SUMMER IS OFFICIALLY HERE AND, YES, IT IS HOT BUT THERE ARE GARDENING CHORES THAT NEED TO BE DONE IN JULY.
Before I get into July and gardening chores, let me recap June. All in all, June turned out to be a decent month for gardening—nothing Earth-shattering. We had some unseasonably hot days. We had some unseasonably cool days. Depending on your area around Richmond we had some good storms on June 23rd. The Richmond Airport received 2 inches of rain officially. Now that it is summer we can always use more rainfall.
JULY GARDENING TIPS / CHORES
- LAWN CARE – For July remember that watering less but deeply and setting your lawn mower higher results in the turf having deeper roots which will make the grass much more drought resistant for the remaining hot summer months.
- BEETLE ALERT – Japanese Beetles are here! They are out and about eating away on some of our favorite plants. Japanese Beetles will be with us for the next few weeks. So, be smart—use beetle traps and sprays to control the number of beetles and thus reducing the damage to plants being done by the beetles.
- July is a good month to give your flowering annuals a trim (if needed). Trimming blooming annuals will encourage new growth and thus get more blooms. Also, once pruned, it is a good time to feed all your flowering annuals.
- Be on the lookout for Powdery Mildew on plants, especially on Crape Myrtles, roses, dogwoods, peonies, and other plants. With our heat and high humidity, powdery mildew is common. I have had quite a few customers bring in samples from their plants. Look for the newer growth to curl and turn grey with the powdery mildew. Treat the plants with a fungicide that lists powdery mildew on the label.
- If you are an organic vegetable gardener then keep up on the weeds that are trying to grow. Handpick on a regular basis. If allowed to grow, weeds will rob your garden of water and nutrients.
- Don’t be a victim of the heat and dry periods. Proper watering means deep soaking. Water early in the day to reduce the evaporation rate so that less water is lost to the atmosphere. Soaker hoses are a great tool for helping to water efficiently.
HAPPY GARDENING AND CONTINUE TO PLANT A LITTLE HAPPINESS!!!!
Doug, thank you for the update on those darn Japanese Bettles! My husband and I have been fighting them already for a month and just said, how much longer to we need to keep up the fight to save our roses!
Being a VIP member, we can only compliment Meadows Farms teams and all the staff for their support to help us keep our gardens beautiful!
Sharon,
Happy Saturday to you.
Thank you for taking time to share your kind words. We all try and work hard to take care of all our VIP customers. Thank you again, Doug