Harvesting Produce and different July Gardening Suggestions

Rising butterfly milkweed, harvesting backyard produce typically, and conserving container plantings watered are among the gardening actions for this month.

Butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa) shouldn't be a weed in any respect (a plant misplaced that you just don’t need in your backyard). Higher frequent names are butterfly or orange milkweed, as it's within the milkweed household, has orange flowers in mid to late summer time, and attracts butterflies.  Different advantages are that it's hardy, low upkeep, good in rain gardens in addition to drought and dry soils, tolerates deer, and the leaves feed monarch butterfly larvae.  For all these causes it was named the Perennial Plant of the Yr for 2017.

Harvest tomatoes, zucchini, beans, and different fruiting crops incessantly to encourage continued manufacturing. Take away any fruits which have passed by except you’re in competitors for the largest zucchini! You don’t need the plant to supply mature seeds as a result of that can sign that it’s time to decelerate fruit manufacturing.

Examine container-grown crops incessantly, and water as essential to preserve the soil moist. Soil can dry out in a short time, particularly in small containers and people made from clay.  Hanging baskets, particularly these lined with sphagnum moss or coir (the tough tan materials made from coconut husk fibers), additionally dry out every day when crops are mature.  When you purchased a basket already planted or didn’t incorporate water absorbing gels at planting, scratch some within the floor now.  You could find these at many full backyard shops.  They maintain a lot water, releasing it to the crops over time.

In periods of frequent rainfall, vitamins are washed out of the soil of container crops.   Most of the newer annual flowers are raised, and bred, to wish excessive fertility.  Give them a dose of liquid fertilizer to maintain them producing flowers for the remainder of the season. Add a dilute fish emulsion- or seaweed-based fertilizer to the water every time you water, or an artificial liquid or slow-release fertilizer in line with label instructions.

Examine tomato crops for big, green-striped horned caterpillars. A couple of may cause a lot of injury, so hand decide and destroy them when discovered. Spray the natural pesticide B.t. (Bacillus thuringiensis) to regulate massive infestations.

Defend your squash vines from the squash vine borer.  These clear-winged moths lay their eggs on the stems and the hatching larvae bore into the vines, inflicting the plant to wilt and probably die.  Apply the natural pesticide B.t. each 3 or 4 days throughout July and early August to kill hatching larvae earlier than they enter the stems.  A skinny layer of wooden ashes or moth flakes scattered round crops could discourage egg laying.

If these don’t work on the squash vine borer, slit the vine stem the place it's wilting and again till you discover the feeding grub.  Take away and destroy it, then bury the top of the vine in order that hopefully it's going to root and resume development.

Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cherries, and different contemporary, very perishable fruit must be saved refrigerated and never washed till serving time. Inexperienced greens, nonetheless, comparable to broccoli, peas, and beans, in addition to beets and carrots, must be washed earlier than storing within the fridge.

Leonard Perry, UVM Horticulturist
and Charlie Nardozzi, Backyard Marketing consultant

7/1/18

Charlie Nardozzi is a nationally identified horticulturist, creator, gardening advisor, and backyard coach (CharlieNardozzi.com).  Distribution of this launch is made attainable by College of Vermont and Inexperienced Works—the Vermont Nursery and Panorama Affiliation.