July Gardening Checklist for Los Angeles

1. Plant or Divide Bearded Irises

The best time to plant your bearded irises is from July through September. You’ll want to plant them in a location with at least 6 hours of direct sun. In hot climates, you can cover rhizomes with 1 inch of soil, but if summers are cooler where you live, you’ll want to leave them exposed. Once planted, tamp down the soil around rhizomes and water well. When establishing roots, make sure the irises get plenty of water. Once established, only water regularly in hot, dry climates (overwatering is a common mistake). If you already have bearded irises you can divide clumps this month. You’ll know it’s time to divide your irises if you’ve noticed heaving rhizomes or a decrease in the number of flowers being produced. Dividing irises every 3 to 5 years is usually appropriate. Be sure to use a clean garden spade to divide clumps—we recommend this carbon steel spade from Radius Garden. Visit Schreiner’s Iris Gardens for more information on how to divide bearded irises. You can still order bearded irises now, but sometimes the selections are picked over&mdashso, get your order in, pronto. Look for bearded irises at these suppliers: Breck's, Rainbow Iris Farm, Cascadia Iris Gardens, and Schreiner’s Iris Gardens.

2. Adjust Your Watering Schedule for California Natives

If you have any California natives, make sure that you water them judiciously during summer. Most (but not all) prefer dry summer conditions as they’ve adapted to the regional weather patterns. Plants such as ceanothus, manzanita, matilija poppy, coffee berry, sages, oaks, sunflowers, and others can handle the heat without supplemental water. Make exceptions for new plants, which may need to be deep watered once to twice per week for the few months after you plant them, depending upon when you planted and how much rain falls. Then you can back off the watering schedule to once or twice per month when it’s warm out, during the first year. When sited properly, many California natives don’t need any supplemental water after the first year. Also, keep in mind that using spray irrigation on California natives instead of drip systems is often recommended because, when the duration and frequency are properly scheduled, it distributes water more thoroughly over the entire root system.

3. Care for Azaleas

Azaleas are one of the top-selling plants in the country, popular for their gorgeous flowers that bloom in spring. But once the blooms are finished it’s important to pay attention to these beauties in order to make sure they make it to next season. To do so, be sure they are planted in a shady spot, especially in hot climate zones. Most need supplemental irrigation in Southern California in areas that get less than 1 inch of rain per week. It’s also important to mulch well to help retain moisture and avoid growing other plants around the base of your azaleas.

4. Give Your Citrus Some TLC

It’s still growing season for citrus, so keep fertilizing with a balanced citrus fertilizer that’s high in trace minerals. A good fertilizer is Dr. Earth Natural Wonder Fruit Tree Fertilizer. If there are any branches shooting off from the main tree, trim those now. The same goes for any suckers growing from the trunk of the tree. Irrigation is also vital in the heat. Follow a deep soaking irrigation schedule using a soaker hose or by flooding the root zone (you don’t want to spray the entire tree or the trunk).

5. Do a Little Deadheading

Some plants just perform better when you deadhead them (remove spent blooms). Deadheading keeps the garden looking tidy and reduces the amount of seed heads a plant produces. This will allow the plant or bulb to focus its energy on producing flowers for next year. It’s especially smart to deadhead plants you find reseed more than others. There’s a long list of plants that are likely to rebloom in the same season, so make sure to deadhead so you get that extra bloom: bee balm, butterfly weed, columbine, delphinium, foxgloves, gaura, geum, lavender, lupine, monkshood, penstemon, salvia, purple coneflower, sneezeweed, tickseed, yarrow, and others.

6. Plant Continuously Blooming Summer Annuals

There are many ways to add summer color to your garden, but few are as fast and easy as buying annuals such as Supertunia petunias or other continuously blooming annuals. These plants add a pop of color in hurry. Plus, they work in containers, garden beds, or even hanging planters. Other continuous bloomers you may want to try include Superbells, Endless bush violet, or Rockapulco impatiens.

7. Mulch Your Garden

Mulch will help retain moisture in your garden and help keep the soil cool at the height of summer heat. Beware that mulch should not be mounded or piled around the trunks of trees or other woody perennials because this can cause rot. A thick layer of mulch can also reduce or eliminate summer weeding (which everyone wants less of).

8. Be Sure Trees & Large Shrubs Have Adequate Water

Trees and shrubs can feel the stress of summer heat. Be sure to check sprinklers or drip lines that immediately surround your trees to verify that all lines and heads are functioning properly. Review your irrigation schedules, too. Longer, less frequent, deep-watering schedules are better than short bursts every day because deep watering encourages healthy root growth. If you have established oak trees in your garden, they probably don’t need summer water if you’ve had generous winter rains. They generally dislike summer water, which can favor pathogenic soil fungi that can harm the tree’s roots.

9. Summer Lawn Care 101

If you have a cool-season lawn (ryegrass, bluegrass, or fescue/Marathon) you can mow it about a half inch higher throughout summer months. This will help the lawn retain moisture and get through the heat with a little less stress. Cool-season lawns don’t really need fertilizer right now, and using it might cause burning or other diseases. If you do decide to fertilize, reduce the dosage by at least half. For warm-season grasses such as Bermuda or St. Augustine, you can continue to mow them at their regular height and give them monthly fertilizer.

10. Weed Control Tips

If weeds have gotten the best of you so far this summer, there’s still time for you to take charge. Aside from weeding by hand or using a long-handled hoe, there are other non-chemical weed control methods to try.

• Smother weeds with cardboard and/or mulch. Simply cut weeds down then lay the cardboard or mulch on top to cut off their exposure to the elements. They will eventually decompose after the first season or so. (This option works best if you have an entire bed you want to prepare for planting.)
• Solarize—use the sun to kill weeds as well as other harmful fungus or bacteria in the soil. To solarize, cut down tall weeds and clear area of debris. Cover the soil with 1- to 4-mil UV-resistant plastic, making sure to secure the edges so the wind doesn’t blow the plastic away. Leave the plastic in place for four to six weeks. Solarizing works great for large open areas.
• Spray with an organic weed killer such as Dr. Earth Organic and Natural Final Stop Weed & Grass Herbicide.

Learn more ways to deal with weeds without dangerous chemicals.