Hey everyone this is Shannie from Baker Creek,

and today we're going to talk about crops

that you can squeeze in for the month of July.

Maybe you've found that your early spring

planting, things have started to peter out

by July, you've got some space in your garden,

you're ready to harvest, clear things out,

make some room and start fresh.

The season is far from over.

It's definitely time to plant your next succession

of crops.

You really want a good harvest all season

long, you should be succession planting.

You should be putting things in in July.

There are some factors you want to keep in

mind.

Your growing zone is probably going to be

most important, and your personal climate

that you have in your area.

We're here in the Missouri Ozarks.

Our zone is a zone 6.

What I'm gonna be talking about today is most

applicable between zone 5 and zone 7, however

I will make some indications for zones warmer

and zones cooler.

What I would really recommend is if you are

in a zone that's warmer than zone 7, you can

add a few weeks, basically plant a few weeks

later.

And if you're in a zone cooler than a zone

5, you're just going to plant these things,

take these recommendations and set them back

about a month.

You're just going to have a shorter growing

season up north, zones cooler than 5, and

you're gonna have a longer growing season

in zones warmer than 7, so apply it in that
way.

If you have any more specific questions, please

send an email to seeds@rareseeds.com, attention:

Horticulture and we'd be happy to give you

some more specific answers.

But basically, we're going to be talking about

what you can still get in the ground for the

month of July, especially later July, because

thats around the time that we're planting

right now.

So without further ado, let's get to our list.

This is our top 10 favorite plants to get

in the ground in late July.

So, lets talk about edible ornamentals for

the later season garden- Basil.

Let's try a basil that has incredible culinary

properties, as well as edible ornamental properties.

We wanna put something in the landscape that

looks nice and is also applicable in the kitchen.

Dark purple opal is absolutely a winner.

It's got that really nice Italian basil flavor,

you can make your late season, you know your

fall harvest pestos and your pastas, things

like that.

But, it also looks fantastic in the landscape.

And another bonus- it's also packed with antioxidants-

anthocynin, the purple hued antioxidant.

Look at the beautiful dark purple leaves.

This is a really nice way to add color to

the fall landscape, to bring that fresh basil

flavor.

You're gonna have a lot of tomatoes left over

at the end of your season, and you're probably

gonna be making sauces or canning them.

Don't forget to have some basil left over.

Your early season basil might be petered out

by then.
It may have gone to get bitter, so get another
succession of basil going.Consider inviting

this dramatic purple tone into your edible

landscape for the later season.

And don't forget its going to bring you incredible

medicinal benefits, plus it just smells fantastic.

Now is the perfect time to start another succession

of beans.

Try dragon tongue beans- this is my favorite

variety.

It's just got really good crunch and snap.

It's really good for pickling, so when you

get a huge harvest at the end of the season,

you can just do a huge pickling party.

I like to do pickle parties, who knows.

Why not?

So try this one for pickling, use it for fresh

eating.

It's absolutely not too late to get this one

in now.

If you find yourself having a clear spot in

your garden, go ahead and give dragon tongue

beans a try.

So I wanna demystify what has been typically

regarded as a difficult crop to grow- Cauliflower.

It doesn't have to be.

Actually, right now, if you start your cauliflower

now, in a protected indoor area that's a bit

cooler, and you transplant it out to the garden

and it's maturing in the fall, you're gonna

find a beautiful harvest of cauliflower.

And you're gonna actually find that it's easier

than you may have thought.

When you try to get cauliflower to mature

in the high summer months, it's gonna get

attacked by bugs.
But if you can protect it, keep it cool, and
start it in a pot when it's young, and transfer

it out to the garden as it's more mature and

established, you're gonna find that your pest

pressure is lower and that it's growing beautifully

in that cooler fall and late summer weather.

So give cauliflower a try.

Definitely try the variety "Amazing".

This is actually the easiest cauliflower we

found to grow and it's really really great

for a fall harvest.

The best part about cauliflower and the rest

of the brassicas, which are the cabbage family

crops, is they actually take on an even sweeter

flavor when you harvest them after a little

bit of light frost or cool weather.

So this is the ideal fall crop.

It does take a long season, which is why you're

gonna want to start it now.

So give cauliflower a try.

It's not as hard as you think.

So there's one essential culinary herb that

I wanna see you guys succession sowing throughout

the whole season, but specifically right now

it's a great time.

You can be sprinkling cilantro seeds in little

patches, anywhere you find a little blank

patch in your garden throughout the season

because it does go to seed quickly, which

isn't a bad thing.

When cilantro goes to seed, it just turns

into coriander, which is an awesome spice.

But you're gonna want to succession sow it

frequently so that you always have a nice

supply of it.

And this variety in particular is going to

wait a bit longer before bolting, it's called
Slo-Bolt cilantro.

It's going to bolt eventually, again, you're

just going to get that beautiful coriander,

which is an essential ingredient in so many

different recipes.

It's got that beautiful essential oil smell

to it, it's really strong.

Of course you're gonna use the coriander leaves

in your cooking.

So sneak a crop of coriander in now, you can

be succession sowing it really throughout

the season.

Just get it in wherever you can.

Now is the time to get another cucumber crop

in.

Cucumbers are one that you're gonna want to

succession plant during the season and right

now is a great time.

And I love this variety "Beit- Alpha" because

it doesn't require pollination to set fruit.

Which means if you're later in the season,

or you're growing in a greenhouse, you're

not gonna require those pollinators, which

may be a little more scanty later in the season

or growing in a greenhouse.

