July
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Mid Summer is July, whimsically High Summer, a mythical time which July aspires to, but is often a cool wet month (please remember we are on a small island stuck between seas on the edge of a huge cold ocean). This (and not the autumn) is much more the gardener’s time of harvest.
OUTDOORS
Cut the grass at least fortnightly, preferably weekly, but raise the height of cut of mower to maximum as longer grass blades promote deeper roots keeping your lawn greener longer Lever out thistles, plantains and docks right now with a daisy grubber
Make sure no weeds get away, but if dry you can just hoe fortnightly Water all pot grown plants at least thrice daily! For dried out baskets and planters and near thirsty plants in ground place a plastic bottle full of water with a tiny hole in it’s bottom which will give very slow but effective watering that will soak in Or put ice cubes in plastic cup with a small drainage hole which will drip water to thirsty roots (but not for tender plants) Rake mulches aside before rain showers to allow water to reach roots and replace them again after Feed plants in pots with comfrey liquid or seaweed solution weekly Give roses a heavy feed and water after deadheading and hope for another flush Spray everything growing with diluted seaweed solution, and anything with deficiency symptoms more heavily When water butts get near empty clean out and fit sock (filter) to down pipe then they’re ready to catch next rain, put that lovely black ooze on your compost After a barbeque put bones on the dying charcoal and bake them brittle, pound to dust before adding with ash to compost heap for valuable phosphates as well as potash Lift and divide daffodil tribe bulbs now while they are dormant Turn pond blanket weed into hanging basket liners and mulch mats Deadhead roses and dead head and cut back most flowering plants as flowers die Tie in new growths of climbing plants Cut back evergreens and conifer hedges Thin ant colonies by putting tin cans over site and evicting ‘eggs’ in mid afternoon- hens, fish and birds love them Sow ‘biennials’ before it’s too late- all those foxgloves, stocks, hollyhocks and so on If you want the seeds cover ripening sunflower heads with bird-proof nets or bags Start saving seed heads especially such as grasses and of course sunflowers, to put out for the birds in winter Put out water for birds as this can be driest time so make temporary bird-baths for the rest of summer
When you’re sure all fledglings have gone clean out bird boxes and compost old nests to destroy fleas and other parasites AND in the orchard and fruitcage Put paper bags over especially choice ripening fruits to keep the wasps and flies off Hang bottles of jammy water on fruit trees before their fruit ripens to catch wasp scouts Leave, indeed chop up, healthy windfall fruits to fob off wasps and birds Thin your apples and pears again first removing the infected, infested, damaged, congested and odd peaches, be ruthless Don't pick soft fruit such as gooseberries under ripe, protect with nets and even cover with plastic umbrella to let some ripen fully Now as they turn more to our fruit and will eat less pests you can kill wasp nests Spread straw, bags of crumpled newspaper, nets or sheets under valued fruit trees so dropping fruits don’t get so bruised Prop heavily laden branches now, especially on plums before they break Chop very heavy plum crops in half before they break branches Stone fruits, Prunus species, are traditionally pruned now to avoid Silver leaf; cherries, apricots, peaches and plums, both flowering and fruiting ones Summer pruning, remove approximately half to three quarters of each new shoot, except for leaders, of all red and white currants, gooseberries and all trained fruit Stop (nip out tip) the shoots of grapevines several leaves after the bunches and remove or severely shorten all surplus and non-fruiting shoots Then thin grapevine bunches to one per square foot or less Blackcurrants need all old wood removing once fruited, raspberries likewise Start a new strawberry bed right now and it will establish well enough to crop well for you next year
AND in the vegetable plot Water crops in the vegetable bed heavily and often When watering courgettes and squashes do not wet the flowers as this may cause rot Leeks need to put on a lot of bulk in the next months so make a trough alongside them and re-direct your grey water (recycled bath, shower and washing up water) to them twice a week As space becomes available when summer crops are removed sow successional crops of chervil, rocket, hardy lettuce, lamb's lettuce, miner's lettuce, spring onions, winter radishes, turnips, beet, chards and spinaches, Pak-choi, Chinese cabbage and Florence fennel, Sow suitable varieties of cabbages, kales and cauliflowers giving them plenty of space and water to get good plants to over-winter which will crop early next spring Dig new potatoes as haulms die back Bury some new potatoes, deep, in shade or a cool damp place, in tin of sand, for winter treat Lay wet newspapers around main-crop potato haulms as mulch and to stop light greening protruding tubers Remove any flowers and seed pods on potato plants as these waste energy and removing them improves crops by a ton per acre Don’t let courgettes, beans or sweet peas get away- keep picking them regularly and they’ll keep producing, stop and so do they Earth up around base of sweet corn and tomato plants to add stability and encourage basal roots Put grass clippings about sweet corn crops to keep their soil moist Help by hand pollinating sweet corn by running hands over (top) male tassels then over (lower) female silks- of same variety only When harvesting cabbages leave a stump and cut a cross in it, then water and liquid feed well, side buds will sprout and you will soon have some bonus mini cabbage heads Cut sweet pea plants back hard and feed heavily for new ‘tops’ and more flowers Take almost all the pumpkin fruits off each plant leaving just the best to grow huge
Dig up garlic before all trace of their position departs with their dried leaves Do not bend down the leaves of ripening onions as it is counter-productive and causes rots Harvest onion crops as soon as their leaves wither Lift your onions with a fork from underneath to break their roots if the tops have not died down naturally Harvest and use or store everything as soon as it’s ready!!!! Make a night time inspection of your garden and especially round plants sustaining damage
ORDER
Get point of lay pullets now so they will settle down and give eggs until well into winter Buy your Japanese onion seed now so you have it ready for it’s sowing window in late August as then it may be all sold out
UNDER COVER
Spread lavender and herb trimmings to sweeten your shed floor Clean out and ready your apple and root stores
GREENHOUSE
Water, water water Leave ventilation fully open most of time Shade cucumbers if very bright and hot sPick tomatoes, aubergines and peppers as soon as ripe to prevent these suppressing more from forming Start new more productive plants of greenhouse cucumbers and melons by layering their tips in small pots