Things to do in the Garden in July

Keep a look out for cabbage white butterfly eggs on all of your cabbage family plants. If you see any eggs on the underneath of your leaves, squish them straight away, no matter what colour they are, or you will be inundated by hungry caterpillars and you will end up with lacy or non-existent leaves.

Butterfly egg photo: sannse

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If you have broccoli seedlings they should be planted out into there final growing places, at least 2 feet apart. If you don’t have the space to plant them out yet, pot them up in at the very least a 5-6″ pot until you do. I made the mistake of putting mine in 3″ pots a couple of weeks ago thinking it would keep them going for a while and the roots are already out the bottom of the pot.

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Tomato blight

Sunshine and showers do the Solanum (tomatoes, potatoes, aubergines) family of plants no favours at all. Tomato/potato blight flourishes in such conditions, it is a fungus that is spread by wind and rain splash. It produces brown lesions on leaves and stems, plus hard brown patches on the fruit. Potatoes are often infected first. Spraying with Bordeaux Mixture will probably not cure it but will slow it down enough to give you a crop. Infected plants must be destroyed, do not compost them or you will be covering your garden with spores.

Also watch out for mould on potatoes, courgettes, tomatoes and other plants, spray with Bordeaux mixture if needed.

Photo: Bert 2332

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If there is no rain, mist your runner bean flowers it helps with setting. If the flowers don’t set you won’t get any beans. Pick your beans as often as you can as it will encourage more beans to form.

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Keep earthing up your potatoes or adding more compost if they are in bags.

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Increasing your strawberry plants is very easy. If you are growing them in the ground, find a bare patch where you want the new plant to be and peg a runner down using a bit of wire or a weight down with a stone. If you are growing strawberries in a container or tub, fill a 3″ pot with compost and put it under a runner and peg down, I usually use a cotton bud that has had the cotton wool pulled off of it, I bend them in half and use it it pin down the runner as in the photo. Within a few weeks the runner will have developed its own root system and you can chop off the rest of the runner.

If you are not increasing your plants keep cutting off the runners so all the energy is going into producing big strong healthy plants ready for next year.

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Blueberries only need feeding twice a year in the spring and now. You need to use a  balanced ericaceous, fertiliser, the sort that is needed for rhododendrons & azaleas. Sprinkle 50g, for young plants, evenly over the root system. Increase in future years as the plant grows. You should not use a fertiliser that is designed for vegetables or tomatoes, also do not use animal manures on them.

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For other fruit related jobs please see ‘The Fruit Garden in July‘ as Blackmoor Nurseries know far more about fruit than me.

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Harvest some herbs: It is best to pick your herbs in the morning after any dew has dried off of them. You can go down the traditional route and tie them into small bundles and hang them upside down in a warm, dry airy place. If you make bigger bundles they will probably go mouldy in the middle before they dry throughout. Once they are completely dry, crumble and store in air tight jars.

Some herbs like basil do not dry well, freezing is a better option and produces fresher tasting results for all herbs. Remove tough stems in a blender, almost cover with water and blend until finely chopped. Pour into ice cube trays and freeze, you can then add a couple to your cooking in the middle of winter and get that fresh herb taste again. You can use single herbs or your favourite mixes. You can freeze the whole herbs flat, when frozen crumble into a bag or tub.

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Keep on dead heads on all flowers so that you get more.

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Once shrubs have finished flowering prune them or cut back to maintain their shape or so they fit their allotted space. If you want, you can use some of the prunings to make new plants. I promise I will write about how to take cuttings in the next week.

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If you have a pond, get rid of blanket weed by twirling a stick in it, it is a bit like making candy-floss. Keep your pond topped up to avoid marginal plants drying out.

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To find out which seeds to sow this month see: ‘Vegetables to Sow in July‘

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You could give your shed a coat of wood preserver or paint if you have run out of jobs to do!