July

July - July is a time to enjoy your garden after all your hard work over the previous months. Your main focus is on maintenance - weeding, feeding and watering.

Flowers

• Water plants growing in borders
• Propagate shrubs
• Clip and shape bay trees
• Feed roses and bedding
• Tie plants to supports
• Keep an eye out for vine weevil
• Mow wildflower meadows
• Take clematis cuttings or peg stems to the soil to layer them
• Plant colchicum, nerine and autumn crocus
• Dead head bedding plants and flowering perennials

Tip: Love your lupins

Many hardy perennials, such as lupins and delphiniums will produce a further flush of flowers as long as you deadhead them as soon as their blooms fade. Cut back the old flower heads, which will be starting to set seed, follow the stem down to a healthy lead or a low shoot and prune just above it. Give each plant a liquid feed, soaking the soil around it. New flower stems will soon start to develop, giving blooms in the autumn.

In the greenhouse

• Pinch outside shoots and tie the plants to tall stakes for support
• Thin bunches of grapes
• Feed plants in pots and grow bags every week
• Propagate house plants
• Remove coleus flowers
• Water cucumbers daily and pick the fruits regularly to ensure new flowers form
• Raise French beans in post to plant outside for a late crop
• Place indoor plants outside now that it is warm

Tip: Go crazy for cress!

If you love watercress but don’t have a stream, don’t despair. Varieties such as ‘Aqua’ can be successfully be grown in pots in the greenhouse. Scatter seeds on to compost in pots, cover thinly and water well. They will germinate quickly. Put the pots on staging or outside in saucers of water to keep them moist. Enjoy!

Fruit and vegetables

• Plan out leeks
• Cover fruit with netting
• Give crops a liquid feed
• Prune excess raspberry canes
• Peg down strawberry runners
• Thin out heavy crops of plums and apples
• Sow the following outside: beetroot, lettuce, peas, radish, rocket, spring cabbage, swede, turnip and endive
• Pick courgettes before they become marrows

Tip: Hoe, hoe, hoe

Weed control is really important this month as it is the height of the growing season. Hoe over bare soil as you walk around the garden to keep weeds in check. Don’t wait for the weeds to grow before you hoe. If you keep the soil surface moving it will prevent seedlings from taking root. If you hoe in the morning on hot days, any weed seedlings that you disturb will soon wither and die.

Around the garden

• Repot houseplants
• Prune wisteria
• Tie climbing roses in to their supports
• Trim conifers and hedges
• Apply residual weed killer to paths and driveways
• Give plants a tonic. If they have yellow leaves apply a liquid feed to give them a boost
• Water tubs and new plants if dry using water from your water butt
• Give woodwork a lick of paint or preserver, while the weather is dry
• Clear algae, blanket weed and debris from ponds and keep them topped up
• Give the lawn a quick-acting summer feed, especially if a spring feed was not done

Tip: Weed the pond!

Don’t let pond weed take over. Many pond weeds are incredibly invasive, quickly covering the surface and blocking out the light that is necessary for the growth of the aquatic plants below. Keep a small net handy and scoop out weed such as Duckweed and blanket weed at least once a week.

Another word of warning, if you have watercress growing in the stream of your pond, regularly remove clumps of it. Watercress roots grow together forming a dam and therefore preventing water from circulating, eventually the water level in your pond will start to drop if you don’t keep an eye on this.