Gardening Tips
USU Gardener’s Almanac Monthly Gardening Checklist
July Tips & Checklist
- Start enjoying the tomato harvest.
- Fertilize potatoes with nitrogen in early July.
- Harvest summer squash and zucchini when they are still small and tender.
- Deep water established trees and shrubs about once a month during the heat of summer.
- Deadhead (cut off) spent blossoms of perennial and annual flowers.
- Divide crowded iris or daylilies once they have finished blooming.
- Visit alpine areas for wildflower displays.
- Remove water sprouts (vertical shoots in the canopy) on fruit trees to discourage regrowth.
- Renovate perennial strawberry beds by tearing out old crowns (mother plants) and applying fertilizer to stimulate new runners.
- Remember that turfgrass only needs 1½ to 2 inches of irrigation per week. Learn about irrigation needs in your area.
Pests and Problems:
- Check under leaves of pumpkins, melons, and squash plants for squash bugs.
- Watch for mosaic virus in vine crops, such as cucumbers and watermelons, and remove infected plants to reduce spreading.
- Watch for holes from tobacco budworm feeding in the leaves of petunias, nicotiana, geraniums, and other annual flowers.
- Protect black locust trees (not honey locust) with a registered chemical to prevent locust borer damage.
- Control codling moth in apples and pears to reduce wormy fruit. For specific timing see our Utah Pests Advisories.
- Control walnut husk fly in walnuts, peaches, and apricots, typically on August 1st and 15th.
- Learn how to identify a hobo spider.
- Control European paper wasp with traps this time of year.
- Monitor for damaging turfgrass insects.