What Seeds to Plant in July

I am always surprised how fast July rolls around, and I often feel like I’m too late for new summer garden plantings. But that’s simply not true. Just a week ago, I seeded another round of succession vegetables, and I started a tray of cosmos and sunflowers for an early fall bloom. Even zinnia seed can still go in the ground.

Seedlings in trays with a bottom watering tray
Credit: Amanda Blum

I’m taking a hybrid approach to seeding this year, rather than seeding in my greenhouse or direct sowing everything. I’m still using seeding trays for plants I’m worried about germination or pests getting at, but I’m skipping the indoor heat mats and leaving the trays outside in the sunshine. This has proven incredibly effective already as long as you keep them watered daily, or use a bottom-watering tray—that is, a tray filled with water underneath the seed tray so the soil can always draw whatever water it needs. As soon as the seedlings are a few inches tall, they can go into their final spots in the garden.

Succession seeding

Just harvested these beets, horseradish and fennel, about to plant more.
Credit: Amanda Blum

Most years, I get a little cocky this time of year and don’t stay on top of my succession planting—and then I regret it. This year, I’m starting “Succession Saturday,” where every week, I force myself to get out, evaluate what needs turnover, and make sure I plant a few lettuces, radishes, turnips, beets, and kohlrabi. In July, add carrots to this, so you have them this fall.

Get ready for fall

Hopefully, you now have all your fall planting seeds ordered and received and know what you need to plant. July is when you’ll want to get these starts going so they’re ready to get slotted into gardening spots in late August/early September. As your summer plants get cleared out, you’ll replace them with fall plants. Think about your winter-hearty vegetables (which, admittedly, is a little tough when it’s 100 degrees out)—cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, root vegetables, etc. 

in 60 days, this could be you.
Credit: Amanda Blum

Now, take it a step farther. Imagine a fall and winter garden as full and productive as your summer garden. So when thinking of cauliflower, don’t just choose white cauliflower; pick a few different kinds that will be ready at different intervals, and be sure to choose orange and purple and lime cauliflower, too. Add romansco to the mix.

Savoy in my fall garden
Credit: Amanda Blum

The same is true for broccoli: Choose purple re-sprouting broccoli, alongside multiple varieties of regular heading broccoli, but also Chinese broccoli and broccolini. For cabbage, I prefer pointy headed types like Early Jersey Wakefield. For the hearty soups I crave this winter, as well as cabbage rolls, I want gorgeous, giant heads of savoy cabbage in my garden; and to make quick stir fries, I fill the spaces between with Napa cabbage.

Perennials

Spend a moment thinking about every expensive perennial you fawn over at the nursery. Even four-inch pots were almost seven dollars this year, and it adds up quickly. Skip the nursery and grow them yourself, either from seeds or from a clipping, right now. If you can find someone with one of these perennials, you can usually grab a healthy clipping, strip the end, dip it in rooting powder and get that little guy into some potting soil. You can also do this to duplicate your own plants. If not, get some seeds and get to work. Instead of paying $30 for a coneflower this summer, grow 10 of them for $5 in seeds. If you start now, you’ll have a four-inch pot plant by fall, which can go into the ground and be beautiful next year.

Annuals

It was absurd and it was beautiful.
Credit: Amanda Blum

I’m a sucker for fall flowers, and it’s not too late, I assure you. I always regret not getting a second sowing of sunflowers in, so this year, I’ve done precisely that. It’s not too late to sow some cosmos, and come late August, you’ll be rewarded with six foot tall bows of flowers that look like cupcake wrappers. Zinnias can last well into fall, so seed more of them now. I always remember the year I overplanted African marigolds and enjoyed a fall where my whole garden was crowded out by giant puffballs in oranges and yellows.

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