One of the questions that I see being asked most often this time of the year by gardeners is “What Vegetables Can I Plant in July?”
It is not too late to plant vegetable seeds in July, below, I will share some of the vegetables you can plant no matter where you live and how to determine others you might still be able to plant depending on where you live.
As you remove the plants that are done producing you can fill those spots with seeds that still have time to germinate, grow and produce a crop for you before the end of the growing season.
Calculate from today to your frost date to know how long you have remaining, and what vegetables you can plant in July.
As you move later in the season the days will become shorter so you may need a little longer for days to harvest but you still have plenty of time no matter what zone you live in.
What Vegetables Can I Plant in July?
Here is the recommended list I have for you to plant now using seeds. Most of these vegetables have varieties that either have days from planting to harvest of less than 60 days allowing you time to still get a good crop before the first frost sets in. In some cases, you can find varieties that have less chance of bolting for lettuce, cilantro, and spinach.
Corn
Beets
Carrots
Basil
Cilantro
Dill
Cucumbers
Lettuce
Spinach
Kale
Peas
Bush Beans
How to plant and care for them
Since it is much drier and warmer than when you planted your garden in the spring and early summer it is critical to treat these seeds and plants differently.
You will need to add fertilizer as you did in your earlier plantings, this time you will need to water seeds 1-2 times and possibly 3 times each day to keep the seeds moist and allow them to germinate.
Once the seeds sprout you will need to keep them moist and not allow the seedlings to dry out. Once they are established you can go back to your normal watering schedule.
For small plants that you are now planting in your garden in mid-summer, I would recommend you plant them in the evening and muck them in to allow them to transition into the garden, and keep them moist until they have time to adjust. Once they are established in the garden you can once again water on your scheduled days.
If you are lucky enough to find a garden shop that is closing out their vegetable plants you can easily have a crop before frost sets in. Check the variety of the plant to see what the days to harvest are when selecting these plants.
Not only do you get to fill a void in your garden with a new plant you usually can get these plants at a nice discount since they want to clear their shelves out for new products like Fall flowers.
This could expand your list of plants to grow substantially since they have a jump-start on the seeds you can plant for harvesting still this season.
I was fortunate to find a new variety of pepper plants and a couple of tomatoes that I am putting in the ground as of July 10th in zone 8b in Eugene, OR. I will keep you posted on how these plants grow and produce for me.
The other possible option is to look and see if you have any volunteers that are coming up in your garden, I am lucky enough to have a few tomato plants that have come up that can produce a nice crop that may have crossed with another tomato.
This is always fun to see what the plant produces.
I also had some cilantro volunteers that came up late in September one year we had a mild winter the plant was several feet tall and wide supplying us with cilantro all Winter and into early Spring
To plant these seeds you may need to water more frequently to get good germination and to allow the plant to get established since the temperatures are much hotter this time of the year. I have been known to water these plants by hand 2-3 times a day until they are well established to get them off to a good start.
You can also use the shade of other plants in the garden to protect them from the extreme heat of the day planting the plants on the east side of the taller more established plants.
Here is another planting guide link for those people in zone 8b, Eugene, OR where I live.
U.S. & Canada frost and planting guide.
https://www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates
Now that you have a good list of what vegetables I can plant in July. It is time to get your seeds in the ground to give you a great late Summer and early Fall harvest of your favorites.
