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July is here and with it, hopefully, plenty of warm weather that continues late into the evenings allowing you to work in your garden after work and over the coming weekends to get your garden in the best condition possible with your growing spaces thriving.
As well as working on your garden, don’t forget to enjoy all of the hard work you have put into your outdoor space too, sit out in the sun, have a barbecue and fully appreciate the wonderful work you have completed so far.
To help you manage your workload or skip the tasks that aren’t relevant to your garden or outdoor space, we have categorised July’s jobs into the following four sections:
With summer and hotter days now here, it is important to ensure your plants are hydrated as well as keeping your grass, plants and hedges well maintained and ready to welcome guests at any time.
Planning ahead for any holidays or breaks you may have is important too with an automatic watering system recommended, ensuring your plants are still thriving when you return.
We recommend completing as many of these maintenance jobs as possible before moving on to the other sections of our July gardening tasks.
Mow lawns regularly but be sure to raise the cutting height during dry weather to leave the grass longer
Be sure you are regularly trimming your conifers and other garden hedges to keep your garden tidy
Trim your lavender plants after flowering to keep them compact & bushy but avoid cutting old wood
To encourage more flowers, deadhead bedding plants, annuals & sweet peas every few days
Be sure to keep on the lookout for developing pest problems and take immediate action
Check your pools and water features and scoop out any floating algae or pondweed
To help in dry spells, water new perennials, shrubs and trees planted in spring
Each morning & evening be sure to water your hanging baskets and patio containers
If you’re going away, set up an automatic watering system to look after all of your garden
During warm weather, top up your ponds, bird baths and water features
Speed up decomposition by chopping up and mixing up your kitchen and garden waste
From your comfrey plants you should now begin making your own liquid feed
Fortnightly apply tomato feed to crops in pots and growing bags
July is a time for plant care, area maintenance and even a little planning ahead to autumn. With temperatures raising you need to ensure your greenhouse is kept cool enough during hot spells so constant ventilation could be needed and shading from direct sunlight is also recommended to prevent sun scorch.
Keep your greenhouse as cool, shaded and clean as possible to give your growing efforts the best chance of success.
Follow this lists of tasks to ensure your greenhouse in great condition and full of healthy plants & crops:
To prevent thirsty plants like tomatoes from drying out install a reservoir water system
Stop tomatoes from drying out by watering daily to prevent split fruits and blossom end rot
On hot days you can increase the humidity by damping down the greenhouse floor
Improve your greenhouse air circulation on warmer days by opening greenhouse doors and vents
Reduce debris that can harbour pests and diseases by regularly sweeping your greenhouse
To clean off any accumulated dust, take your large-leaf houseplants outside and hose them down
Take cuttings from any tender perennials you have such as fuchsias, coleus, pelargoniums and marguerites
Take cuttings from house plants such as Begonia rex, African violets, Cape primroses, crassula and kalanchoe
On your cordon tomatoes, continue pinching out any sideshoots that begin to grow out from the leaf joints
Train the stem of cucumbers & pinch out sideshoots two leaves after a flower or fruit pinch out
To encourage fruiting, weekly feed tomatoes, chillies and cucumbers with high-potash tomato fertiliser
To keep your houseplants in peak condition, continue to feed them weekly up until Autumn
For a Christmas harvest, order cold-stored potato tubers for planting in a greenhouse or cool porch in August
Keep an eye on your plants for aphids, vine weevils and other pests and treat any infestations immediately
This month, you are going to need to mainly keep on top of your existing growing efforts by ensuring your plants are well watered, fed and generally cared for. With the tasks below you can ensure your hard work so far this year will come to fruition by preventing the summer weather from becoming too much for your plants & flowers.
There is also some planning ahead to next year and autumn but we don’t want to put too much attention on summer being over just yet!
Read through the list of jobs below and complete the July jobs that are relevant to your wants & needs but are also within the capabilities of your outdoor space.
To prolong flowering; regularly water & feed sweet peas, pick flowers and remove seed pods
Regularly feed, water & deadhead summer bedding in pots, borders & hanging baskets
Give liquid feed & water well your dahlias, also tie the shoots of tall varieties to stakes
Regularly feed and deadhead your roses to ensure all of your roses keep flowering strongly
In pots & borders, plant autumn bulbs such as nerines, colchicums and sternbergia
To help maintain the colourful leaves on your coleus plants, regularly pick off flowers
For bloom next year, sow biennials like foxgloves, honesty, forget-me-nots and wallflowers
Choose newly opened lavender for drying to achieve the best fragrance, hang in a cool dark place
After a second flush flowering, cut back summer perennials, such as hardy geraniums & delphiniums
Begin to take softwood cuttings from your shrubs such as pyracantha, cotinus, hydrangeas and spiraea
To ensure your weeds don’t have time to set in and seed, regularly hoe and hand-weed your borders
Watch out for pests like snails, lily beetles, aphids & vine weevils and remove before they do any harm
As with previous tasks in this monthly blog, July is the time to keep your fruit and vegetable crops well watered, fed and maintained. Be sure the summer sun doesn’t ruin all of your hard work and prevents you from having a bountiful harvest this year.
Be sure to keep a close eye on potential pests from ruining your growing efforts too!
During July, be sure you finish all of the suitable tasks for your garden or outdoor space and we hope you are able to achieve some fantastic harvests soon!
Water fruit trees & bushes before laying a thick garden compost mulch around the base to hold moisture
You should be regularly watering thirsty plants such as tomatoes, celery, beans, peas, courgettes and pumpkins
Make your last pickings of rhubarb before removing flower spikes and cut right down to the base
To prevent them from turning into marrows, regularly pick your courgettes
Into pots of compost to root new plants, begin to peg down strawberry runners
In dry weather prune your plum trees as silver leaf fungal disease is less prevalent
For an autumn crop, you should now sow your last batch of dwarf beans & peas before the middle of July
For continuous pickings, sow small batches of fast-maturing salad leaves, rocket and radishes every few weeks
Shorten any sideshoots growing out of the trained fruit trees framework, reduce to about five leaves from the base
Heavy crops of apples, plums & pears need thinning out, remove any undersized, damaged or malformed fruits
After harvesting cut down your broad beans but leave the roots in the soil as they release nitrogen when decomposing
Prevent cabbage white butterflies from laying their eggs on brassica leaves by covering with a fine netting
Keep an eye out for aphids on crops like runner beans and wash them off immediately before they multiply
