Summer Crops

Vegetable seed planting schedule and selection for July and August

Bush beans, dry beans, cucumbers, summer squash, winter squash, melons, cauliflower, broccoli, collards, and kale

Carrots, beets, and radishes

Arugula, lettuces, Asian greens, spinach, and peas

Pruning

• Remove faded flowers from crape myrtle to encourage a second blooming.

• Cut back mum height by half before July 15.

• All vegetables must be picked regularly to ensure continued bearing.

• When cutting boxwoods into a hedge, make sure the bases are wider than the tops to allow sunlight to reach the bases of the plants.

• Prune roses to encourage blooms.

Miscellaneous

• Water all ornamentals weekly to a depth of 1 inch if it does not rain.

• Cut grass at a slightly higher level during hot weather to reduce stress.

• Treat turf with a post-emergent herbicide product to remove unwanted weeds.

Blooming

• Sourwoods and Pee Gee hydrangeas.

• Cleomes, Four-o’clocks, impatiens, marigolds, periwinkles, plumbagos, portulaca, ageratum, zinnias, butterfly weeds, cosmos, dahlias, daylilies, rudbeckias, scabiosas, Shasta daisies, verbenas, veronicas.

Fruiting

• Aucuba, royal paulownias, peaches, apples, pears.