seeds of collards, kale, sweet corn and summer squash as earlier crops are harvested.
• Set out broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower transplants for the fall garden.
• Sweet corn is ripe when the silks turn brown.
• Keep cukes well watered. Drought conditions will cause bitter fruit.
• Harvest onions and garlic when the tops turn brown.

Fruits

• Cover grape clusters loosely with paper sacks to provide some protection from marauding birds.
• Apply second spray to trunks of peach trees for peach borers.
• Early peach varieties ripen now.