Unsure of what to do now in your Texas garden? We are here to help! Make it a summer to remember with our July gardening guide. Discover expert advice and tips from the pros and enjoy a thriving landscape, all season long.
Ready to grow? Master your July garden with these expert tips!
Grow the Right Plants
Start your summer garden off on the right foot with Texas plants that are heat-tolerant and sun-loving. Heat-tolerant flowers are an easy and cost-effective way to add vibrant color to your July garden and elevate your home with stunning beauty.
Zinnias and Pentas are fantastic summer flowering plants. Zinnias are heat-hardy plants that will add bursts of color to your flowerbeds and container gardens. Pentas thrive in our Texas heat, providing an abundance of blooms all summer long.
Create a picturesque landscape that is sure to impress both you and your neighbors with Purslane and Cora® XDR Vinca. Purslane is a drought-resistant plant that thrives in our Texas sun. Cora® XDR Vinca is sun-loving flower designed with extreme disease resistance for vibrant, lasting blooms.
Summer is also an ideal time to plant trees and shrubs! Enhance your outdoor space with colorful foliage and perennial plants that bloom all summer. Try Crapemyrtles for heat-tolerant flowers that thrive in our Texas sun or Sunshine Ligustrum for its sprawling growth and bright yellow hues.
For more expert recommendations on your summer shrub selections, check out our blog here: Eye-Catching Shrubs for a Vibrant Summer Landscape
Pest Protection
Pests are summer’s unwelcomed guests. Chances are, you’ve already encountered your fair share of flies, gnats, and mosquitoes in your home and outdoor entertaining areas. Get rid of pests and protect your family with effective solutions from Calloway’s and Cornelius.
- Shoo flies from your family gatherings and celebrations with RESCUE!® Disposable Fly Traps. They are lured in by the enticing scent and trapped instantly. All you have to do is add water to activate the solution and hang it outdoors along a back fence, near compost piles, or by garbage bins.
- Treat your outdoor gathering spaces, around fences, decking, and along your foundation with Summit Mosquito & Gnat Barrier. This effective bug spray with a convenient hose attachment can deter pests such as flies, gnats, and mosquitoes for up to 4 weeks.
- For an environmentally friendly form of mosquito control, use Summit Mosquito Bits®. It stops the larval population with corn cob granules coated in BTI, a bacteria toxic only to mosquito larvae. Mosquito Bits can be sprinkled in flowerbeds, container gardens, trash cans, or anywhere mosquito larvae might be.
During the summer, the heat can create other pest issues for your Texas plants such as Crapemyrtle bark scale, or webworm infestations. Protect your garden with high-quality insect control from Bonide®, BioAdvanced® and Monterey.
- Monterey B.t. is a biological insecticide that controls damaging caterpillar-type insects but doesn’t harm bees, birds, earthworms, ladybugs, or other beneficial pollinators. Caterpillars eat treated foliage and immediately stop feeding and damaging plants. Apply thoroughly to top and bottom of foliage and reapply after heavy rain.
- Protect your shrubs with BioAdvanced® Shrub Care Protect & Feed. It controls harmful insects like aphids, lace bugs, and adult Japanese beetles, and you can enjoy extra disease control for issues such as black spot, powdery mildew, rust, southern blight and more.
- Bonide® Eight® Garden & Home is a non-staining, water-based formula that controls on contact, putting a stop to pesky ants, aphids, beetles, ticks, thrips, and many more listed on the label.
Soil & Mulch
The summer sun can greatly impact the health and vitality of your Texas gardens, depleting your flowerbeds of essential nutrients and the ideal growing conditions that your plants need to thrive. Use Organic Compost and Mulch for effective summer protection.
Calloway’s Organic Compost is vital to the success of your summer garden. It helps your Texas plants grow stronger and healthier to withstand our climate. This time of year, your plants need a lot of nutrients. Applying organic compost to your flowerbeds will replenish organic matter, improve soil structure, and promote better water retention.
Mulch is more than a way to make your flowerbeds look fabulous, it acts as natural insulation to protect your plant’s roots. It helps retain soil moisture, controls weed development, reduces erosion, and adds beneficial organic matter to your flowerbeds. Mulch is a great water conservation method for summer because it reduces water use by preventing evaporation and regulates soil temperatures to keep the delicate root systems cool during our hot summer days.
At Calloway’s and Cornelius, we have a wonderful collection of organic Mulches for your Texas landscape, made with 100% shredded Cedar, Hardwood, or Pine Bark. The shredded wood mats together to form a protective covering over your plant roots that won’t wash away.
Summer Watering
Watering your plants in hot weather is essential, especially during our Texas summers. Watering frequency should increase this time of year because proper soil moisture is necessary for plant production, and watering correctly will prevent you from wasting valuable resources and money.
With a proper watering routine, your plants may only need a couple watering sessions per week depending on how quickly your soil dries. It is better to give your plants plenty of water intermittently than a little bit each day. Deep watering in the mornings will encourage a stronger root system. Always water at the root system and avoid overhead watering.
Use quality watering tools to avoid waste or runoff for your summer gardening success.
- Try the melnor® Front-Trigger Metal 8-Pattern Nozzle for all your watering needs. It is slip-resistant with built-in flow control.
- For a longer reach, use the DRAMM RainSelect™ Rain Wand™. The seven patterns vary from a fine mist setting for seedlings, to the shower setting for mature plants and flowers.
- Water your lawn or flowerbeds with the melnor® 8-Pattern Sprinkler. It has 8 different patterns from circular to square to rectangular to cover large areas of your landscape.
Tackle Weeds
Regular weed control is important to protect and maintain the health of your garden. Weeds compete with your Texas plants, stealing their water and nutrients. This can harm your summer flowers, making them more susceptible to pests and diseases. Be sure to protect your hands when you are pulling weeds and wear quality gardening gloves from Midwest Gloves.
Tackle weeds at the source with premium solutions, available in Ready to Spray and Ready to Use formulas.
- Bonide® Weed Beater® Ultra is effective on over 200 hard-to-kill weeds, right to the roots, with visible results in just 24 hours and rain fast once dry.
- For an organic solution, Captain Jack’s™ Deadweed Brew is great for use on visible weeds within gardens, landscaped areas, & lawns. It can also be used on visible weeds around buildings, sidewalks, fences, driveways, patios, and gravel.
Pruning & Mowing Tips
Pruning helps remove old growth or spent blooms from your Texas plants so they can utilize their energy for healthy, new growth. Light pruning can be done during the summer, but major tasks should be postponed until winter.
Remove dead foliage and spent flowers from spring perennials and summer annuals. Avoid trimming oak trees during the summer as that can increase their risk of oak wilt. For your Texas lawns, mow at the recommended height for your turf and allow your grass to grow taller this time of year.
Make a clean cut with Corona® Pruning tools. They are crafted out of forged steel for the professional gardener. They are designed with strength and durability in mind to help you get the job done fast and effectively.
Shop with Ease
At Calloway’s and Cornelius, we are here to help with all your summer gardening needs! Visit us today and explore our stunning collection of vibrant blooms, lush indoor plants, pest control solutions, stately trees and shrubs, stylish pottery, and so much more! Shop any of our 28 neighborhood stores, where we have served our loyal customers for over 35 years.
Have questions? No worries! Ask our Texas Certified Nursery Professionals; they are here to help!
