Master gardener John Hethrington spends the summers working in and enjoying his 20 different gardens. His questions for all gardeners is this: why put off to tomorrow what you can do today?
Here are his recommendations for gardening tasks in July:
Watch for the Japanese beetle on your Asiatic lilies, roses, rose of Sharon, dahlias, hollyhocks, and numerous other plants. Handpicking and squeezing, combined with a beetle trap, are the most efficient way to limit these ravaging critters. Luckily, they don’t eat day lilies (Hemerocallis).
Watch for earwigs and spongy moth caterpillars. Spray plants with a 40:1 mixture of water and dish soap.
Trim evergreens, cedar hedges, etc., now as needed, not later in the summer.
Stake straggly annuals and perennials, or pinch them back to promote new growth and make them bushy.
Raise lawn mower blades for summer mowing. Grass should be at least five to seven-and-a-half centimetres tall (two to three inches) high to stay healthy and weed free.
Prune spring flowering shrubs like forsythia and spirea after blooming, If you really want to be picky, remove individual spent lilac blooms.
Water flower beds deeply and try a second round of weeding. Add mulch again to keep the weeds at bay.
Mulch your tomato plants. When a ripe tomato drops, it won’t split or get muddy. Mulch holds moisture too.
Thin, hoe, weed and water vegetables as required. (This is why I stick to flowers.)
Water lawns and beds as deeply as you can. We have had a very dry spring, so keep pouring the water to the grass.
Tackle weeds now before they go to seed. Save yourself from weeding their offspring next year.
Stake tall perennials that may be weakened by too rapid growth.
Turn compost regularly and check the moisture level – not too wet, not too dry, like Goldilocks, just right.
