July – What should I be planting now?

By now your garden should be full of colour and your summer bedding should be at its best, so while looking after your garden also take some time to sit back and enjoy your garden!

In the hot weather your plants will be needing plenty of water so make sure that you are saving all your ‘grey’ water (old wash water etc.) and water either early in the morning or evening to ensure that the plants receive as much of the water as possible without it evaporating.

You should cut back half of all perennials that have flowered, such as lupins and delphinums. If you are lucky this should persuade more flowers to grow later on in the season. You should also weed and deadhead regularly making sure that you check for any pests. All faded heads on the annuals should also be removed and cuttings can be taken of non-flowering shoots of shrubs and climbers.

Ideally you should be mowing your lawn at least once a week, however with the dry weather it is advisable to leave your lawn a little longer than usual to enable it to retain moisture from the dew.

All fruit trees should be pruned and fruit should be protected from birds using netting, however, check regularly to make sure no birds get trapped.

If you are lucky enough to have a greenhouse make sure you keep an eye out for pests and diseases such as whitefly, fumigate or spray the greenhouse. Continue to feed flowering pot plants. You should take cuttings of fuchias, abutilions and heliotropes. In preparation for spring you should sow cinerarias and calceolarias.

For those with vegetable patches you should lift shallots and autumn-sown onions and complete the planting of broccoli and autumn and winter cabbage. Spring cabbage, spinach beet, lettuce and Chinese cabbage should be sown now.

Don’t forget to order your bulbs for Autumn planting!

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