July Gardening & Seasonal Eating Guide for Zone 9

Here in Central California Zone 9 we are so fortunate because you can garden and harvest every month of the year! I’m a life-long gardener sharing tips I’ve learned myself as well as generational knowledge passed down to help get you ready to grow!

What To NOT Plant This Month:

By July all your main veggies and herbs should be planted and growing vigorously! I would not recommend trying to plant extra veggie starts this month but in a spare shady spot you may be able to tuck in an extra herb start here and there. Stay away from trying to install landscape shrubs, fruit or ornamental trees or any perennials for the next couple months. The stress of trying to root out in the dry heat can cause plants to die, its much better to wait until weather cools in the fall and even better wait until the rain season returns!

That being said, its time to start thinking of a plan for your fall veggie garden! Pull out your seed catalogs and look at cool season crops like cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and kale! You have the perfect amount of time to plan, buy seeds and start them indoors so that they're the perfect size to go in the ground in late September! 

Gardening Tasks:

              There's always plenty to do in the garden! This list is designed to help put focus on tasks that are best completed in a timely manner to set you up for success in the coming growing season.

• Check on tomato plants 1-2 times a week to harvest and continue tying indeterminate plants upward on their stake.

• Top up veggie beds with extra mulch, compost or manure if you notice low water retention.

• Consider your watering schedule, are you watering enough? Remember its best to water deeply, less days of the week then just for a few minutes a day, shallow waterings often make for weak root development!

  • Remember to water early in the morning or late in the afternoon to reduce evaporation!

  • Consider putting some olla water pots in your garden beds!

  • Hopefully you already have some sort of drip or sweat hose situation set up! consider purchasing an inexpensive timer to connect between the water spigot and the hose, this way you can leave the spigot 'on' and just pull the timer dial when you want the water to start and don't have to wait around till it turns off. they even make fancy ones that you can set auto-schedules on so they start watering on their own!

• Harvesting! this will encourage the plants to stay productive longer! my tomatoes, peppers and zucchini have already been getting picked from over the last few weeks!

• Continue pinching back your herbs like basil and epazote to encourage more branching and deter them from bolting in the heat! It'll get harder and harder to keep up with them, one of my cilantro and basil have already bloomed! Sharing with the bees!

• Continue to thin your fruit trees! Though it is sometimes painful it must be done. Stone-fruit trees like apricots, peaches, nectarines and pluots should be thinned, pull away at least a third of the young fruits, making sure there’s several inches of space between the ones left behind, this will result in bigger healthier fruits at harvest time.

• Start using your shears to dead-head annual and perennial flowers!

• Keep an eye out for pests like aphids and snails. Use neem oil or insecticidal soap spray on your plants and set snail traps around your tender leafy greens and strawberries.

  • Some folks like to line strawberry patches with straw because slugs and snails have a harder time navigating that tricky terrain! Just make sure the straw you use has no viable seeds in it! Otherwise you’ll create a weed-city!

• Remember to work in your garden in the early morning to avoid the heat! Stay safe!

What’s In Season?:

What produce you can expect to harvest from your garden or find at the local farmers market this month. Seasonal eating means focusing on sourcing produce that’s being freshly harvested in your area, rather than imported from tropical areas overseas or that’s been sitting in cold storage for months on end. An easy way to get an understanding of these fresh items is to visit your local farmers market, even just 1-2 times a month and purchase your produce there rather than at the grocery store, this not only provides you and your family with greater nutritional benefit due to the freshness of the items but it also supports local agriculture and small businesses. Check out my Farm Map by Clicking Here!

When it comes to fresh home grown and locally sourced produce, July us the heart of the summer! All the best is yet to come!

• Stonefruit! Apricot, Nectarines, Peaches, Plums, Pluots, ect

• Melons and cucumbers and corn!

  • We're buying fresh farm stand melons weekly at this point! My husband can't get enough and the chickens and rabbit are grateful for the leftover rinds

  • lots of fruit stands will have great deals on fresh sweet corn like 4 for $1 at times! Keep an eye out!

• Summer squash like Zucchini and Yellow Crookneck!

  • Don't forget the squash blossoms!

• Tomatoes and Peppers

  • Make big batches of salsa with fresh ingredients! We freeze 1 cup cubes and use them throughout the year!

• Green beans!

  • I planted my bush beans late but I still may see some ready in my garden later in the month! Cant wait!

• Strawberry, boysenberry, blackberry and raspberry plants can still be productive!

• Early season Grapes

• Tender leafy greens like spinach, lettuce, green sprouts, and radishes

• Herbs such as chives, basil, epazote, oregano, rosemary, mint and more.

• Edible flowers such as borage or nasturtium.

Tips for Incorporating Fresh Ingredients in your everyday meals

As gardeners its extra painful to watch food go to waste but its very easy to get overwhelmed by the bucketloads of fresh zucchini, tomatoes or whatever else your hauling into the kitchen this time of year! Here are some ways we use up the excess!

• Get creative! Lots of zucchini? grate it all up and make several zucchini bread loaves! Enjoy the moist cakey loaves fresh, gift them to friends or even freeze them to reheat later!

  • Check out this recipe for Peach bread!

• Serve it fresh! Remember that not everything you harvest needs to be turned into something else!

  • Top breakfast pancakes with berries or slices of fresh peach, drizzle it with honey or maple syrup!

  • Add a handful of cherry tomato as a side to any lunch or dinner plate! I even like to make my own little tomato topped crostini's with toasted bread to serve as a side with dinner.

• Freeze your own fruit for smoothies and pies!

• Freeze cubes of extra sauce, salsa or paste to use during the off season! Last year i even started tossing whole tomatoes into freezer bags which i took out later to thaw and make sauce with.

• Try new recipes! I often google 'Recipes to use up ____" to find lots of unique recipes i might otherwise not!