July Tasks For Southern California's Inland Valleys
The hot weather that typically arrives in July can pose a challenge for gardeners in Southern California’s inland valleys, but it also bring the rewards of perfectly ripe homegrown fruits and vegetables. Here is a suggested list of July tasks:
- Monitor plants at least every other day during warm weather and every day during hot weather to catch wilting, irrigation, pest, disease, weed, and other problems early.
- Maintain or add mulch; consider adding extra mulch to a total depth of 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 inches to keep soil cool during summer heat.
- Harvest summer crops. Harvest aggressively before heat waves, including whole plants or all vegetables for any remaining cool-season crops and sensitive warm-season crops such as zucchini.
- Provide consistent soil moisture and shade during heat waves; see GardenZeus Tips for Shading Vegetables During Hot Weather for creative ideas for providing shade.
- Add nitrogen with caution in active beds and near plants as it may activate heat-generating processes in soils.
- Harvest and save seeds from spring-and-summer bolted vegetables and herbs such as arugula, basil, beets, chard, lettuce, and spinach after seed stalks are brown and dry; and from warm-season vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. See The GardenZeus Guide to Saving Tomato Seeds, Advanced Gardening Tip: How to Save Seeds From Summer Squash, Including Zucchini, and Saving Pumpkin Seeds: It’s Complicated for articles on saving seeds.
- Cut off expired plant stems at ground level after harvest or as plants die, leaving roots in place to feed soil.
- Plan and complete irrigation, seed-starting, transplanting, soil testing, soil amending, and garden projects for summer and fall.
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