July Planting Guide by Zone
Click on your Zone for details.
Zones 1 – 4
- Hill soil around carrots and potatoes to prevent green shoulders.
- Brighten your home with bunches of cut flowers.
- Spread mulch and irrigate to retain moisture in dry weather. Water early in the morning or late in the day to reduce the water lost to evaporation – a drip system reduces lost moisture by 30% or more!
- Start sowing vegetable seeds for your fall garden: carrots, beets, turnips, collards, cabbage, snap beans, radishes, kohlrabi, endive, kale, and summer squash.
- Start seedlings of broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower to transplant later this month for your fall garden.
- Remember to continuously harvest your fruits and vegetables to prolong growth and production and avoid attracting pests.
- Harvest summer squash when it’s young and tender – no longer than 8 inches.
- After harvesting the central broccoli, the plant continues to grow side shoots so don’t pull it up!
- Lightly fertilize tomatoes and peppers with a 10% fish emulsion solution or a 20% solution of milk. Just give them a boost, don’t over-feed.
- Remember to inspect your plants daily, if possible, for insect or disease damage and treat plants when necessary. A good shot of water spray to knock them off is often sufficient.
- Pinch flower buds and tops on herbs such as mint, oregano, and savory to encourage leaf growth. Use the fresh herbs in your daily cooking.
- Make less work next year by preventing weeds from seeding. Pull weeds as soon as they grow, and use mulch in your garden and flower beds to prevent them from sprouting. If they get ahead of you, keep them from flowering and setting seeds.
Zones 5 – 6
- Reseed dill and cilantro every few weeks for continuous harvest and to attract beneficial insects with their blooms.
- Harvest vegetables and fruits regularly to keep plants producing. Harvesting in the cool of the morning keeps flavors high and wilt low.
- Sow carrots, kale, beets, and Swiss chard for the fall harvest. Also, set out transplants of cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli.
- Pre-soak overnight and sow snap, shelling, or snow peas. Soaking speeds up germination.
- Sow a fall crop of bush beans now. Protect the seeds from the hot sun by planting two inches deep. Do the same for other vegetable seeds for fall harvest by planting them just a little deeper than you did in the spring. The best time to plant is after a rain shower.
- Build up a little earth mound around your melon stems to keep water away and reduce rot.
- Remove any new melon blossoms after they set three or four fruits. The remaining fruits will be stronger and tastier, and you will still have plenty.
- In warmer weather, water deeply in the morning and avoid light sprinklings. Water the roots, not on the foliage – a perfect reason a drip system makes your life easier!
- Start your favorite culinary herbs, such as parsley, dill, and basil, in pots for indoor use over the winter. Use large pots, 8 – 12 inches in diameter, to avoid bound roots and have enough to cook with.
- Harvest tomatoes, zucchini, beans, and other fruiting crops each morning to encourage production and avoid attracting pests with over-ripe fruits.
- Garlic and onions are ready when their tops start to bend over. Remove their tops after they’ve dried for a couple of weeks and store them in a cool place.
Zones 7 – 8
- Towards the end of the month, sow seeds of collards, cabbage, and carrots.
- Keep the carrot seedbed moist by covering it with two inches of straw mulch until the seeds sprout.
- Stay on top of weeds. The less they set seed, the less you’ll deal with next year and less to clean up this fall.
- Clean up the garden where plants have been removed and won’t be replanted until fall, then plant cover crops to improve the soil while conserving moisture.
- The best time to work in the garden is in the early morning or late in the day after work or dinner to avoid the heat of the day.
- While it’s hot, don’t overstimulate dormant plants with unnecessary feeding; they’ll resume growth when the weather cools. Keep them adequately watered.
- Tend to your compost pile so it will be ready to work into the soil in preparation for fall planting.
- Try something new and set out transplants for fall tomatoes, peppers, and eggplant late in the month. Start them at the beginning of the month, and choose smaller tomatoes and faster-growing peppers.
- Monitor soil moisture at least daily, ideally each morning and afternoon. Moist soil should be found within the top two inches; if not, increase your watering amount. A drip system on a timer makes this much simpler.
- Harvest tomatoes, zucchini, beans, and other fruiting crops each morning to encourage production and avoid attracting pests with over-ripe fruits.
- Build up a little earth mound around your melon stems to keep water away and reduce rot.
- Remove any new melon blossoms after they set three or four fruits. The remaining fruits will be stronger and tastier, and you will still have plenty.
Zones 9 – 10
- Start planning your fall garden. In northern climates with freezing winter temperatures, this is often the same as a spring garden.
- Spread at least three inches of compost on areas where you plan to grow fall vegetables and flowers.
- For fall harvest, plant lettuce, carrots, beets, turnips, early beans, brassicas, and summer squash. Sow seeds a little deeper to take advantage of cooler soils and more available moisture.
- Provide partial shade to protect peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, and lettuce from sun-scald. Plant on the east side of a wall or install a temporary wall of shade cloth supported by six-foot-tall T-posts on the west side of the row. Both approaches give afternoon shade during the hottest part of the day.
- Plant fast-growing sunflowers for shade, windbreak, or fall color. Remember that they also feed bees and pollinators and often last longer than other flowers.
- Start seeds of okra, eggplant, peppers, and heat-tolerant tomatoes for transplanting next month into a cooler season garden.
- Make sure that the garden is well-mulched to conserve moisture.
- In hotter weather, water deeply in the morning and avoid light sprinklings. Water the roots, not on the foliage – a perfect reason a drip system makes your life easier!
- Try something new and plant a short season, smaller pumpkin for Halloween and to cook with.
Zone Planting Guides
Planting charts for your Zone
Zone 3
Zone 3 is the coldest and shortest of the USDA garden zones.
Zone 4
Zone 5
Zone 6
Zone 7
Zone 8
Zone 9
Zone 10
USDA Zones vs First & Last Frost Dates
Which to Use and Why
USDA Zone Maps
These guides show the lowest average temperatures recorded in the area over the past 30 years.
They are a good basis for initial planning and comparison but should not be used as the only source of information for choosing what vegetables to grow or when to plant.
The Zone information is helpful when exchanging ideas with gardeners in different zones, as it is user-friendly.
Find your USDA hardiness zone here.
Scroll using your cursor to grab and move the map, then zoom in with the + and – buttons at the top left. Once you can see your town, city, or location, click on the map to see your Zone info in a popup window.
First & Last Frost Dates Tool
This frost dates tool provides detailed and accurate information for sowing seed, transplanting, and using frost protection to extend the growing season.
It includes historical data from numerous regional NOAA weather stations to help determine the likelihood of frost in spring and fall.
Find your First and Last frost dates here.
Enter your ZIP code and scroll down to see general information and the three closest weather stations to you.