July 2020 Gardening Advice

flea beetles on mesclun

submitted by Jennifer Fairfield, Garden Mill and Manchester Community & School Gardens

So, the weather people have a new one for us –– we are apparently in an “Omega Blocking Pattern.” Ok –– it’s probably not really new. They have likely called it this for a long time, but I can’t say that I’ve ever heard the term. So, I had to go look it up. According to weather.gov, “Omega blocks get their name because the upper air pattern looks like the Greek letter omega (Ω). Omega blocks are a combination of two cutoff lows with one blocking high sandwiched between them.” We are apparently going to be stuck in that “high sandwich” for a while, which means we will be getting very hot and dry conditions for the foreseeable future. Not my favorite kind of weather!

I both love being a gardener in July and hate it. I love it because so much is going on in the garden this month –– lots of veggies are starting to be harvested, other vegetable plants get started indoors or seeds planted in the garden outside this month, and flowers are blooming all over. I hate it because I really don’t like the heat that we tend to get this month –– it makes me not want to go out into my gardens except in the early morning and evening, when it’s not quite so breath-takingly hot. Of course, I tend to get going on garden tasks in the morning, and get so involved that I don’t realize how hot (or how late) it’s gotten until I am parched and sweaty. I don’t know about you, but for me, it’s very easy to lose track of everything else when I’m in my garden!

Here’s how you can lose track of time in your garden this month.

In the veggie garden:

• July should be harvest time for many crops. Spring crops, such as lettuce, spinach, and peas will mostly finish producing this month –– if they haven’t already –– while summer crops, such as zucchini, cucumbers, and early tomatoes will just start to come in by the end of the month.
• July is also a time for planting and starting new seedlings for fall harvest. If you want to have broccoli and cabbage for fall, start your own indoors between now and July 10th, so the seedlings will be ready for transplanting into your garden when they are six weeks old. They should be ready for harvest by early October. These can be good “succession crops” to be put into the garden in place of things like onions and garlic, once those have been harvested.
• You can plant late season successions of lettuce, spinach, peas, beets, carrots, and Swiss chard at the end of the month, to be ready for picking before it gets too cold. But wait to plant radishes until early or mid- August, as it will generally still be too hot at this point for these cool-weather lovers (they mature very quickly, and will bolt in the heat of August before they can get big enough for eating).
• Don’t forget to water your veggie garden regularly. Your plants generally need about an inch of water every week, and we certainly are not getting that! A good soaking once a week is better than a little bit every day or two, but when the temps are high, you might want to water a little more often. Don’t overdo it, but definitely make sure that your soil doesn’t totally dry out between watering. That’s a great way to stress your plants.
• Side dress your summer crops this month. Side dressing is just the simple act of giving your plants a mid-season boost of fertilizer, such as Espoma’s Garden-Tone. It provides the plants with a little extra food when they need it most –– as they are producing flowers and fruit. By the time they are ready to start putting out flowers, the plants have used up most of the available nutrition in your garden. Providing a little more fertilizer at this point will make a big difference in whether your garden produces in abundance, which is the point of all this work, isn’t it?!  The term side-dressing really just means to apply fertilizer around the plant, in the root zone. Don’t just sprinkle it on top, though –– carefully work it into the top inch or so of soil. Fertilizer left on top of the soil often will just wash away before it can break down and be useful to the plant. Don’t get any closer than about four inches from the stem of the plant, as you want the food to be available to the new root growth as the plant is growing and putting out more roots.
• Weed! I know –– it’s pretty much nobody’s idea of a god time (though it is one of those things that makes the time just disappear), but it really is necessary. Weeds compete for water, food, and sunlight with the plants you are working so hard to grow. If you just do a little bit of regular weeding, you can stay on top of it, and pulling small weeds that don’t have very established roots is a lot easier than pulling bigger ones that have had lots of time to get anchored into the ground.
• Pests of all sorts have been driving me nuts this year in my gardens. I’ve been waging a losing battle with chipmunks in my veggie garden all spring (though I hope that they are about to lose that battle, as I have a new product that I’m going to put to the test this weekend!). I’m also seeing cabbage worms on my kale, slugs on my lettuce, flea beetles on my eggplant, and grasshoppers on pretty much everything – especially my peppers.  For the cabbage worms, I’m just picking them off and squishing them. The slugs have gotten a treatment of Espoma’s Slug and Snail Bait, which seems to have slowed them down. The flea beetles and grasshoppers are some of the harder pests to get under control, as they move very quickly when you get anywhere near them. I’ve covered my peppers with a sheer row cover cloth to give them a chance to get a little bigger, and maybe convince the grasshoppers to go somewhere else. I’ve also dusted my garden with diatomaceous earth to try to control the flea beetles and other insects. I’m going to keep that up on a regular basis until those little critters give up, or until my eggplant is big enough to withstand them. I’ll let you know how I make out with the chipmunks –– those stripy little rodents have eaten all my edamame seeds, meaning no edamame for me for the second year in a row. They also got to my pole bean seeds, which I didn’t realize until it was too late to replant them. So, I just put some more bush bean seeds in. We’ll see if those make it to my table.

