Gardeners Checklist: Here Is What to Do on the Week of July 7

By Ron Kujawski

* Pick squash and cucumbers every two days. These crops mature very quickly. Blink and your zucchini goes from pencil size to baseball bat overnight. Perhaps the Red Sox should be using mature zucchini since their baseball bats typically resemble pencils.

* Wait until the bottom third to one-half of the leaves on garlic plants have turned brown before digging up the plants. Leave the leaves attached to the bulbs. Tie plants in small bunches and hang these in a dry, dark, airy location for three to four weeks to cure. After curing, cut off the leaves about one to two inches above the bulbs. If you leave garlic in the ground too long, the outer skin around the bulb breaks and the individual cloves separate. Those bulbs will not store well.

* Pay careful attention to raspberries as they are ripening quickly. They’re ready to pick when they separate easily from the core. Raspberries will keep longer — up to a week — if not washed until ready to use and if stored in the fridge. 

* Protect blueberries from birds by placing netting over the bushes. Birds have a knack for detecting a ripening berry long before I do. Darn those birds!

* Plant buckwheat where peas and other early crops were harvested. Buckwheat makes a good summer cover crop if no further planting of vegetables is to take place because buckwheat is very effective in suppressing weeds. Another option for a summer crop is sorghum-sudangrass. Though not as effective as buckwheat in suppressing weeds, sorghum-sudangrass will contribute much more organic matter to impoverished soils.

* Clean the blades of your pruning shears at the end of each day’s use. Soak a small cloth or piece of paper towel with rubbing alcohol and wipe the blades to remove sap and gunk (technical term for dirt). Then spray the blades with WD-40 or silicone lubricant. This tad of maintenance prevents blades from sticking and helps keep them sharp.

* Stop pinching chrysanthemums. Pinching (ouch!) the plants is a common practice to keep the plants bushy, but they will soon be forming their flower buds. So, stop pinching, please. 

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Daylilies are often promoted as being trouble-free, and for the most part, they are. However, one problem I’m seeing a lot lately is a disease called Daylily Leaf Streak. As the name implies, symptoms of this disease are elongate brown streaks that run lengthwise down the middle of the infected leaf. The streaks are surrounded by light green or yellow halos. Such infections usually result in the death of the leaf and possibly reduced flowering by the daylily plant. The disease affects some cultivated varieties but not others, which is why you see it on one plant but not another. Prolonged cool, wet weather in spring, overcrowding of plants, and some previous damage to plant leaves from wind, hail, insects, or wayward humans seem to be associated with the appearance of this disease. Anyone growing a lot of different daylilies is sure to see the disease now on some of their plants. Removing all infected foliage when plants are dry and dividing overcrowded plants will go a long way in helping reduce the recurrence of the disease.

Ron Kujawski began gardening at an early age on his family's onion farm in upstate New York. Although now retired, he spent most of his career teaching at the UMass Extension Service. He serves on Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Horticulture Advisory Committee. His book, Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener’s Handbook, is available here.