Your Gentle July Garden Guide: What to Plant, Tend & Harvest This Month

July transforms the garden into a lush, humming sanctuary. It’s a month that asks us to slow down and harmonize with our gardens—not by taking over, but by listening, caring, and noticing the small miracles happening every day.

Below, you’ll find everything you need for a gentle, purposeful July: what to sow, what to tend, how to welcome birds and bees, what to harvest, and how to plan ahead.

1. What to Plant in July

While spring may be behind us, July offers the perfect window for succession planting and fast-growing crops. This is your chance to fill in bare spots, replace spent vegetables, or try a second round of favorites.

Vegetables to Sow:

• Lettuce – Choose heat-tolerant varieties like Buttercrunch.

• Kale – Start now for a hearty fall harvest.

• Beets – Quick to grow and wonderful roasted or pickled.

• Radishes – Fast and satisfying; great for first-time gardeners.

• Carrots – Look for short-season types such as Little Fingers or Paris Market.

• Green Onions – A simple staple that grows quickly.

• Bush Beans – Quick growers that produce in just a few weeks.

• Zucchini – If earlier sowings failed, now is a good time to try again.

Herbs to Tuck In:

• Basil – Thrives in heat and rewards with generous growth.

• Cilantro – Choose bolt-resistant varieties.

• Dill – Perfect timing for a late-summer pickling garden.

Tip: Help tender seedlings through the heat by using shade cloth, mulch, or plant in containers you can move as needed.

🌙 Moon Garden Guide for July

Following the lunar cycle is an ancient and natural way to garden in rhythm with nature. Here’s a gentle guide based on biodynamic principles:

🌑 New Moon to First Quarter (July 5–12)

🪴 Best for above-ground crops

Sow lettuce, basil, beans, herbs, and leafy greens.

🌓 First Quarter to Full Moon (July 13–20)

🌿 Encourages strong leaf and fruit growth

Great for planting tomatoes, peppers, and flowers.

🌕 Full Moon to Last Quarter (July 21–27)

🌾 Focus on root crops

Sow carrots, beets, radishes; transplant root-bound starts.

🌗 Last Quarter to New Moon (July 28–Aug 3)

🧺 Rest, tend, and harvest

Avoid planting—ideal for weeding, pruning, drying herbs, and reflection.

2. What to Tend & Maintain: Your Daily July Rhythm

By July, the garden grows quickly—and so does its need for care. Think of this month as a quiet partnership: the more attention you give, the more the garden gives back.

• Deadhead spent blooms Many early summer flowers are beginning to fade now, their petals curling softly at the edges. This is your signal to deadhead — to snip away the spent blossoms on plants like cosmos, calendula, daisies, and salvia. Not only does this keep the garden looking fresh, but it often encourages a second wave of bloom, especially in flowers that respond well to regular cutting.

• Pinch back herbs Basil, mint, and oregano can be pinched back every week or so — just above a pair of healthy leaves — to keep the plants from becoming leggy or bolting. This kind of tending is fragrant work, the scent of summer on your fingertips.

• Mulch is your best friend in July. A fresh layer helps retain moisture, protect roots from heat, and suppress weeds that thrive in summer’s warmth.

• Water deeply, but not too often. The surface of the soil may dry quickly in the sun, but it’s better to water thoroughly just a few times a week than to sprinkle daily. Early morning is the best time — before the sun grows strong.

• Watch for pests: July is when some of the most determined ones appear: aphids clustering under leaves, cucumber beetles nibbling tender stems, squash bugs hiding in the vines. Hand-pick when you can, or use gentle, organic deterrents. Sometimes, the simplest solution is a daily inspection and a quick shake of the foliage.

• Support heavy growers—Tomatoes grow heavy now, leaning on their cages or slumping under the weight of green fruit. Use twine, garden tape, or even cottage-style twig supports to lift what’s starting to bend. Tall cosmos, delphiniums, and beans may need help too — a kind reminder that even the strongest stems welcome a little guidance.

