Mountain West July Garden To-Do List

Harvest and replant the veg garden . For several calendar week , bread , prickly-seeded spinach , and other greens have been getting glean on a regular basis , but they are now attend hackneyed and going to seed due to the warmth . It ’s time to withdraw those plants and add them to the compost heap . After loosening the territory , you may plant other crop . Which varieties you choose bet upon the temperature of the soil ( cabbage and prickly-seeded spinach will not germinate in high-pitched soil temps ) and the number of days / calendar week until the first frost . If temperatures are scorching , you may require to waitress a few weeks before trying the next readiness of crops . Check your semen packets for specific information about different varieties .

Prune late spring – blooming bush . Our lilacs ( Syringaspp . and cvs . , Zones 3–8 ) and forsythia ( Forsythiaspp . and cvs . , Zones 3–9 ) have seen better blooming years than this one thanks to this April ’s hard freeze , but now is the time to cut them . Start by removing spent blossoms and seed heads ( for lilac ) . Cut back any dead wood , and fragile shrubs as needed . Do not remove more than one - third of the bush in any given yr . Your work should be rewarded next year with abundant blooms .

Fertilize veg gardens and container plantings . Now that plants are established , I am using the “ fruit and flower ” types of fertilizer — especially on tomatoes , peppers , squash , cucumbers , and beans . Stick with higher nitrogen “ grow ” fertiliser for greens . It is also time to add plant food to your container plants . When planting mine , I added a irksome - freeing fertilizer to the planting commixture , which ruin down from photo to sun and water . A few weeks after the initial planting , I sprinkle more into the containers to give the bloom a hike in the heating system of summer .

green goddess , smoke , and weed some more . Spurge , purslane , bindweed , thistle — sigh ! These dope rob our precious plants of the water they need during summer ’s oestrus . I go out early in the day to enjoy cooler temperature while doing this essential task .

suss out sprinkler preferences . Most of the time I start the season using the water budgeting feature on my irrigation controller . This allows you to adapt all watering clock time at once . So as an example , in late natural spring the controller is set to 85 % of the scheduled water time , as cooler eve temperatures mean plants need less water than usual . July is a groovy time to check your water budgeting pct again to make certain your controller is at 100 % or slap-up depending upon the weather . subsequently in decline , you’re able to turn it back down again . Of naturally , you may only need to conform one place or zone . When water budgeting is done mighty , it can salve you both water and money .

— Michelle Provaznik is executive director of the Gardens on Spring Creek in Fort Collins , Colorado .

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Mountain West September To-Do List

Mountain West December Garden To-Do List

Mountain West August Garden To-Do List

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