What can you plant in July and still get a harvest? There are plenty of warm season veggies that you can plant in July and still get a harvest by fall. This post is intended for those of you living in Zones 4 to 6 and maybe even Zone 7.
If you live in USDA zones 4 ,5 ,6 and maybe even 7 there are still some things you can be planting this time of year. Look around your garden, are there some empty spots? Maybe a spot where the plants didn’t make it, or maybe you have cleared out some veggies already. You can still take advantage of all the warm weather by filling those spots with new plantings!
What can you plant in July?
1. Onion Sets
If you can find them at a nursery, you can still get onion sets in the ground. They WILL NOT bulb up so you will only get green onions. Plant them deep (3 inches) and close together to save space. These can last well into the fall and help supply your meals with fresh green onions!
2. Kale
July planted kale from either starts or seeds will yield a great fall and even winter crop. You will want to wait to harvest this planting of kale until the fall really settles in and you have had 2 or 3 frosty nights. The frost will help sweeten the kale and improve it’s taste. But if you want fall kale, you need to get it planted now!
3. Summer Crisp lettuces
Summer varieties of lettuce will do great in July and August and seeds can be planted directly in the garden. Just be sure to keep the seeds moist till they germinate and get established. Most summer lettuce varieties resist bolting and tip burn. I love doing this as it gives me a very early crop of lettuce so that we can have fresh garden salads, garnished with fresh tomatoes!
4. Fall Peas
Be sure to plant some fall peas, either snow peas or shelling peas. These need to go in around July 20th and will be ready in mid October. I have found that snow peas do particularly well in the fall. If you get your peas planted in mid July you can have a decent harvest in late fall. Just keep in mind, in areas where you have hot summers and short falls, peas don’t do as well in the fall as they would in the spring. Expect 1/2 the harvest in the fall as you would get from the same number of plants in the spring.
5. Green Beans
Green beans have a surprisingly short growing time. This is particularly true of the bush varieties. Many varieties of bush beans have a maturity date of only 60 to 70 days. That means a planting early in July will be ready to go no later than mid September, and if you have a late first frost date even a planting at the end of July will still give you a great harvest!
6. Leeks
Mid summer is a great time to get started on a fall planting of leeks. If you live in a mild winter area then you may be able to get a harvest by planting seeds directly in the garden. In areas where winter arrives early you may want to try and get a hold of some seedlings to plant, or try planting some of your own indoors and then transplanting them out in 6 weeks.
Other Ideas
It’s not too early to be thinking about fall crops, a mid July planting of broccoli (especially sprouting broccoli) will do well. You could also get an early jump on your fall plantings of beets, turnips or even carrots.
The important think to remember about any planting in July, is that the weather (think heat) is very rough on newly sprouted seedlings. You will want to give anything you have planted in July lots of extra attention and be sure to water them often. For the first few weeks maybe even daily watering will be required.
So if you have some empty spots in your garden or if you had one of those springs and didn’t get anything planted it’s still not too late to get some seeds in the ground! Now you know what can you plant in July and still get a harvest!
