Gardening Tips for the month of JULY – Mid Summer
- Summer Prune Wisteria – During early July, about two months after flowering, prune side-shoots and long twining stems down to five or six leaves from a main branch.
- WEEDING where necassary
- Water your hanging Baskets and containers – At least once a day
- Feed your hanging baskets and containers
- Harvest your salad vegetables when ready – Especially lettuce
- Propagate Strawberry plants by pegging down any runners that have grown
- Keep your eyes peeled for pests – Slugs and snails in particular
- White fly – Check your Fuchsias
- Don’t forget to dead head any faded, jaded or dying blooms
- Watch out for signs of Mildew – Best to prune out and burn
- Any Beetroots sown earlier should be ready now – Don’t let them get too big
- Aphids need to be watched – They multiply fast at this time of the year – carefully check any Fuchsias
- Mow your lawn regularly
- Shade your Greenhouse from the hot summer sun
and keep it well ventilated, day and night - Clematis wilt can show up now at this time of year
- Decide on what your going to do about the newly forming
Rose hips, they can make good winter interest and provide seed, if not prune - Watch out for Lily Beetle
- You can also dead head annual bedding plants – They too could use a feed
- Your pond if you have one needs to be checked over. Remove any blanket weed and dead head and remove any dead foliage from the pond plants
- If you planted it earlier, the spinach is ready for harvesting
- If your growing them, your pumpkin’s need some food and plenty of water
- Around mid July, propagate herbs from cuttings
- Some summer flowering plants are setting seed, you can collect these if the seed head is ripe
- Sow Pansy and Viola seed for September planting- Keep them cool whilst germinating, less than 21c
- Sow perennial seed – Most herbaceous plants can be sown now, check seed packet for details
- If you have any Irises growing – You can lift and divide them now – Make sure you water them in well when re planting
- Sweetcorn should be nearly ready if planted earlier
- Tomato blossom end rot can form now – Avoid splashing water onto the fruits
- If your feeling energetic – Turn the Compost heap
- This is the month to take Box (Buxus) cuttings – Around Mid month onwards
- Some tree and bush fruit might be ready, peaches and nectarines in particular
- Sow your autumn lettuce seed now
- You can also plant, as long as you watch the watering, any gaps in your flower borders
- Pick any flowers from the garden to use indoors – This will encourage more flowers, Verbena Bonariensis should be flowering well now
- Summer prune Espalier Apple trees – The shoots growing from horizontal branches.
- Harvest your onions as the leaves turn yellow and die back – You can leave them on the surface to dry out
- Don’t forget your House Plants – Feed and water
- You should be both, harvesting and sowing for continuation of your salad crops
Gardening Ideas for the month of JULY
- If you have always fancied having a pond in your garden – July is a good month to build a garden pond