Time to sit back and enjoy the garden. Take time to enjoy the fruits of your earlier gardening efforts. July is usually one of the best months weather-wise, and a time when little needs to be done to keep the garden in tip-top shape.
- Prune wisteria by cutting side shoots back to five or six buds, about six inches from the main branch.
- Continue deadheading roses, cutting back to a five leaf cluster to promote blooming.
- Try “stopping” your dahlias by pinching off the tips to promote bushy growth and “disbudding,” which means reducing the number of buds to produce more voluptuous blooms.
- Sow a second crop of lettuce and radishes.
- Start to harvest raspberries, rhubarb, cherries, strawberries and early potatoes.
- If you go on vacation, make sure someone is watering your garden.
- Prune early summer flowering shrubs such as kolkwitzia (beauty bush), choisya, (Mexican orange), enkianthus, philadelphus and magnolia.