• Keep up with your program of fungicide spraying (or start now, if you haven’t already). There are a lot of diseases that really get going as summer progresses, especially on tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash. MSU’s extension service has already reported cucumber downy mildew on the west side of the state, so it won’t be long until we see it and other diseases here. Treating your plants with a fungicide on a regular basis can help keep them healthy long enough to let you reap what you’ve sown. If you don’t start treating until you see disease, it’s already too late.

In the flower garden:

• Keeping your flower beds watered is probably going to be your biggest task this month. Just like with the vegetable garden, your flower beds need about an inch of water per week, or a little more when it’s really hot, like it’s going to be for the next little bit. Watering early in the morning allows more water to get into the soil than watering during the heat of the day. This is because some of the water will evaporate in the hot sun before it can sink into the ground. Making sure your garden is well mulched is also a great way to keep moisture in the soil around your plants. Try not to water in the evening, as this can leave the foliage of your plants wet longer, which is a great way to encourage disease.
  
• Insects and other pests are as much of an issue in flower beds as in veggie gardens, so keep an eye out for damage, and try to get to the pests before the damage is too extensive. Mostly, I’m seeing leaf hoppers in my garden, but a friend recently told me he is being plagued by Japanese beetles. There are a few things to keep in mind when choosing how to deal with pests. First, be sure you know what pest you are targeting – not all insecticides will kill all insects, and some are far more lethal than may be necessary. Second, be aware of when to apply –– different insects are active at different times of day, and some pesticides work best if sprayed directly on the pest. Third, be aware of bee activity in your flowering plants –– don’t spray any insecticides when you see bees around, or at least do targeted spraying instead of broadcast spraying, to avoid killing bees.
  
• The other pests I have been having problems with in my flower beds this spring are deer. They seem to think I have planted all the beautiful flowering plants in my beds just for them, even though there is plenty of other vegetation they can eat all around my property (and surrounding fields and woods). Fortunately, I have a pretty effective product to keep them at bay. As soon as I see that they have targeted another plant, I reach for the Deer Scram. It’s an all-natural product that can be used in flower and vegetable beds, and I have found it to be very effective at keeping my plants safe from the larger pests –– both deer and rabbits.
• Be sure to fertilize roses throughout the month, but stop fertilizing at the end of the month to allow the new growth to harden off before winter. Also remove diseased leaves immediately, and pick up any that have fallen. These tasks, along with regular fungicide spraying will help keep your roses healthy. Aphids, mites, and Japanese beetles tend to be the biggest pest problems for roses. Aphids and mites can be controlled with Espoma’s Insecticidal Soap. Japanese beetles are actually best controlled by knocking them off the plants and dropping them into a bucket of soapy water. The soap coats their wings, making it impossible for them to get out of the water, and they eventually drown. It’s best to do this is in the afternoon, when it has warmed up, and the beetles are most active. Getting as many as you see on a daily basis will help keep them under control. If you wait too long, the few you have will suddenly turn into a mob, as they don’t like to dine alone, and once one has found your garden, it will send out signals to all its friends to come and join it.
• Keep weeds under control, as they compete with your flowers for moisture and nutrients.
• Cut back perennials that have finished blooming.
• Do you have a bare spot in your garden that you want to fill in quickly? Zinnia seeds planted this weekend will come up in a matter of days in the heat of July, will start producing blooms in just a few weeks, and will provide a beautiful late season show.
• To keep your potted annual flowers looking great all summer long, water them frequently (most likely daily in this heat), and be sure to fertilize them. With frequent watering, fertilizer tends to get flushed out of the container, so regular feedings are a must. Also, don’t forget to deadhead. By removing dead flowers, you encourage the growth of new ones throughout the season.
  

Trees & Shrubs:

• Regularly water any trees and shrubs planted this year. It’s actually a good idea to water trees and shrubs that were planted in the past two to three years, as they are still not necessarily fully established, and can get severely stressed in this heat when we aren’t getting much rain. Tree and shrub watering bags can make this task much easier. You fill them up once, and they the water seeps out slowly, which ensures that the water stays at the tree roots, rather than running off.
• Don’t apply fertilizer to trees or shrubs after the Fourth of July, to avoid a flush of new growth that doesn’t have time to harden before winter.
• Finish up pruning trees and shrubs this month. Pruning too late in the season can encourage new growth that will not have time to harden off before winter sets in.

Lawn:

• If there is one good thing to say about the lack of rain we have been experiencing, it’s that mowing doesn’t need to be done as frequently. Actually, it’s much harder on the grass to mow it more frequently when it’s dry. Keeping your grass a little higher under these conditions will help it retain moisture.
• There is another good thing to say about the lack of rain –– as far as your lawn is concerned, anyway. It is much harder for Japanese beetles to lay their eggs successfully in dry soil. That could mean fewer beetles next year (unless you’re watering your lawn, that is), and it can help your lawn later this year and early next spring. Japanese beetle larva are the grubs that eat grass roots, causing patches of brown, dead grass. 

For the Birds:

• Birds need water too! Keep your birdbaths full, and consider putting out additional baths or even filling things like overturned trash can lids or large saucers with water for them. The dry conditions are equally difficult on birds, and they are going to be looking for water wherever they can find it. Just be sure to dump the water and refill it every day, to discourage mosquitoes from laying eggs.
• Keep hummingbird feeders cleaned out and filled. Sugar water left out in the heat for a number of days can breed bacteria that is harmful to the beautiful birds visiting your feeders, so be sure to clean them out every few days.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.