Gardening in July: Your Winter To-Do List
I’ll be honest, July is the month I almost talk myself out of going outside at all. It’s cold, the light is low and golden by 4pm, and there’s something very tempting about hibernating with a cup of tea instead of heading out to the garden. But this is actually one of the most important months in the Australian gardening calendar, and if you skip it, you’ll feel it in spring when everything is meant to be bursting into life and instead looks a bit sorry for itself.
July is bare-root and dormant season. It’s pruning season. And, perhaps best of all, it’s the month you get to plan and plant the bones of your spring and summer garden while everything is still slow and manageable. Here’s what I’m doing in my own garden this month, and what I’d suggest you do in yours (adjusting a little for whether you’re in a cooler climate like Melbourne or Hobart, or a warmer one like Brisbane or Perth).
Prune While Everything’s Asleep
Deciduous fruit trees, roses and ornamental deciduous trees are all dormant right now, which makes July the month to get the secateurs out. Apples, pears, and stone fruit like peaches and apricots should be pruned to open up their centre and remove any crossing, damaged or diseased branches. For roses, cut back to an outward-facing bud and remove anything spindly or dead. I always feel a bit brutal doing this, like I’m being too harsh, but a hard winter prune is exactly what encourages strong new growth and better flowering or fruiting in spring.
If you’re in a warmer climate and your garden doesn’t really do “dormant,” hold off on pruning frost-tender things and focus instead on tidying spent perennials and cutting back anything that’s finished flowering.
Plant Bare-Rooted Everything
Nurseries are full of bare-rooted roses, fruit trees, deciduous ornamentals and berries right now, and they’re both cheaper and, in my experience, better established than their potted counterparts by the time spring rolls around. I recently ordered two bare rooted roses from Mr Fothergills, “A Best Impression” ( a beautiful pink and white rose) and “Origami” (an angular red & white petals rose with a lovely fragrance). If you’ve been thinking about adding a fruit tree, a hedge of roses, or a row of raspberry canes, this is your window. Soak the roots for an hour or two before planting, dig a generous hole, and don’t be tempted to add too much fertiliser just yet, the plant needs to focus on root establishment first, not top growth.
What to Plant This Month
This is the bit I love. Winter is prime time for getting your cool-season vegetables and some spring-flowering bulbs and seedlings into the ground.
In the vegie patch, plant seedlings of broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, silverbeet, spinach, leeks, and lettuce. Broad beans and peas can go in as seed directly, and they’ll reward you with an early spring harvest. Onion and garlic sets are best in by now if you haven’t already, but there’s usually still a small window in cooler regions.
For colour, this is your last real chance to get spring bulbs like dahlias, daffodils, tulips and ranunculus into pots or garden beds if you haven’t already, they need this cold snap to perform properly. Pansies, violas, primulas and polyanthus are also brilliant winter colour for pots by the front door.
In warmer, frost-free climates (think Brisbane, Darwin, coastal Queensland), July is actually a lovely time to plant natives, hardy shrubs and even some herbs like coriander and parsley that bolt too quickly in summer heat.
Feed the Soil, Not Just the Plants
With so little actively growing, July is a great, low-pressure month to work on your soil. Dig through aged compost or well-rotted manure into empty garden beds so it has all winter and early spring to break down before you plant into it. If you’ve got a compost bin that’s slowed right down in the cold, give it a turn and add some nitrogen-rich kitchen scraps to get it moving again.
Protect What’s Vulnerable
Frost is the main enemy this month for anyone south of the border ranges. Cover tender seedlings and citrus with frost cloth overnight if a cold snap is forecast, and hold off on fertilising citrus until the weather warms, as it can push out new growth that frost will simply burn off. Potted colour and succulents are often happiest moved somewhere with a bit of overhead protection, even just under the eaves, until the worst of the cold passes.
A Little Winter Garden Joy
It’s easy to think of July as the “nothing month,” but there’s real beauty in a winter garden if you know where to look, camellias are having their moment right now, and so are early-flowering wattles if you’re anywhere near bushland. Take a walk around your own garden this weekend, secateurs in one hand, cup of coffee in the other, and you might be surprised by what’s quietly getting on with things while you weren’t watching.
Always check your specific climate zone and expected frost dates before planting, and adjust timing a few weeks earlier or later depending on whether you’re in a cool, temperate or subtropical region.
