by the editors at Rodale's Organic Life
Here's your July gardening guide for North America's USDA Plant Hardiness Zones: 3-10. If you don't know what zone you live in, check the map here to find out. We've left off zones 1-2 (far-north Alaska) and zones 11-13 (small section of the Florida Keys, the Pacific coast between L.A. and Mexico, and Hawaii) since zones 3-10 cover 99 percent or more of the gardeners in the U.S.
Zone 3
- Hill soil around potatoes and carrots to prevent green shoulders.
- Continue to stake and tie up tall plants, such as raspberries, roses, dahlias, and peas.
- Brighten your home with bunches of cut flowers.
- Don't cut grass lower than 2½ inches tall.
- Water lawns, trees, and shrubs in dry weather.
- Water annuals at least three times a week during periods of intense heat with no rain.
- Continue to add organic matter to the soil to retain moisture.
- If collecting seeds from mature plants, harvest only from the most healthy plants; label storage containers.
Zone 4
- Sow a second planting of green beans and summer squash.
- Use Bacillus thuringiensis on cabbageworms and other caterpillars.
- Divide crowded iris and daylily clumps.
- Spread mulch and irrigate to keep soil moist in dry weather.
- Set out transplants for fall crops of broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower.
- Sow seeds of kale and Chinese cabbage for fall harvest.
- Add new perennials to flowerbeds.
- Remember that you can still plant potted or balled trees and shrubs, but water them well.
Zone 5
- Reseed dill and cilantro every few weeks for continuous harvest and to attract beneficials with blooms.
- Sow autumn peas; presoak seeds for a faster start.
- Harvest summer squash and cukes while they're still young and tender.
- Start seeds of Shasta daisies in a coldframe, where they'll overwinter until large enough to plant next spring.
- Harvest vegetables and flowers in the cool of the morning.
- Shear back tired-looking impatiens and petunias by half, then boost their regrowth by feeding with fish emulsion.
Zone 6
- Keep harvesting veggies and annual flowers regularly to keep plants producing.
- Plant last runs of bush beans and summer squash.
- For fall harvest, sow carrots, kale, beets, and chard for fall crops; also set out transplants of cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli.
- Prune out old, woody raspberry and blackberry canes.
- Presprout and then sow, snap, shelling, or snow peas.
Zone 7
- Savor the last summer berries, then prune out old, dying canes.
- For fall-bearing berries, lightly feed newer canes with fish emulsion or compost tea, then mulch with straw.
- Harvest potatoes when leaves begin to die back.
- At month's end, sow seeds of collards, carrots, and rutabagas.
- To keep carrot seedbed moist, cover it with cloth or a board until seeds sprout.
- Stay on top of weeds.
- For bloom next year, start seeds of biennials, such as foxglove, hollyhock, evening primrose (Oenothera spp.), and lunaria.
Zone 8
- Set out fall tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants late this month.
- Sow Halloween pumpkins.
- Clean up the garden, then mulch the bare soil to conserve moisture.
- Mulch perennials and new trees with a layer of compost topped with bark mulch.
- Don't overstimulate dormant plants with unnecessary water or feeding; they'll resume growth when the weather cools.
- Tend the compost pile so it will be ready to work into the soil in preparation for fall planting.
- Set out ageratums, balsam (Impatiens balsamina), cockscomb, croton, feverfew, marigolds, petunias, wild blue phlox (Phlox divaricata), pinks (Dianthus spp.), portulaca and vinca (Catharanthus roseus).
- Add 2 to 3 inches of mulch to retain water.
Zone 9
- If foliage of midsummer-blooming roses begins to yellow, check soil pH--add sulfur if it tests much above 7.
- Keep roses well watered to promote bloom into late fall.
- Early in the month, cover fruit trees with nets to protect fruit from birds.
- Spread compost on areas where you plan to grow fall veggies and flowers.
- For fall harvest, plant lettuce, carrots, beets, turnips, early beans, brassicas, and summer squash.
- Protect peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, and lettuce from sun scald by providing partial shade.
- Remember that you can still sow fast-blooming portulaca and sunflowers.
- Prune back chrysanthemums for bushier plants in fall.
Zone 10
- To grow roses here, be sure they're grafted onto 'Rosa ✕ fortuniana' rootstock, which is nematode-and disease-resistant.
- Feed roses with compost, fish emulsion, and seaweed spray.
- For late summer planting, start seeds of collards, okra, eggplant, southern peas, and heat-resistant tomatoes.
- Pay attention to gardenias, walking iris (Neomarica caerulea), and monstera (Monstera deliciosa)--all are susceptible to iron deficiencies and may need supplemental feedings.
- Harvest full-size monstera fruit, bring it indoors, and put it in a paper bag with an apple slice to finish ripening.
- Turfgrass is growing fast--mow high and never remove more than one-third at a time.
- When working outdoors in heat, take frequent breaks and drink plenty of water.
For more from Maria Rodale, visit www.mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com
Previously published on RodalesOrganicLife.com