it is july the start of a thousand percent humidity in the midwest and also a super busy
time in the garden now i know in july it is easy to just focus on all the things that are ripening
in the garden the tomatoes the cucumbers the zucchini it's very exciting but let's not forget
about all the things that can still be planted in the garden in zone six in july now during
july the absolute biggest focus for me is getting all of my fall garden brassicas sewn now i start
these from seed indoors at the beginning of this month and just a quick rundown of how i start
my brassicas indoors i like to use 50 cell trays filling them with seed starting medium i like to
saturate the cells prior to planting then i dibble planting holes about a quarter of an inch deep
now when i sow seed i prefer to sow two seeds per planting hole and this just helps to ensure
i get one plant total per cell if both seeds germinate i simply snip off the weaker of the
two when they're an inch or two tall and then lightly cover the seeds with planting medium
i cover my trays with a humidity dome to help speed germination and place the seated
trays under grow lights my brassicas will be ready to transplant in about five to six weeks
and that is going to include things like broccoli cauliflower cabbage kale
kohlrabi basically anything and everything in that brassica family and those are started in
july so that i can transplant about mid-august and then those can be harvested this fall in
the middle of july i will start my fennel indoors from seed and from the middle to the end of july
i start some of my longer season leafy greens for the fall so those are going to include things like
charred mustard greens collard greens asian greens like pak choy or bok choy as well as
an early sowing of romaine type lettuces i'll also sow my green onions or scallions
and i'm still sowing things outdoors as well now some of what can be planted is going to depend on
your individual first frost date of the fall and i talk more in detail about this in last month's
video what to plant in june but basically you want to figure out when your predicted first fall
frost date is and for any of those crops which are frost tender just make sure you have enough
days so that that crop can mature between the time you plant it and the time that first frost comes
but here in my garden in ohio during early to mid july i am still doing succession plantings of
things like bush beans and zucchini and summer squash because those will give me later harvests
and i still have enough time for a crop to ripen before that frost comes now in mid to late july i
will be doing a fall sewing of peas for my fall peas what i am looking for are varieties with
earlier maturity because peas will tolerate the cold they will tolerate some frost but i want to
be able to harvest before the heavy freezes start coming in so i'm typically looking for varieties
with a 65 day maturity or less when planting in the fall here in mid to late july i'm also going
to start my first sowings of some of the cold hardy root crops so that's going to include things
like carrots beets turnips and daikon radishes now my little round red radishes i typically wait till
a little bit later in the season to direct sow those just because they're such a quick maturity
and they tend to get really hot and pithy when grown during the hot summer months
so i usually wait till mid august all the way to mid-september to plant those
and as i said this is the first sowing i'll typically do at least another sowing of all
of these same root crops in about another month so that pretty much covers what i am planting
in july in my zone 6a ohio garden and be sure to subscribe to catch next month's episode of what
i plant during the month of august thanks for watching and i'll see you next time