Flower garden. But behind each blooming bud in a flower bed there is a considerable work of the summer resident. What to do in July? How to support your favorites and create a reserve for the future?
The main tasks of the grower in July:
- weeding flower beds;
- pruning faded inflorescences on herbaceous perennials and shrubs;
- sowing perennials;
- watering and fertilizing flowering plants.
While the active growing season lasts, the plants need watering and feeding. Summer heat awakens a variety of weeds, which in July will have to get rid of, incidentally loosening the soil under ornamental shrubs, flowering perennials and flowers sown in spring.
It is impossible to tighten with the weeding of flower beds, rabatok, borders and mixborders, because quickly rising weeds on fertilized and moist soil can give seeds and complicate the work for the next year.
Pruning faded perennials and shrubs
By July, all types of lilacs, a cinqueloom, certain types of spireas, decorative varieties of viburnum, and many other cultures have faded. Faded reddish-brown inflorescences are increasingly appearing among the white brushs of the fieldfare. In order to maintain the bright attractive appearance of the bushes and not to take away from them the strength to form seeds, such shoots and inflorescences are cut out.
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Such work should be given time in flowerbeds with peonies, irises, lupins and nivyanik. If you do not need to get the seeds, it is better to remove the dried inflorescences of the perennial cornflower, the tops of the mallow with the formed boxes, the flowering shoots of aquilegia. The flower stalks that have lost their appeal are removed from the daylily clumps, from perennial delphiniums and garden bells.
During the flowering plants consume a lot of effort. Regular watering, combined with dressings, will help to fill them.
Fertilizing and watering flowers in July flowerbeds
In the second half of summer, phosphorus-potassium fertilizers are applied to faded plants at the rate of 50–100 g of superphosphate and half the amount of potassium sulfate per square meter every two weeks. The amount of fertilizer depends on the size of the plant and the intensity of its flowering.
Why should preference be given to compounds with potassium and phosphorus and limit the plants in nitrogen? Nitrogen stimulating growth in the second half of summer will cause the formation of young greens and will not allow perennials to prepare for winter. As a rule, plants receiving a lot of nitrogen in July and August, overwinter worse and can freeze even when the frost is weak. Phosphorus and potassium, on the contrary, push the budding of the kidneys for the next year and help to accumulate nutrients.
Granular fertilizers are applied to the grooves that are not less than 10–20 cm from the roots. After moistening the furrows and making the granules, they are sprinkled with earth and the plant is plentifully watered again.
If the inhabitants of the flowerbeds in July and August are only going to bloom, for example, phloxes, dahlias, rudbeckia, perennial asters, they are fed with nitrophos. And at the time of mass flowering go to the introduction of potassium-phosphorus mixtures.
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In the part of the perennial crops that have completed flowering, not only the peduncles, but also the entire aboveground part of the crop dies. Such plants are fertilized until the death of greenery, the field of which the remains of the shoots and foliage are cut, and the place on the flowerbed is mulched.
Leaves perennials under the winter with live foliage and shoots fertilize and water in dry weather until the autumn.
If there are planting irises on the site, in July they not only cut the flower stalks, but also check the curtains for diseases. Leaves affected by fungi are cut to healthy tissue and treated with fungicides.
Loosening, weeding and mulching of flower beds
After watering, especially on dense, heavy soil, a dense crust quickly forms, preventing penetration of moisture and air to the roots. Therefore, in July, the soil on the beds is regularly loosened, simultaneously removing weeds and trying not to touch the rhizomes of ornamental crops.
To save precious time in July, mulching with chopped straw or grass, peat or humus left after mowing the lawn will help.
Well-established weed control prevents reproduction in flower beds and around the site of aphids and other pests.
Insect pest control in July
Most often these insects, which give several generations over the summer, are popular with many meadow flowers and herbs, young shoots of willow, cane, currant bushes, thorny trees and cherry trees. If these plants are near the flower beds, the bed-bed, wild grasses, horse sorrel are removed, and the trees and bushes are treated with insecticides.
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Since many indoor plants in July take to the garden, they also need to be protected from insects, as well as processed from fungal diseases. Flying weed seeds often fall into the pots, so even here the soil will have to be regularly inspected and remove uninvited guests.
In July, garden species of wild rose and roses form the root growth. To maintain the shape of the bush, and the roses and prevent the emergence of wild shoots, these stalks are cut. Many ornamental shrubs in July can be grafted for rooting and receiving autumn planting material.
In the care of the future beauty of flower beds in July, you can begin sowing perennials. By the fall, seedlings of Turkish carnations and delphiniums, watersheds and stock roses, violets and pansies will have time to grow and strengthen.
Flower Garden in July - video
