July brings the heat of the summer to many areas of the Northern Hemisphere. When it gets hot, my kids get excited for the summer activities that happen because they just want to stay cool in the summer heat. Swimming, sprinklers, and cold watermelon are on the top of the list to keeping cool and enjoy the summer sun.
For our summer gardening, there are specific needs that help our backyard plants to keep producing. Here is a list of July Garden guide for beginners: 5 tips for success to keep your garden growing through the summer heat.
Checklist to Keep Plants Thriving as you Garden in the Summer
A garden checklist is an essential tool for any gardener, whether you’re a seasoned professional or just starting. By using the checklists that are provided for you through Create My Garden, the informative list of tasks, you can improve the overall health and productivity of your garden in any season or region.
For more checklists and blog posts detailing monthly garden tasks and gardening tips, visit our series on what to do in your garden each month.
June Garden Tasks- Early Summer
Make sure to get signed up for the weekly email that will help you to know what to do each month. You will get access to the download for each month to use as your handy list.
Tips for Using a July Garden Checklist
Prioritize Tasks: Some tasks are more important than others. Make sure to prioritize tasks that impact the health and productivity of your garden, such as watering, fertilizing, and pest control.
Update Regularly: As your garden grows and changes, so should your checklist. Update your list as needed to reflect new plants, changing conditions, or additional tasks that need to be completed.
Keep It Accessible: Keep your garden checklist in a place where you can easily access and reference it, such as a gardening journal, smartphone app, or digital document.
By implementing a garden checklist tailored to summer garden, annuals, and your specific needs, you can improve the overall health and productivity of your garden in any region. Not only will this make gardening a more organized and stress-free experience, but it will also lead to a more beautiful and productive garden that is easy to maintain.
Improved Plant Growth
By keeping track of important tasks such as watering, fertilizing with liquid or slow-release fertilizer, and pruning, you can ensure that your plants receive the care they need to thrive.
Use the calendar provided in this blog post to keep track of these essential things. It helps you stay on top of these tasks, leading to healthier plants with improved growth. You could also keep track on this calendar of what you harvest and what time of year things were ready to pick. This will help you to know what to expect the next year as you build your confidence as a gardener.
For example, keeping track of specific plants like bell peppers, tomatoes, or winter squash, helps you to know if the area you planted had full sun, enough mulch during the season, or produced enough vegetables to make it a midsummer success.
Add Timely Pruning to Do List
Pruning is essential for maintaining the health new growth and appearance of your plants especially in the month of July. Take 10 minutes a few times a week to do these mini tasks and keep the garden healthy and reduce the overwhelm for you.
Faded Flowers, Fresh Herbs, or Excess Green Leaves
Removing faded flowers, also known as deadheading, and excess green leaves is essential for maintaining plant health and promoting optimal growth. Deadheading encourages the plant to redirect its energy towards producing more blooms and prevents the formation of seeds, which can exhaust the plant’s resources.
Similarly, pruning excess green leaves allows for better air circulation, reduces the risk of diseases and pests, and enables the plant to focus its energy on essential growth processes. Overall, these practices contribute to a more vibrant, healthy, and productive garden.
Pruning 1/3 of fresh herbs off of each of your plants every other week, helps your herbs to continue growing. Use these herbs in your culinary dishes or dry and save for later in the year.
Pull Up or Suppress Weeds
Weeding is an essential task for maintaining a healthy and productive summer garden. Here are some tips to make pulling up weeds more effective and efficient:
Weeding is crucial for maintaining a healthy and productive garden in the hot weather, and it’s most effective when the soil is moist, making it easier to pull weeds out by the roots. Using appropriate tools like hand trowels, weeding forks, or hoes can help loosen the soil and remove weeds more efficiently. Grasp the weed near its base and gently lever out the roots to ensure complete removal.
Applying a layer of organic mulch, shredded leaves, or grass clippings can suppress weed growth, while regular weeding sessions keep weed populations under control.
Efficient Watering
Over-watering or under-watering can lead to various problems in your summer garden. Keeping track using the July calendar of when you water or checking soil temperature using your watering system prevents issues such as root rot or drought stress.
Go out on a weekly basis to check how much water your garden is getting and if it is enough during the summer heat. Adjust weekly if necessary, so that your plants don’t have to struggle to survive. Use your finger to test the soil moisture out and water when necessary. Those roots need water to get nutrients to the plant to produce food for you.
Use Self-Watering Containers to Take the Stress Out of Summer Long Gardening
Self-watering containers are an innovative gardening solution that provides plants with consistent moisture levels, reduces water waste, and promotes healthier root systems.
These containers feature a built-in reservoir and wicking system to ensure optimal hydration while requiring less frequent watering. Ideal for small spaces, summer gardening, urban gardening, landscape using, and busy individuals, self-watering containers offer versatility in size and style.
Effective Pest Control
Most pests can quickly wreak havoc on your garden if insect pests are left unchecked in warmer climates. Here are a few things that you can do in just 10 minutes to effectively control the pests in your garden.
First thing, regularly go out to your garden and just inspect for pests or damage on leaves. Handpick larger pests and maintain good garden hygiene by keeping the area clean and free of old leaves and branches. If needed, use organic sprays and organic matter like like compost, applying them during early morning or late evening hours to minimize impact on beneficial insects.
Add more flowers to encourage biodiversity through companion planting by growing marigolds or other brightly colored flowers, which can help repel pests and attract helpful insects. Planting a variety of flowers, herbs, fruit and vegetables will create and encourage a diverse ecosystem that aids in pest control.
Start a Fall Vegetable Garden in Mid-Summer
Starting a fall vegetable garden indoors with seeds during the summer offers numerous benefits, including an extended growing season, a controlled environment for optimal plant growth, protection from pests and diseases, improved success rate, and a greater variety of plants. Additionally, this approach can be more cost-effective than purchasing transplants and provides a sense of enjoyment and satisfaction from nurturing plants from seeds to harvest.
What Seeds to Start?
Starting new plantings indoors in July allows you to extend your growing season and enjoy a bountiful fall harvest. Here are some crops you can start indoors in July for a successful fall garden:
Broccoli: This cool-season crop can be started indoors in July and transplanted outdoors in late summer or early fall, providing a harvest in the cooler months.
Cabbage: Start cabbage seeds indoors in July and transplant them outdoors about 6-8 weeks later to give them time to mature before the first frost.
Cauliflower: Like broccoli, cauliflower thrives in cooler weather and can be started indoors in July for transplanting outdoors in late summer or early fall.
Kale: Start kale seeds indoors in July and transplant them outdoors in late summer. They will continue to produce tasty leaves well into the fall.
Swiss Chard: Start Swiss chard seeds indoors in July and transplant them outdoors in late summer. They are cold-tolerant and will continue to produce flavorful leaves into the fall.
Remember to check the specific growing requirements and recommended planting times for each crop based on your region’s climate and frost dates. This will help ensure a successful fall harvest from the crops you start indoors in July.
Check out this mini-video course to help you grow seeds indoors to be ready to plant for in the fall.
Organization and Stress Reduction
A well-maintained garden checklist allows you to stay organized and focused on what needs to be done, in great time and making summer gardening a more enjoyable and stress-free experience. You’ll feel a sense of accomplishment as you check off completed tasks, and you’ll know exactly what needs to be done next.