July Garden Chores

The most important of all July garden chores here in South Central Texas is to water, water, water. We watered quite a few things today even though it is a holiday. If some things go one or two days with no water, they are dead in this horrible heat.

Pull up dead and dying plants.

Add compost for fall beds if you live in a warm place where you will have a fall garden, like Texas. 

If you will be growing fall tomatoes, this is the month to start them indoors, out of the heat, under grow lamps. When it is time to plant them in the ground during the first week of September in Texas, they will be ready to start flowering!

If you want pumpkins in time for Halloween, be sure to plant your pumpkin seeds in the ground at the beginning of this month. Most pumpkins take between 90 and 120 days so do not put this chore off. Consider planting some pie pumpkins so that you can process your pumpkin and put it in the freezer for November and December pies, bread, cookies, and muffins.

One of David's favorite July garden chores is pulling out the old, dead, and/or no-longer-producing plants and preparing the ground for the next planting in August. This is South Central Texas and it gets too hot here for things to grow this time of year. The problem is, the heat came over a month too early this year, back in June. Hopefully, it will cool down nicely in September and we will get a good fall garden.