What to do in the garden during the month of July

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WOODLAND – Looking to keep your gardening and landscaping skills sharp throughout the dry summer months? The experts at Tsugawa Nursery in Woodland offer different tips and advice on gardening and landscaping for what should be done in the garden during each different month of the year.

Here are some tips for what should be done in the garden and landscape during the month of July:

• Planning: Keep a garden journal, note what looks good and what needs to be edited. Visit the nursery and see what looks good and needs to be added to your landscape. Start planning for your fall vegetable garden.

• Prep: Stake your taller growing perennials and bulbs: Dahlias, Delphiniums and Peonies etc. Harvest herbs just before flowering.

• Planting: Plant annuals, perennials and herbs. Plant fruit trees and berry plants. If your lettuce has a bitter taste or bolts time to replant. Sow second planting of beets, radishes, lettuce and carrots. For winter crop plant cabbage, broccoli and parsnips in a cooler place in your garden. Plant tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, beans, corn, beans, pumpkins, squash, watermelon and squash. Trees and shrub: Visit the nursery; see what beautiful blooming trees or shrubs would enhance your landscape.

• Prune: Spring blooming flowers after they are done – only if needed. Remove water sprouts from fruit trees and trees. Pines and other conifers can be kept to compact size by pinching off the new growth candles. Lilacs: prune after they finish blooming, remove suckers and dead blooms. Pinch back Dahlias to keep from getting leggy. Rhododendron and azaleas need to be deadheaded. Disbud mums, sedums and asters to encourage full, mounded plants.

• Fertilize: Spring blooming shrubs after they are done blooming. Heavy blooming annuals with Tsugawa 20-20-20 fertilizer. Fertilize your perennials with Dr. Earth Rose and Flower Fertilizer. Asparagus water and fertilize after harvest. Good top growth means food is stored in the roots for next year. Important to fertilize roses as they are heavy feeders. Feed your Fuchsias once a week with Tsugawa Bud N Bloom fertilizer.

• Compost/Mulch: Established trees benefit from a good layer of Soil Building Compost around them. This will help with weed control and moisture control. Apply compost around spring blooming shrubs.

• Dividing/Thinning: Thin vegetable seedlings. Dig and divide Bearded Iris.

• Apply: Compost to all planting areas if you have not already done so.

• Manage weeds: The first flowers you generally see in the spring are weeds control them now so you do not have a problem later. Apply Treflan. Blossom End Rot spray to your tomatoes to prevent blossom end rot. Apply Seaweed Extract foliar spray to potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and any struggling (stressed) plants due to our weather.

• Watering: Check plants under eaves and under tall evergreens, make sure they are getting adequate water. Make sure to keep watering your spring blooming plants throughout the summer to ensure good flower bud set for next year.

• Dead Head: Spring blooming bulbs and early blooming perennials. Dead head spring blooming shrubs after they are done blooming. Deadhead annuals to keep them blooming. Deadhead perennials such as delphiniums, salvias, and catmint to promote more flowering. Lightly prune wiegela, spiraea, butterfly bushes to promote a second blooming.

• Clean Up: Allow foliage of spring flowering bulbs to brown and die before removing. Weed control is important. It helps conserve moisture, conserves nutrients in the soil, and helps prevent spread of diseases and insects.



• Protect: Use netting on cherries, strawberries and blueberries. Newly emerging plants from slugs and snails. Apply Mole Max to deter Moles. Spraying continues on fruit trees as needed. Protect your roses and peonies with Bonide Infuse. Protect your cauliflower, cabbage, beans and lettuce from cabbage worms with Captain Jack’s Dead Bug Brew. Monitor for root weevil on rhododendrons, David Viburnum and azaleas (notching of foliage). Monitor for Aphids – Use Bonide RX3. Protect your geraniums and petunias from budworm. Be sure to have Capt Jacks Dead Bug Brew on hand. Apply Blossom End Rot Stop to your tomatoes to help prevent blossom end rot.

• Lawn: Mow. Water your lawn 1” per week. Watch for redthread and apply Infuse as needed.

• Birds: Fill bird feeders. Put out new feeders.

• Water Garden: Now is a great time to install a water garden nothing is more soothing than or as beautiful as running water. Monitor and control Algae.

Remember the 4 “its” of Algae control:

• 1. Kill “IT” – apply Pond care Algaefix: kills string algae, slime coat algae, green water algae. • 2. Sink “IT” – Tsugawa staff recommends Pond Care Accu-clear – the bottle of instant gratification. This will help clear the water.

• 3. Eat “IT” – Apply Microbe-Lift PL this is a beneficial bacteria that helps back down organic matter.

• 4. Starve “IT” – add plants to your pond or water feature. Plants help to remove nutrients from the water so the algae cannot use the nutrients to grow on. Feed! Feed! Feed your water plants once a month. Your lilies will reward you with beautiful blooms.

Re-pot water plants if needed. Be sure to use Aquatic Soil and pond plant baskets. Feed your fish Hai Feng Quick Grow Fish Food to promote growth or Bright Color for color enhancement. Better yet mix the two: one half Quick grow and one half bright colors for the best of both worlds. Monitor your fish for signs of problems: missing scales, bumps or open wounds. Treat if needed with Microbe Lift Broad Spectrum Disease Treatment or Minnfin Max. Then follow up in the summer with Pond Care Melafix & Pimafix. Watch your fish for spawning. If they start spawning keep an eye on your ammonia level by testing the water and treat if necessary.

Upcoming seminars/workshops at Tsugawa

On the third Saturday of the month in July and August, Tsugawa Nursery staff will hold their popular Bonsai! class where they discuss the most timely information about these miniature living works of art. The first Bonsai! class will be held Sat., July 18, 11 a.m., at the nursery, 410 E. Scott Ave., Woodland. The August class will be held Sat., Aug. 15, 11 a.m. Join others for this informative class all about bonsai. All levels are invited. Space is limited, register ahead online at http://www.tsugawanursery.com/events.htm or call (360) 225-8750. The Bonsai! classes are free and open to the public.

About Tsugawa Nursery

Celebrating 30-plus years, Tsugawa Nursery is a family-owned-and-operated business. The Tsugawa family began berry farming in Woodland in 1947. George and Mable Tsugawa were married in 1950 and raised six children. The Tsugawa family worked hard together to make their farm successful, initially growing strawberries. In January 1981, the Tsugawa family purchased a defunct nursery in Woodland. They opened Tsugawa Nursery in March of 1981 with very little nursery stock but plenty of vision for things to come. The Nursery has grown and become well established as one of the area’s best place to shop for garden and landscape plants and supplies.