July Gardening Tips

• Pots and borders
• Trees and shrubs
• Wildlife & Pets

• Greenhouse
• Ponds & Bog Plants
• Home grown food

• Lawns, hedges, paths & drives
• Bits and pieces
• Soils, mulching, weed control, etc

• It is time to sow Winter Flowering Pansies, Primrose and Polyanthus. All are best sown in seed compost in seed trays. Cover the pansies with ¼" of compost but cover the others with cling film and put them in the refrigerator for 2-3weeks before bringing them out into a cool place to germinate. All these plants germinate best if kept cool.


• It is also time to sow your Wallflowers; these are sown thinly into a prepared seedbed outside, prior to lifting and planting out in the autumn.


• Remove the dead flowers from tall perennials such as Delphiniums, Lupins and Foxgloves. This will encourage them to flower again this year.


• Fill any gaps in your borders and pots with instant colour. There is a large range available here.


• If you are having a few friends around for a party in the garden brighten the place up with a few extra planted pots!


• Some perennials such as Lady's Mantle [Alchemilla mollis] can be too successful and may seed themselves everywhere. To limit their spread, remove the flowers as soon as they fade so that seeds can not form.


• Stake sunflowers and other tall plants.


• Trim back Lady's Mantle, Catmint and hardy Geraniums if they are getting scruffy. Within a very short time they will produce new fresh looking leaves and perhaps some flowers too.

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• Check for briar suckers coming from the roots of roses and remove them flush with the roots to avoid getting more.


• Vigorous shrubs such as Firethorn [Pyracantha] will benefit from having over long shoots pruned back and this will stop them hiding the attractive berries which should have formed on old growth.


• Carefully prune evergreen Californian Lilac [Ceanothus] and Broom [Cytisus] now that they have finished flowering. Don't just hack at it, but make sure you use really sharp tools and trim out leading shoots to leave weaker side shoots.


• Vigorous climbers such as Clematis, Honeysuckle and perennial sweet peas will need tying up again. Support them well and they will repay you well with more blooms.


• After they have finished blooming, move lime-hating pot grown plants into a shady area of the garden. They will enjoy the cool and you can bring something showier into the limelight for summer.


• All lime-hating plants either in pots or in the garden will reward you next spring if you regularly feed with a specific plant food such as Miracle-gro Ericaceous. This is when next year's flower buds form.


• Check susceptible varieties of plants for Vine Weevil damage. Half circle notches out of the edges of leaves are common at this time of year and are caused by the female adults [there are no males]. Likely plants to show symptoms are Viburnums, Heucheras, Busy Lizzies, Euonymus, Bergenias, Camellias, Rhododendrons and Fuchsias. If damage is seen, we can supply a natural predator that can be watered around the roots where the grubs cause the greatest damage.


• Feed rose bushes. Spread a handful or two of Toprose fertiliser around the plants and lightly hoe it in. Remove dead flowers and the tip of each shoot to encourage a strong new shoot to grow. This will give you a good show later.


• Prune Climbing and Rambling roses by cutting out old shoots that have flowered [and weak ones that haven't]. Cut back hard to encourage new shoots to appear. These new shoots will carry next years' flowers.


• Remove Buddleia blooms as they fade. Most will grow new smaller flowers further down the stem. Leave a few un-pruned to produce seeds for the birds in winter.
  

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• Don't be in too much of a hurry to tidy up every part of the garden. Wildlife will thrive in the odd corner that has a heap of logs, a few nettles and a pile of dead leaves.


• Provide water for the birds to bathe and drink.

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• If greenhouses are getting too hot, paint 'Coolglass' on the outside to reflect the sun's heat. This is easily wiped off in autumn. Wetting the floor regularly will also lower the temperature but don't do it late in the day.


• Ventilate your greenhouse on a regular basis. If it is still too hot inside, keep the doors open too.


• It is usually at this time of year that whitefly and red spider mite populations in the greenhouse explode so, before that happens, order some natural predators to control these difficult pests the natural way.

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• Mist over the tops of houseplants regularly especially if they are in a room with central heating.


