Your Garden Now
After a pleasant hay-making June, the weather looks promising for July. This could be a summer for getting reacquainted with the pleasures and challenges of gardening. So here’s a few tasks to fill the gap between sunbathing and barbecuing.
DEADHEADING not only tidies, but also prolongs flowering and reduces disease. If paid as much attention as watering and feeding, the results can be impressive. Snipping the fading flowers of roses, dahlias, salvia, petunias etc. is oddly therapeutic!
HOLIDAY PREPARATIONS Move containers into the shade. Try to make provision for watering, or reduce need for watering by adding water-retaining gel. (If you have not already mixed it into your compost, it is not too late to introduce several ‘pockets’ of gel towards the edge of your pots). Don’t just deadhead. It is well worth cutting off flower buds as well (especially sweet pea!) to ensure that your flowers don’t exhaust themselves by going to seed while you are away. Be cruel to be kind!
VEGETABLES Keep sowing salad crops, beans, peas, carrots etc. Keep feeding those tomatoes. Start enjoying the harvest which is prolonged by frequent and regular (or holiday-harsh) picking of beans, peas etc. Courgettes require a watchful eye, lest they balloon into marrows. Watch out for signs of blight on potatoes and outdoor tomatoes. Chemical treatments are available. Also watch for caterpillar damage on brassicas.
FRUIT As the strawberries peak, and the raspberries and currants colour up, it is time to revisit jam and smoothie recipes. The ‘fruits of your labour’ were never sweeter!
WEEDS Try to keep on top of things by hoeing (dry days only!). Apply weedkiller as required. We can advise on the right product for your situation.
CLIMBERS Check support systems regularly, and tie in where necessary. All the new growth is vulnerable to midsummer deluges and wind, especially since we haven’t had much of the latter recently.
FEEDING With the surge of lush growth, many plants will be in need of nutrients by now. There are several liquid or granular options. Some are organic. Don’t forget to feed houseplants as well.
PLANT PROBLEMS Continue to spray roses against blackspot and greenfly. Also apply fungicide at the first signs of powdery mildew. Watch out for caterpillar and slug damage. If all is not well with your favourite plant, bring in a leaf and we’ll do our best to diagnose the problem.
HEDGE TRIMMING Many can be tackled now. Larger-leaf hedges such as laurel and elaeagnus are best trimmed with secateurs, as sheared leaves look unsightly.
SOWING As well as vegetables, July is good for sowing a range of flowers including wallflower, sweet william, pansy, viola, forget-me-not and many perennials.
