July landscaping tasks are focused on summer maintenance. As heat indexes rise, we humans easily get overheated. The over-the-top humidity and warmth affects our plants in the landscape as well.
Gardens are beginning to produce fruits and vegetables in abundance, but weeds can also threaten a revolt in the landscape at this time. Below is a quick list of chores and landscaping tasks to address for homeowners who want to spend more time enjoying their outdoor spaces.
Weed and Mulch
- Weeds - Pull as many of the weeds as you can by hand. Spraying landscapes with chemicals might be quick, but it causes a lot of damage to the environment. Homeowners often prefer a more natural maintenance routine and hand or tool weeding, followed by mulch, which can keep the weeds down.
- Mulching - Now is the time to mulch landscapes. Mulch with a variety of natural materials such as grass clippings, pine bark, pine needles, wood chips, or straw, as available.
Flower Maintenance
- Bulbs - Clean up spring-blooming bulbs after their foliage turns yellow. Dig the bulbs, divide, and replant now if interested in thinning. Otherwise, let the bulbs dry a bit and replant in the fall.
- Trim Old Flowers - Deadhead blooming perennials such as salvia, speedwell, coreopsis, shasta daisies, and scabiosa to promote more blooms.
- Stake Tall Plants - Blooms often topple over with the mid-summer rains. Stake tall flowers such as lilies, delphinium, and hollyhock to prevent stem breakage.
- Fall Flower Pinch Back - Asters and Chrysanthemums should be pinched back by half to delay bloom and encourage a fuller plant with more flowers in the fall.
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