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Hello VEGheads, As the Dog Days of Summer approach and gardens are in full swing, I hope you are all enjoying your garden's bounties. A garden task for you in case you haven't thought about it as we head into the hottest season of the year: Shade cloth can be so beneficial to hang over your garden. Especially, if your garden gets the 100+ degree weather. I would recommend a 40% coverage if your in zones 9 or higher. This helps with heat stress and water retention.
With that, here is what is growing on in my garden this month.
Planting:
Even though it is summer it does not mean that it is too late to start a garden. There is (almost) always something that can be planted.
Find your zone here:https://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/
Good news if you're in Garden Zone 3-6 you are still good to plant in the month of July. If you are in Zone 7 and up everything says it's still too hot for planting most things, but I am in Zone 9 (Central California) and this is what I am planting this month.
- Sunflowers
- Zinnias (seedlings pictured above)
-Marigolds
-Beans
-Squash
I will not be doing corn this year, but it is the last month I would be able to plant it if I so desired. I think it is a great time to plant starchy corn like popcorn or milling corns. Just do not plant next to your tomatoes, a mistake I made last year.
Watching:
My pomegranate tree seems to have a fruit that is sticking around, but I am not holding my breath. My tree is four years old now and just when I think I have got a fruit, it falls to the ground.
Cow bean plants were planted just a few weeks ago and are growing, so far no flowers.
Harvesting:
This is the part of the year that harvesting gets good for me. My garden is a little slow to produce, because it is fully shaded by about 2 pm. Meaning my garden only gets about 6-7 hours of sunlight. This month I will continue to harvest Tomatoes, Peppers, Herbs, Cucumbers, Zucchini and Yellow squash. I will begin harvesting my Valentine Beans which are a black bean for drying.
Perennials:
My lemon tree is suffering from a number of pests and I am now going to intervene. My perennial flower collection is growing with the Denver Daisies that I just added. The mini roses that I currently have are the longest standing that I have kept the last plant only made it a month before succumbing to overwatering. The Alpine and Albion strawberries just got transplanted into this terracotta strawberry pot and are still recovering. I harvest the last of my blueberry bush this month. My dragon fruit cactus just got transplanted after 1 whole year of being in a nursery pot. It is so much healthier looking now that it is repotted and pruned back. My red mandarin tree is going to be getting treated along with the lemon tree. The Cherry tree is looking rough as always, but I gave it a big prune a while back and it's starting to get some new growth.
Pests/ Problems:
Observing the garden is by far my favorite past time. I love just going out and staring at my plants. While I do admire their beauty and love finding new fruits and growth, I often just watch bugs. The pests that I will be controlling this month are ants, scale and caterpillars. For the scale I'll be using this Master Nursery Pest Fighter, a Spinosad based organic spray. The caterpillars I will continue to hand pluck and the ants I think I will either trap or bait, I'm not sure how to handle them yet.
That's all for this month. Stay tuned for next month's update and comment and let me know what you got growing on.
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