So it doesn't need pollinators, and it's gonna

set a huge, super prolific crop.

And the other great thing is that you can

choose to eat them raw, or pickle them.

So if you find yourself, at the end of the

season, with a massive bumper crop, you could

just put them up, and you're gonna be eating

pickles all winter.

So you're gonna have pickles for your winter

time parties, or your meals, whatever you

need them for, or you're going to have fresh

snacking cucumbers at the end of your season.
Either way, its a win-win.

So try the Beit-Alpha cucumber in your greenhouse,

or even outside.

It works great in both applications.

So it's absolutely not too late to grow squash.

A lot of us get our squash crop in right at

the beginning of the season, only to find

that they get absolutely ravaged by squash

bugs, and then the harvest is pretty early

in the season.

What you might not realize is that you can

actually squeeze in a later squash crop.

Try a variety like Red Kuri.

It's also known as Hokkaido.

What I love about this one is that it matures

quickly, so you're going to be able to squeeze

in a harvest before the end of the season

and you can either harvest this as an immature

summer squash, or as a really nice tasting

winter squash- it's your choice.

Another bonus is that you can eat the skin

of this squash; it's so thin and delicate.

Yet somehow, when you let it mature to be

a winter squash, it actually holds up in storage.

So, it's great for storage, if you're looking

at an early frost, or if you're in one of

those more northern parts of the zones we're

discussing, you can still get a harvest in.

And if you're looking for a good storage crop

for winter with dense nutrients, high in beta-carotene,

try Red Kuri.

So we're here in the Baker Creek corn patch.

This is our early planting of corn, but did

you know you can actually get a later planting

of corn in?

So it's not too late to get a sweet corn crop

right now.
You might not want to a try a popcorn, because
that needs some drying time, but you can still

get some sweet corn.

And who doesn't love some fresh sweet corn

in the later part of the summer?

That just says harvest party.

You can have some sweet corn at your final

hurrah of the garden season.

So get your sweet corn in now, don't forget

to plant it in blocks, so that it gets good

cross pollination and you're going to have

a beautiful crop for the end of the summer.

So maybe you're thinking that if you plant

now, your plants are going to have to survive

intense heat at the beginning of the season

and then cooler weather at the end.

So for that kind of scenario, you're gonna

want something like Swiss chard.

And this variety is called "Five Color Silver

Beet" and I love it because it can handle

the heat in the earlier part of the season,

but it's gonna really thrive in the cooler

weather too.

So it's highly adaptable, it's gonna take

whatever weather conditions you throw at it.

It's incredibly nutrient dense and it's just

going to be a nice greens for the fall.

So go ahead and start sowing that any time,

it's nice to start sowing it in a cooler area

just to encourage good germination, but once

it takes off, it is a really hardy plant.

So, we can't forget about the flowers.

It is absolutely not too late to plant a later

succession of zinnias right now.

I particularly like 'Scabiosa" zinnia.

They have a really unique form to them, and

what's really great is that they mature early,
and they're very vibrant.

You don't always get that color at the end

of the season.

Something else that you'll notice is that

flowers take on a really fantastic color change

as the autumn sun sets in.

So you're gonna see some really beautiful

color changes.

You're just going to want to get some more

color into the garden for the later part of

the season, so definitely give zinnias a try.

And they're going to feed your pollinators

like crazy, which is so essential.

So we've got our early mature sunflower crop.

It's starting to finish off.

Did you know you can actually put sunflowers

in the ground still?

It's absolutely not too late to get a sunflower

crop in right now.

And the bonus of doing a late season sunflower

crop is that you can choose to either leave

the heads in the garden to feed the birds

over the winter; it's actually an incredible

source of nutrition for birds over the winter,

or you can save those seeds for yourself.

I love this variety, "Mongolian Giant", because

it has so many seeds.

Those seeds are going to provide dense nutrition

for you in the winter months.

They keep really nicely.

It's just an all around beautiful- it's an

edible ornamental.

You're getting the beauty of a sunflower,

the beautiful giant heads, and then you're

getting a nice nutritious crop afterwards.

So, its just a bonus.

And it really says fall- those beautiful yellow

drenched flowers in the landscape just look

fantastic.

Here's number eleven.

This one's a bonus for you guys.

In the warmer parts of the zones we're talking

about, you can probably grow any watermelon,

but if you're trying to squeeze in one last

watermelon crop in July, your best bet is

gonna be "Sugar Baby Bush".

It's also great for container gardening or

small spaces, so maybe you could only afford

to clear out a small space in your garden.

Squeeze in a few of these plants in there

if you can.

They're gonna mature early and you're gonna

get a nice bonus at the end of your season-

a sweet, delicious, refreshing watermelon

for that Indian summer that you might just

get.

And we've actually been harvesting our earlier

watermelons here at the Baker Creek garden,

so let's check out- wow- okay so it was definitely

ready, it just bursted open like that.

So this is a yellow fleshed variety.

Oh my goodness.

We've been testing out lots of different yellow

fleshed types.

I'm just gonna take the heart right out cause

that's my favorite part.

Looks like we picked it on the perfect day.

It's super juicy, incredibly sweet, so if

you guys want a fall version of this, try

Sugar Baby Bush and get it in the ground as

soon as you can.

So there you have it.

There's your ten, plus one bonus, best crops

to plant in July, specifically in late July.

So be sure to check us out on the rareseeds.com

website, and you're gonna find all these crops

plus more.