July in the Contra Costa Garden

July Garden To Dos

General Garden Care

• Protect your skin.  Wear sunscreen or hats when gardening during the daylight hours!!
• Check irrigation systems. ET (evapotranspiration) rates are high, and trees and shrubs need deep watering every one to two weeks. Be sure to keep water away from the trunk.
• Check compost piles and keep them moist as a wrung-out sponge.
• Add mulch if less than 3” deep.
• Remove summer weeds before they set seed.
• Mow lawns frequently; water deeply several times a week. Dig and remove weeds.
• Check bait stations for yellow jackets (ground wasps) and ants.  Replace as needed.

Fruits & Vegetables

• Prune fruit-bearing plants:  Prune cherries and early plums.  Cut back cane berries (blackberries, raspberries and boysenberries) when finished bearing.  Remove old growth and stake new canes.
• Clean up fallen fruit routinely.
• Fertilize citrus; use finished compost to top-dress plants.
• Stake tomatoes & beans.
• Start seeds for your winter vegetable garden.  As difficult as it is to believe, now is the time!

Flowers & Landscaping

• Plant chrysanthemums, asters, Epilobium californicum (aka California fuchsia or Zauschneria) for fall color.
• Fertilize roses and container plants.  Use finished compost to top-dress plants.
• Stake delphiniums, gladiolus.

Garden Pests & Diseases

• Check fruit trees—pick up all fallen fruit, check for ant trails, aphid and scale populations. Look for fire blight or brown rot symptoms.
• Spray with insecticidal soaps if aphids or scale have become major problems.
• Control budworms on geraniums, roses, Nicotiana, Penstemon and petunias with Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) treatments.
• Control cabbage worms on Brassicas with Bt as well.
• Handpick stinkbugs, squash bugs, tomato hornworm and cucumber beetles in vegetable gardens.
• Treat for Tomato Russet Mite, the most common and probably least recognized tomato problem.  Stems become bronze. Can be controlled with a thorough applications of wettable sulfur mixed in a pump sprayer with a spreader-sticker. Do not spray sulfur if temperatures are expected to be above 90°F.
• Watch for Verticillium and Fusarium wilt symptoms on tomatoes. Remove plants if affected.

For More Information

• UC IPM Pest Note on Aphids
• UC IPM page on Brown Rot
• UC IPM Pest Note on Earwigs
• UC IPM Pest Note on Fire Blight
• UC IPM page on Fusarium Wilt
• UC IPM Pest Note on Powdery Mildew
• UC IPM page on Rusts
• UC IPM Pest Note on Scale
• UC IPM Pest Note on Snails & Slugs
• UC IPM Pest Management Guidelines on Tomato Russet Mite
• UC IPM page on Verticillium Wilt
• UC Pesticide info on Bacillus thuringiensis