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July Garden Calendar Are You Ready for Summer?
The July garden calendar is where the weather shifts from cool spring breezes to the foggy-morning/hot afternoon temperature pattern that made the California climate famous for movie shoots and more. It is at this time of the year that the climate is most like the Mediterranean, and Spain – even to the point where in the interior of the state, it's just ferociously hot. Watering, evaporation, and effective irrigation are critical to good landscape design, and are the keynotes to gardening throughout July.
Watering Needs – Making the Most of a Dry Situation
Most of California's water comes from snow pack stored in the Rockies and Sierras, and your July garden calendar should be aware of the limitations of irrigation drawn from the Colorado River.
Rainfall is almost nonexistent in the height of summer.
There are a number of symptoms of shallow watering; your lawn's grasses evolved (or were bred) for wetter climates – they expect a half-inch to inch of water per week at this time of year.
You need enough watering to keep the root zone moist, which runs about 6 to 8 inches deep.
The first sign that's it's time for more watering is when your footprints in the lawn are gray, and the grass doesn't rebound. In particular, in the drier inland empire area, you may need more than an inch of watering per week for your lawn and other landscape design issues.
Remember, your sprinkler systems should have a hundred percent overlap – that is, every sprinkler head should be in the wet zone of at least one other sprinkler head.
Make sure you clean out your sprinkler system regularly, and check your drip catchments; this is the mechanical "to do" chore for your July garden calendar.
As always – water in the morning, even before dawn, if possible. It gives the water the most time to seep down to the roots where it's needed the most. Watering in the height of the afternoon sun will just evaporate, and be less than half as effective.
Weeding And Other Chores
Remember that you can control most species of weeds with spot spraying, and the best way to ensure they don't come back as part of your July garden calendar is to make sure your lawn is well watered and dense. If you're dealing with crabgrass now, the time to deal with it is with preventative measures in February; it's pernicious and hard to root out in the height of summer. Spot spraying with an MSMA-based anti-weed compound works, but prevention is a lot easier all around.
Fertilization & Mulching
The next chore on your July garden calendar is fertilization and mulching. Plants need feeding, and during the growth and fruiting season, this becomes more urgent than ever. Renew your mulch beds around your plants – they inhibit weeds and store water, keeping it from evaporating. Grass clippings make excellent mulch, and you can layer an organic compost on top to improve appearance.
When you're mulching, fertilize as well – while you don't need to fertilize as heavily as you did earlier in the year, it still needs doing.
Lay in your fertilizing after you've gotten the ground wet, preferably an hour or two after. This minimizes fertilizer runoff and all its attendant problems.
Look for fertilizers with slow release formulations, or use Ammonium Sulfate in about half the usual amounts.
For fertilizer on your lawn, the rule of thumb is that you use half the normal amount of ammonium sulfate on the fourth of July weekend. An actively fertilized and growing lawn will crowd out weeds and resist fungal parasites.
Other plants needing fertilization include hydrangeas, rhododendrons, azaleas and gardenias – use an acid fertilizer for those. Follow up a week later with liquid iron. For citrus, use a mixture of high nitrogen fertilizers and an iron supplement. For flowering shrubs, run a light fertilizer run after each new flush of blooms.
Pest Control
July isn't just prime gardening time on the calendar – it's a banquet for plant loving pests. Use a dilute spray of soapy water to clear off fungus and mites about once every two weeks, and be sure to spray the underside of leaves to get dormant bugs.
Harvest Time
Harvesting starts on your July garden calendar. July is when tomatoes should be ripe enough to pick; it's still not too late to plant a second run of tomatoes for harvesting in August. Remember that harvesting the tomatoes, zucchinis, peppers and cucumbers keeps the vines productive throughout the summer.
Pitted fruits (plums, apricots, peaches and nectarines) are generally ready to harvest in the second or third week of July.
Don't do what too many landscapers do – and let them fall to the ground and rot.
If you are looking to get fruits, be sure to thin the branches in April and May – more space per budding branch means larger individual fruits.
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Rainfall is almost nonexistent in the height of summer. 
Remember, your sprinkler systems should have a hundred percent overlap – that is, every sprinkler head should be in the wet zone of at least one other sprinkler head. 
When you're mulching, fertilize as well – while you don't need to fertilize as heavily as you did earlier in the year, it still needs doing. 
Pitted fruits (plums, apricots, peaches and nectarines) are generally ready to harvest in the second or third week of July.
