July brings plenty of flowers, the first pickings from my small veg plot and cucumber after cucumber from the greenhouse. I've also revisited my past and started a cacti collection again – takes me back decades – with plenty to do in the garden. Watering of hanging baskets, containers and pots, checking for bugs on my roses and feeding where plants look hungry. It's a proper gardening month!
What to do for your July garden
- Feed plants growing in containers and hanging baskets. The built in fertiliser in most compost is now exhausted and plants are really getting into their stride.
- Nip off all flowers as they fade to encourage more to be produced. Bedding plants respond to this treatment well.
- Feed tomatoes when the first fruits start to swell. Regular watering is the key to successful tomato growing.
- Damp down the floors in greenhouses to keep humidity high and reduce the stress your plants are under.
- If you don't want your roses to produce hips (great to look at in autumn and the birds love them!) then cut off flowers to prevent them rotting on the plant.
- Wet weather in June has helped plants produce lots of floppy growth. Tie long stems in, and support potato stems to prevent them breaking.
- Pick crops as they mature – courgettes quickly turn to marrows if you don't get them early!
Make time to enjoy your garden – in the hustle and bustle of holidays and watering, it is easy to