July

Garden Tasks for July

• Apple and Pear trees: remove undersized or damaged fruits.  Reduce the number of fruits if a lot have been set.

• Prune plum and cherry trees when the weather is dry.

• Cover brassicas with butterfly netting.

• Sow cabbages for next spring.

• Peg down strawberry runners in pots to root new plants.

• Water tomatoes daily and feed with a high potash feed weekly.  Pinch out cordon side shoots.

• Remove the growing tips of squash and courgette plants to encourage branching.  Keep picking courgettes so they don't become marrows.

• Sow spring-flowering perennial seeds ready for next year.

• Take softwood cuttings of shrubs such as hydrangeas.

• Prune wisteria (Jul/Aug pruning, the other pruning is Jan/Feb).   Cut back whippy side-shoots to about 20cm.

• Feed roses and continue to deadhead.