July Gardening Tasks

July is deep winter for us in South Africa, but that just means it’s one step closer to spring and all the joy that represents. July is the perfect time to rehash a bed, change a pathway, introduce a new feature or just simply deal with a difficult area or space. Knuckle down, enjoy being able to work in your garden without breaking into a sweat, and plant something now that will erupt in beauty in a few short months.

General Tasks

If you have frost damage, don’t stop watering as usual just because the plants have a wilted, half-dead appearance. Don’t immediately prune away the frosted parts as they can protect against further frosting and root damage.
This is the best time to enhance the structure of your garden in terms of pathways and access to different areas.
Water once a week in summer-rainfall areas. To prevent disease, do this as early as possible in the day so that leaves are dry by the afternoon.
Keep turning the compost to aid breakdown. Add a compost activator to help.
Garden hygiene is very important to prevent disease. Wash seed trays and pots with a disinfectant, clear away any plant debris.
Take your lawn mower for a proper service and fitting of new blades. If you have been battling with blunt hedge clippers, remember that lawn mower service centres can sharpen and service them too.
Scrape out the top layer of soil around established focal plants in pots and fill up with fresh potting soil and compost.
Clean out leaves and dead plant material from gutters, down pipes and drains.

Sowing

The following flowers can be sown in July: Myosotis alpestris (alpine forget-me-not), Sweet alyssum, California poppies, Flanders Poppies, Pansies, Calendulas, Mesembryanthemum and African Daisies.

Planting

Plant cool-season and spring-flowering annuals like sweet alyssum, pansies, petunias, primulas, poppies, lobelias, nemesias, gazanias, snapdragons and diascias.
Hybrids of heritage plants like proteas, pincushions, blushing brides and cone bushes are common in garden centres at this time of year. Pincushion hybrids (Leucospermum) are especially recommended. They will give you cut flowers for Africa in late winter and spring!

Bulbs

Lilium bulbs are still for sale and should be planted immediately after you have purchased them. Plant them between winter annuals or small shrubs and groundcovers to keep their ‘feet’ in the shade while allowing their ‘heads’ to grow into full sun. Remember to add a bamboo stake to each hole when planting the bulbs so that they can be staked as they grow.

Feeding

Feed all winter-flowering annuals every two weeks with a foliar fertiliser.
Feed citrus trees with 3:1:5 SR and water them well.
Feed potted herbs with a liquid fertiliser.
Anything that is actively growing or in season, like winter vegetables, citrus, bulbs, annuals and small flowering succulents, must be fed with a liquid or specific fertiliser in winter.

Transplanting

Replanting large shrubs or trees into a new spot can be done safely in winter. Use the guying method to stake them, to aid re-establishing.

Dividing and Replanting

Split up over-grown bromeliads and replant them.

Plant Cuttings

Take hardwood cuttings of spiraeas, flowering quinces, pomegranates, hibiscus, figs and bougainvilleas.

Pruning

Keep picking sweet peas, Iceland poppies and fragrant stocks to encourage the plants to continue flowering.
Remove faded flowers from other winter-flowering annuals and pinch out the growing tips of young seedlings to encourage bushier plants.
Conifers grow actively in cooler months and can be lightly pruned to shape them neatly. Never cut into old wood, rather just shave off healthy foliage and growing tips with sharp secateurs or a hedge clipper – this will result in fresh growth.
Remove any green growth that suddenly appears on variegated plants like coprosmas, or the whole plant will revert to green.
When pruning hydrangeas, cut back the stems that have flowered. Reduce them by half or two-thirds of their length and remove all diseased, weak, dead or damaged growth.

Lawns

Spend time enhancing the shape of your lawn by correcting awkward shapes and fixing damaged edges. You might want to build a neat brick edge to frame a formal lawn, or to think about adding another form of edging between the lawn and flowerbeds.

Pests

Aphids and mealybugs overwinter in protected places like the centre of tightly whorled leaves. The presence of ants normally tells you that these pests are quietly causing havoc on tender new growth. Spray with a organic insecticide

Rose Tasks for July

It is time to prune the roses. In most regions this can be done from 20 July to the first week of August. Delay until mid-August in very cold areas.
After pruning, renew and aerate the soil around the roses. Dig down to a depth of 30cm, adding lots of compost and an application fertiliser. This is just as important as pruning and will encourage the roses to grow strongly.
Water well after pruning and then water once a week until the end of August.
If the roses are suffering from scale and mealybug, spray the stems with an organic insect spray. This will smother the scale.
In frost-free subtropical and coastal areas, roses that have been fertilised, sprayed and watered can grow and flower through winter and only need to be trimmed in September before the summer heat starts. Roses that have grown too tall can be pruned in early August and will flower again by mid-September.

July Veggie Sowing Guide

Highveld and KwaZulu-Natal Midlands

Garden peas, cabbages (sow indoors).

Middleveld (Pretoria and other less frosty areas)

Lettuce, parsnips, radishes, Swiss chard, tomatoes (indoors), turnips.

Eastern Cape and Little Karoo

Beetroots, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, peas, turnips.

Western Cape (and Southern Coast)

Beetroot, celery, garden peas, radishes, tomatoes, turnips.

Northern Cape and Great Karoo

Onions, peas, Swiss chard.

Lowveld and KwaZulu-Natal coast

Beetroots, beans, brinjals, chillies, carrots, cucumbers, mealies and melons, squashes, pumpkins, radishes, Swiss chard and tomatoes.

Veggie Garden Tasks For July

Deciduous fruit trees (except peaches), blueberries and grape vines must be pruned in July. Spray the dormant plants afterwards with lime sulphur to kill overwintering pests.
Don’t leave harvested cabbage or cauliflower stumps in the ground. Dig them out and throw them away.
Protect tender vegetables with frost-guard cloth when necessary.
Check brassicas for aphids and spray with an organic insecticide.
Prepare beds for planting out strawberries next month.
Give brassicas a boost with a nitrogen-rich liquid fertiliser drench.
Start crops like lettuce, Swiss chard, tomatoes, sweet peppers and brinjals in seed trays or small pots indoors.
July is the month to plant out asparagus crowns.
Stake broad beans, Brussels sprouts, kale (if necessary), and earth up around the stems of cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower if they need support.
Feed leafy green vegetables with a nitrogen-rich fertiliser once a month.
Order seed potatoes and divide asparagus.
Divide overgrown rhubarb by removing all the leaves and then planting the crowns just beneath soil level.