Essential gardening tasks to complete before the start of August to prevent potential harm to your plants
July Gardening Checklist: Keeping Your Yard Vibrant and Healthy
As the summer season continues and August approaches, it's time to focus on maintaining, renewing, and planning for fall in your garden. Here are some recommended tasks to ensure a healthy yard in late summer:
Pruning Rambling Roses
Pruning rambling roses after flowering is essential to remove old blooms and shape the plant, encouraging better growth and bloom for the next season. A telescopic ladder, available from Walmart, or leather gauntlets made for pruning, available at Amazon, would be ideal for reaching and pruning these tall bushes. Thorn-resistant gardening gloves are also necessary for protection.
Planting Fall-Flowering Bulbs
Late July is a good time to plant bulbs that bloom in the fall, such as White Fall Flowering Crocus and Colchicum. This helps ensure colourful late-season displays.
Pruning Lavender
Pruning lavender in mid to late summer is crucial to keep the plant compact and encourage new growth before winter. Lightweight pruners would be suitable for this task. Generally, the harder lavender is pruned, the longer it will last.
Cutting Back Early Summer Perennials
Removing spent flowers and cutting back early bloomers like delphiniums, geraniums, lupins, and veronica will promote a tidy bed and sometimes a second flush of blooms in August.
Taking Hydrangea Cuttings
July is ideal for taking softwood cuttings from hydrangeas to propagate new plants. To do this, you will need a gardening knife or secateurs, potting mix, pots, and a windowsill or greenhouse.
Feeding Dahlias
Continued feeding with a balanced fertilizer, such as a liquid seaweed fertilizer if dahlias have already started to flower, supports sustained flower production through late summer.
By following this July gardening checklist, you can help your garden remain vibrant and healthy as summer winds down, avoiding garden guilt and preparing for the final few months of the season.
[1] Gardening Know How: July Gardening Checklist
[2] BBC Gardeners World: What to Do in the Garden in July
[3] The Spruce: July Gardening: What to Do in the Garden Now
[4] RHS: What to Do in the Garden in July
[1] To complement the vibrancy of your home-and-garden lifestyle, consider incorporating landscaping elements that mirror the beautiful fall displays created by pruning and planting.
[2] As part of your late-summer lifestyle changes, updating the garden with fall-flowering bulbs can enhance your home-and-gardening hobbies, providing an aesthetically pleasing home-and-garden environment for the seasons ahead.