• Clean houseplant leaves with leaf shine. Dusty leaves will struggle in low light at this time of year and polished ones look so much better!


• Group plants together, the display will look better, but more importantly, they grow better together as a group.


• Feed indoor plants monthly; but make sure the root ball is wet first.


• Water carefully; it is better to let plants dry out between waterings and then give a thorough soak than a small amount regularly.


• Keep Citrus cool unless they are actively growing.
• If your living room is looking bare now that you have taken out the Christmas tree and taken down the decorations, why not liven up the room with a houseplant! We have a great range available with plants for every situation.


• Central heating can dry out houseplants, so stand the pots in groups on a tray of damp Hydroleca or pebbles. This will create a humid atmosphere around the plants but do avoid over watering and position them where they can make the most of the winter daylight.


• Keep deadheading Cyclamen, African Violets, Christmas Cacti and Azaleas to encourage more flowers to open. Don't forget to keep Cyclamen and Azaleas as cool as possible for prolonged flowering.


• When the days and nights are very cold, move plants away from cold windowsills into a warmer place!

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• Plant Winter Cauliflower, Purple Sprouting and Leeks in the space created by digging early potatoes.


• Check your fruit trees for the weight of crop they have. If there is a heavy fruit set then it is wise to thin the fruit out now. Thin apples and pears to just two fruits per cluster and, if your plums have a heavy set, a drastic removal of excess fruits is needed to prevent small fruit and branch breakage later.


• Summer pruning of fruit; Apple and Pear trained as cordons or espaliers need summer pruning now. Shorten main stems and laterals when longer than 9" back to the third leaf and lateral side shoots pruned to leave the basal cluster. Gooseberries/red and white currants, new side shoots reduce to 4-5 leaves. Plums & cherries, now is the correct time to prune, never in the winter.


• Trim herbs back. Remove flowers. Give them a good soaking with liquid feed to encourage new shoots. These are always the tastiest.


• Loosen Onions and Shallots and lay them out in the sun to ripen. If you don't do this they may not store so well.


• Sow seed of Spring Cabbages. Sow in a seedbed [outside] for transplanting into the veg. patch in autumn. Sow Wheeler's Imperial, Durham Early or April.


• Stop harvesting rhubarb and asparagus now. This will give it a chance to build up strength for next year. Check asparagus for weevils

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• Keep your lawn edges neat by regularly trimming. Inserting plastic or alloy edging support strips will stop the edges becoming ragged.


• If you have the odd weed or two in the lawn [who hasn't?], spot weeding with a selective lawn weed killer now can be very effective.


• Get some colour back into your lawn with a high nitrogen liquid fertiliser. Products such as Aftercut Lawn Food will do the trick and is easy to apply.


• Trim evergreen hedges . They usually produce most growth at this time of the year so that the cut ends are quickly hidden by fresh growth.

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• Turn your compost heap regularly and water it if dry. Watch out for slow worms which love the heat generated in a well tended compost heap. They are harmless and a real gardeners ally.


• Watch out for those pests and diseases. Aphids in all their colour forms can multiply alarmingly fast. Keep a look out for them on your climbing beans. Mildew and other diseases can also quickly get a hold so here preventative treatment is the best form of attack. Use Fungus Fighter.


• If you water your garden now, remember that it is better to give it a thorough soaking less often than a splash over the top every night. Use washing up water and other "grey water" particularly if your water is metered.


• If you are going away, it is worth investing in an automatic watering system. Very good drip systems are now available to regularly water pots, hanging baskets and greenhouses.

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• Its' time to tackle any bindweed that is strangling plants. If it is growing up and through plants pull it aside, shield your garden plants with some polythene and spray with round up or simular weed killer.


• Regular hoeing between plants in borders and in the vegetable patch will keep weeds under control and also reduce drying out of the soil.


• Now is a good time to spray thistles, couch grass, Japanese knotgrass, bindweed and other difficult to control perennial weeds. Roundup [or other weedkillers containing glyphosate] is the best material to use and is inactivated when it touches the soil. However keep it off the leaves and stems of plants you do not want to kill.

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• Check the water level in ponds and water features regularly. A lot of water can lost through evaporation.

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