July Blog 2025

Timing Your Summer Harvest

Summer is the peak season for vegetable gardening, but harvesting at the right time can make all the difference in taste, texture, and yield. Here’s how to make sure your hard work pays off with perfectly timed harvesting:

*Tomatoes

When to Pick: Fully colored (red, orange, yellow, or purple, depending on the variety), but still slightly firm. Pick tomatoes just as they ripen and let them finish off indoors to avoid sunscald in extreme heat.

*Cucumbers

When to Pick: Firm and evenly green (or the variety’s mature color), before they start to yellow or get seedy. Frequent harvesting encourages the plant to keep producing, don’t let them overgrow.

*Peppers (Bell & Hot)

When to Pick: Can be harvested green or fully ripened to red, yellow, or orange. The flavor sweetens and intensifies with ripening. Use scissors or pruners to avoid damaging the plant stems.

*Zucchini & Summer Squash

When to Pick: Around 6–8 inches long and still tender. Bigger isn’t always better, they get tough and seedy fast! Check daily, zucchini can grow inches overnight in summer heat.

*Melons

When to Pick: Look for yellowing underbellies, drying tendrils near the stem, and a sweet aroma. Tap test: a hollow sound = ripe. Avoid overwatering close to harvest for sweeter fruit.

*Cantaloupes (Muskmelons)

When to Pick: When the skin turns from green to beige or yellowish-tan and the netting becomes well-defined and raised. The melon should slip easily from the vine with gentle pressure (this is called the “slip stage”). Avoid watering 2–3 days before harvesting to concentrate flavor and prevent watery fruit.

Smell Check: A sweet, musky aroma at the blossom end (opposite the stem) means it’s ready!

Pro Tip

*Extra Tips for a Bountiful Harvest

-Harvest in the early morning or late evening to reduce plant stress and keep produce fresh.

-Use a harvest basket or container with ventilation to avoid bruising soft crops like tomatoes.

-Encourage kids or family to help, it’s a great way to teach them where food comes from and enjoy the garden together.

Summer Watering Reminder:

With the summer heat settling in, it's more important than ever to keep an eye on your irrigation systems. Hot, dry weather can quickly dry out plants, especially young ones. A quick weekly check ensures everything is working properly—no clogged emitters, leaks, or misaligned sprinklers. Keeping your system in top shape means healthier plants, less water waste, and a thriving garden all summer. During extreme summer heat, it’s also very helpful to add much/bark on top of your plants roots, this will decrease soil temperature and alleviate heat stress on your plants. Adding mulch also helps retain moisture, suppresses weeds and adds fresh organic material.

Debunking Common Gardening Myths

Myth: "If it's wilting, it needs more water!"

Debunked: Not always. Some plants wilt during the heat of the day as a protective mechanism, even if the soil is moist. Check the soil 2–3 inches down before adding water. If it’s damp, wait. Overwatering can lead to root rot or a shallow rooted plant.

Citrus Leaf Miners: What They Are & What to Do

If your citrus leaves are curling, puckering, or have strange squiggly trails, you're likely dealing with leaf miners, tiny larvae that burrow between leaf layers, leaving behind silvery winding lines.

What Are They?

Citrus leaf miners are the larvae of a small moth. While the adult moth is harmless, the larvae tunnel into young leaves, feeding on the soft tissue inside.

What to Look For:

-Curled, distorted young leaves

-Silvery trails or "mines" under the leaf surface

-Slowed or stunted growth on young trees

Can They Kill Your Tree?

-Leaf miners don’t usually kill citrus trees, especially mature ones. But on young or newly planted trees, repeated infestations can slow growth and stress the plant.

What You Can Do:

-Avoid pruning during active growing season (spring/summer) new growth is most vulnerable.

-Keep your tree healthy and well-watered, a strong tree can tolerate damage better.

-For heavy infestations, use spinosad-based sprays (organic and bee-safe when used correctly)

-Don’t use harsh pesticides — they kill beneficial insects and often don't reach the larvae inside the leaves.

Mixing Compost and Mulch

Compost and mulch both have great uses separately, but when mixed together you can get more benefits from both. When choosing mulch/bark, we consider the C:N ratio. This refers to the proportion of carbon(c) to nitrogen(n), which will determine the rate of decomposition. An example of high C:N is wood chips, low C:N would include grass, food scraps or manure. Mulch with a high C:N mean that there is a high concentration of Carbon, without enough nitrogen to decompose, so decomposition can be slow. This can lead to “nitrogen stealing” or “nitrogen tie-up”, which is when the mulch takes nitrogen away from your plants root area to facilitate decomposition. This can often be the cause of your plants looking Nitrogen deficient. Mulch with a low C:N usually has low enough Nitrogen to decompose much quicker, but this can lead to strong odors or a loss of Nitrogen.

By mixing compost with your mulch, you are offsetting the mulch’s excess carbon which allows the microbes the work more efficiently, avoiding “nitrogen stealing or tie up” and speeding up the breakdown of mulch. When using mulch, you are adding the benefits of moisture retention, decreased soil temperatures, weed suppression and adding fresh organic material. When using compost, you also get the benefits of moisture retention, improve soil structure, boost microbial life, reduce soil erosion and disease and pest suppression. When using both together you are getting both sets of benefits as well as a more balanced C:N ratio for faster/healthier decomposition, extended nutrient release and a stronger weed suppression without nutrient depletion.

*At Hodge Family Nursery we highly recommend the use of our Seafood Compost and Our Master Nursery Bumper Crop Organic Soil Builder. The soil builder is great to use as mulch, the material is not large enough to worry about a high C:N ratio, and its not so small that it breaks down too quickly with an odor. Mixing this with our Seacoast Compost will enrich your soil with nutrients and provide a healthy rate of decomposition that is beneficial for your plant and the soil surrounding it. We recommend a 2(mulch):1(compost) ratio.