July and August is not a good time to start new landscape, but there are many things to be done this time of the year.

There are some vegetables and flowers that can take the summer heat. Malabar spinach and okra can handle the heat. Harvest the okra pods when they are young and tender. Sweet potatoes, winter squash, southern peas, blackeyes, purple hull, crowder and cream do well if kept moist.

Plant eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes. Corn is iffy for fall. If you want to try for a fall crop, this is the month to plant seed so the ears are ready before cool weather.

Tomatoes will crack if they become stressed from lack of water and then watered well. If the bottom is turning black, the tomatoes are lacking in calcium. Work some Epsom salts into the soil and water it in.

Stinkbugs are very troublesome this year. You usually find them early in the morning. Use the thumb and forefinger method, using gloves and a bucket of water or spray them with a vegetable spray for stinkbugs. Use Green Light Bioganic, Spinosade, Soil Mender DE. The spray must hit the bug and it doesn’t kill them instantly.

Summer annuals and perennials that do well in the summer heat are: Sunflowers, Lantana, Zinnias, Marigold, Salvia, Perennial Hibiscus and Periwinkle. Spring flowering perennials can be divided and replanted this month if provided moisture. If water isn’t available, wait until there is a break in the weather.

With the heat and lack of water, this is not a good time to plant young trees. Wait until fall and the results will be much better.