What to do in July
Phew what a scorcher!!!
At least, that’s what the forecasts told us to expect. But all this rain is doing the garden good, although watch out for weed seedlings popping up everywhere and for plants with large flowers flopping over when they get soaked and heavy.
Trees, Shrubs & Hedges
- Deadhead roses
- Watch out for black spot, rust and mildew
- Cut lavender for drying
- Prune early summer-flowering shrubs
- Remove any unwanted growth from the bases or trunks of trees and shrubs
- Take semi-ripe cuttings
- Pot up or plant out softwood cuttings
- Trim conifer hedges
- Try air layering climbing plants
- Prune wisteria
Perennials
- Divide irises
- Disbud dahlias
- Continue to cut back faded flowers
- Harvest seeds from perennials
- Layer pinks and carnations
- Plant autumn-flowering bulbs
Fruit & Veg
- Keep harvesting vegetables as soon as they are ready
- Harvest early potatoes, shallots, onions, globe artichokes, garlic planted last year
- Sow peas, vegetables for autumn harvesting, spring cabbages
- Sow autumn and winter salads
- Finish planting out winter brassicas
- Stop outdoor cordon tomatoes
- Endives can be blanched
- Watch out for tomato problems
- Begin to earth up celery
- Lookout for potato and tomato blight
- Stop climbing beans when they reach the top of their supports
- Pick and dry herbs
- Take cutting from herbs
- Harvest summer-fruiting raspberries, blackcurrants, red and whitecurrants
- Summer-prune red and white currants
- Prune summer-fruiting raspberries
- Continue training new canes of blackberries and other hybrid berries
- Continue training fan-trained fruits
- At the end of the month begin summer- pruning trained apples and pears
- Thin out fruit on apples and pears
- Support heavily laden fruit trees branches
Lawns
- Mow and trim edges once or twice a week
- Don’t water unless absolutely necessary
- Give the lawn a boost with a liquid fertilizer
Containers and bedding
- Maintain annuals and tender perennials
- Finish planting out summer bedding plants in baskets
- Transplant biennial seedlings
- Cut and dry everlasting flowers
- Disbud tuberous begonias
- Water and feed containers regularly
Under cover
- Keep the greenhouse well ventilated
- Start taking fuchsias cuttings
- Start removing foliage from tomatoes
- Watch out for tomatoes disorders