Welcome to California garden in the month of July. Our garden is alive with
beautiful flowers, bounty of fruits and vegetables as summer is alive. We will start with our garden tour, look at some harvests we made this month, go over some things to do in your garden, and will take a look at some cool gardening products.

Garden Tour ? Raised Beds, Containers and Fruit trees

We have some gourds, Anaheim chill peppers, little prince eggplants, Roma
and grape tomato, pole beans growing on EZ trellis, winter melon, Fava Beans, cucumbers, butternut squash and hyacinth beans growing in our raised beds.

In containers, we have a new entrant Java Plum tree also known as the Jamun tree which produces purple berries, loquat tree and dwarf mango tree. We also have some mint, super bush tomato plant which yields large tomatoes, ivy gourds, pineapple, golden nugget tangerine, mulberry tree, Parfinaka pomegranate tree growing in containers towards the side.

And towards the back we have Madagascar jasmine, Thai basil, Indigo tomato, blueberry, strawberry, betel leaves, Myer lemon, curry leaf,
Cherri Moya tree and carrom tree growing.

On the ground our fruit trees Rajapuri banana, Washington Naval Oranges, Arabian guava, pomegranate tree, gem avocado and our Moringa tree are loving this warm weather.

Harvests

Pole Beans ? Heavy producer compared to the Bush beans
variety.

Pole Beans

Pole Beans

Pole Beans

Pole Beans

Fava beans also known as Butter beans

Fava beans or butter beans

Fava beans or butter beans

Shelled Fava beans

Shelled Fava beans

Cucumbers ? It really flourished this season. We regularly fed all our plants on raised beds with Vermisterra worm tea and that has made a huge difference.

Cucumbers

Cucumbers

Container Eggplant ? Our plants were not looking very healthy so we started feeding them the Vermisterra worm tea once every week and it has really bounced back since.

Eggplants

Eggplants

Cayenne Peppers ? A hot pepper variety which is a heavy
producer.

Cayenne Peppers

Cayenne Peppers

Alter Ego Peppers ? A hot/sweet tasting pepper variety. It?s
available in Home depot.

Peppers

Peppers

Peppers

Peppers

Potatoes ? Purple potatoes, Yukon Gold
variety

Potatoes

Potatoes

Tomatoes ? Super bush variety, Italian Roma, San Marzano tomatoes good for pastes and Italian grape tomatoes

Italian Roma Tomatoes

Italian Roma Tomatoes

Italian Roma Tomato Plant

Italian Roma plant

San Marzano Tomatoes

San Marzano Tomatoes

Super Bush Tomato

Super Bush Tomato

Things to Do

Control garden pests ? If you see spider mites, it?s a good idea to use Dr. Earth?s natural insecticide which has oils that are effective against insects. Pick any caterpillars that you see and throw them ?

Prune plants like curry leaf which grow vigorously during
this season. They will start sending out new shoots and growth once you prune.

Use liquid fertilizer like compost tea or worm casting so that your plants are getting adequate nutrients.

Product Review

In this section, we will be reviewing a growing medium, the VermisTerra Coconut Coir which contains coco chips. It?s manufactured by the same company that makes excellent quality worm castings and worm tea. There are big coconut chips which is unique top this product as all the other coconut coir products that I have reviewed contained fine husk.

You can use this growing medium as is and don?t need to add anything else like vermiculite or perlite. The bricks have to be soaked in water for it to break down, we immersed the brick in an aluminum tray full of water. Once it grows to the desired size you can store it till it?s ready for planting.

VermisTerra Coconut coir

VermisTerra Coconut coir

Here we are using this growing medium along with some VermisTerra worm castings to plant our cardamom plant. The recommended ratio of worm castings to growing medium is 1:3. Since you are only using coco chips and not adding any vermiculite or perlite, it brings down the cost of your potting mix considerably.

At a first glance this medium looks like that of a premium
quality, well-draining. It is very porous and at the same time provides good
support to plants. It does not decompose very quickly.

We also transplanted our root bound jasmine plant which was
growing in a small container

Here is a video guide of how our California garden looks in the month of July ? California Gardening Tour – July 2019

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