Take extra care of the garden this month

By now, our gardens are full with flowers, fruits and vegetables. Like fledglings in a nest, all those plants, great and small, need food, water and extra care these days. Here is what you can do in your garden this summer month of July:

Prune: Prune back spent flowers on dahlias, irises roses and daisies. Certain perennials, such as nepeta, penstemon and salvia, could use a good shearing back after flowering. Give them a good haircut, then feed and water. They will come back in full bloom late summer into fall. Also, thin fruit on apple trees.

Water: Keeping plants wellwatered this month and next takes work and extra time. Deep water roses and newly planted fruit trees and cane berries. Blueberries, rhododendrons and vegetable plants need a good soaking at least once a week.

Spray: Now is the time to be on the lookout for powdery mildew on roses, dahlias and pumpkin and squash plants. Make a simple mixture using two teaspoons of baking soda and two teaspoons of light cooking oil into one gallon of water. This makes a good prevention spray. You must begin spraying mildew susceptible plants before the disease takes hold.

Color the shade: During the summer, we tend to hang out in the shaded areas when the weather gets hot. Brighten up the darker spaces of your garden with fuchsias, tuberous begonias, impatiens and New Guinea impatiens.

Feed: If you want to keep your garden robust and good looking, now is the time to feed. Roses, perennials, newly established fruit trees, landscape trees and shrubs could all use a good feeding of an all-purpose 4-4-4 or something like it.

Terry Kramer is the site manager for the Humboldt Botanical Garden and a trained horticulturist and journalist. She has been writing a garden column for the Times-Standard since 1982. Contact her at terrykramer90@gmail.com.