Plants on sale now and looking good this month:
- Verbena for great late summer colour, which the butterflies and bees will love.
- Phlox now looking good.
Top jobs for July:
Care for houseplant while on holiday.
Water tubs and new plants if dry, but be water-wise.
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”.
Deadhead bedding plants and repeat-flowering perennials, to ensure continuous flowering.
Fill any gaps in your borders and pots with plants that provide instant colour – we have lots available.
Tend to your roses.
Feed rose bushes. Spread a handful or two of Toprose fertiliser around the plants and lightly rake 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. Roses are particularly prone to pest and diseases. They are one of few plants that benefit from preventative treatment for aphids, blackspot and rust. Use a spray such as Rose Clear which tackles all of these pests in one treatment. A healthy plant will be less prone to diseases so keep your roses well tended. Hygiene is also important so clear up and and cut out and diseased leaves and stems. Do not compost diseased plant material, burn or remove from your garden (commercial green waste tip or rubbish bin).
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.
Pick courgettes before they become marrows. Regular harvesting encourages more flowering and fruiting.
Treat apple scab.
If the tree is isolated, pruning out twigs that are blistered, and disposing of fallen leaves and infected fruit will reduce the amount of fungus available to start infections in the next season.
Prune soft fruit (e.g. gooseberries). Once you’ve harvested your fruit it’s a great time to prune it back. Pruning in Summer is a good time to constrain growth so you can keep your plant the size that you want.
Clear algae, blanket weeds and debris from ponds, and keep them topped up.
Give the lawn a quick-acting summer feed, especially if not given a spring feed.
Harvest apricots, peaches and nectarines.
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.
Provide water for birds to bathe and drink.
Plant butterfly and bee friendly plants in a warm sunny place.
Try Buddleja, Hebe, wallflowers, Sedums, marjoram, mints, Aster, Solidaster, Solidago, heathers, and thyme.