• Cut back perennials Some will be finishing their show now — early bloomers like catmint, geranium, and salvia may be ready for a trim. Cutting them back encourages tidy growth, sometimes even a second flush of flowers.

3. What to Harvest in July

Now the garden begins to offer back some of what you’ve nurtured. Not in a single sweeping bounty—but gently, steadily.

• Zucchini – Pick while small and tender.

• Cucumbers – Harvest often to prevent bitterness.

• Green beans – Best when young and slim.

• Garlic – When lower leaves turn yellow, it’s time to cure.

• New potatoes – Dig gently and treasure the discovery.

• Tomatoes – The first blush appears—pick just as they ripen.

• Herbs – Snip basil, mint, thyme, and oregano in the morning. Dry or freeze extras for later.

4. Invite the Birds & Bees

A garden is not just a place of plants — it’s a small world, alive with visitors. When we tend our flowers and vegetables, we’re also setting a table for winged guests. In July, the garden hums with feathered visitors and buzzes with bees and butterflies.

In the Great Lakes region, the summer garden is visited by some of the most familiar and beloved birds. American goldfinches flit among tall seedheads, their yellow feathers glowing like little bursts of sun. Chickadees chatter cheerfully from shaded branches, while Cardinals flash through the hedges with their unmistakable red. Tiny House Wrens fill the mornings with their bright, tumbling songs. And Hummingbirds, drawn to bright blossoms and nectar, dart like whispers from bloom to bloom.

To invite these visitors in, begin with water. A simple birdbath — nothing more than a shallow dish refreshed daily — is often enough. Set it within sight of your sitting area. Add a few pebbles so small birds can perch. Then, offer food: black oil sunflower seeds, nyger (also called thistle seed), or a mix with white millet. Suet cakes in a shaded spot will also attract insect-eating birds. And if you allow some of your coneflowers or rudbeckia to go to seed, you’ll soon find goldfinches dining gratefully, their weight barely bending the stems.

The bees, too, need our care. Most native bees in North America — like mining bees and sweat bees — don’t live in hives. They live quietly underground, nesting in bare, undisturbed patches of soil. These solitary bees are gentle, non-aggressive, and crucial to the pollination of herbs, vegetables, and flowers.

To help them thrive, leave a small section of your garden free of mulch or plants — a sunny patch of dry, loose soil is all they need. Let your herbs bloom now and then — especially basil, thyme, and dill. These simple flowers, often overlooked, are bee magnets in midsummer. And plant nectar-rich favorites like lavender, bee balm, yarrow, echinacea, and milkweed. These blossoms not only support bumblebees and honeybees, but also butterflies, especially the monarchs that pass through later in the season.

Most of all, choose not to spray. Pesticides — even organic ones — can disrupt this delicate pollinator world. Trust instead in balance, diversity, and the gentle watch of your own hands.

To bring life into the garden is to be in conversation with the world around you. When you leave space for birds to sing, and bees to hum, the garden becomes more than a place of growth — it becomes a place of belonging.

5. Plan Ahead with Quiet Intentions

July may feel full, but it also holds the seed of what’s next:

• Start seeds for fall—In many gardens, now is the time to begin sowing for fall. Start kale, cabbage, broccoli—all before late August.

• Note what surprised or delighted you in your garden. A few words in a notebook now helps next spring flourish.

• Mark the plants you’d like to collect seed from — heirloom tomatoes, dill, calendula, or beans. Let a few pods mature, a few flower heads dry. These little acts of saving turn the garden into a continuous loop, linking this season to the next.

• Claim a space to cure garlic or dry herbs—warm, airy, and peaceful.

Let your July garden be both a celebration and a seedbed. It holds more than fruit and flowers — it holds the quiet beginnings of what comes next.

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Let July be a month of tending—Let the birds visit. Let the bees hum. Let the garden show you what it needs. So walk the garden slowly, breathe in its rhythm, and let yourself be tended in return.

Happy Gardening,

Everlea Journal