Online Gardening Calendar

July

Weather permitting, this is the time of year when gardeners can  relax and use their gardens and use their garden as additional living space. Long balmy July evenings are the perfect time to savour the sights, sounds and heady scents of summer.
How about a barbeque or patio heater from North Wales Water Gardens to extend your evenings in the garden.

Fruit

Shorten sideshoots on trained fruit trees. Prune blackcurrant bushes immediately after gathering the fruit. Blackcurrant fruit on fresh, new wood so cut away one third of the old growth to encourage new shoots for the next year.

Trees and Shrubs

Take softwood cuttings of your favourite shrubs by cutting a piece of new stem about 15cm in length, and removing all buds and leaves except for a few at the end. Space these out in a pot of sandy compost, leave in a shady corner and water well. In a few weeks, the cuttings will have formed roots, and you will be able to pot them individually.

Vegetables

Plant kale and sprouting broccoli, and sow parsley, turnips, lettuces, salad onions and radishes. Pick courgettes when they are relatively young to encourage more fruit to form. Keep plants in frames well watered to avoid drying out.

Flowers

This is a good time to sow seeds of winter-flowering pansies and smaller, but resiliant, violas. By sowing them now, they should be established by autumn, and ready to flower throughout the winter period.

Lawns

Mow lawn and trim edges regularly. Give the grass a liquid feed.

Pots

If you are going on holiday, try to arrange for a friend to call round and give your container plants some attention while you are away. Before you leave, place containers in a light area, away from direct sun, and ask for them to be checked daily, if possible.

Ponds

Ensure there is enough oxygen during hot summer days, and top up with fresh water when necessary. Why not add a few choice fish to your collection. This is also a good month for adding some floating plants such as water hyacinths and frogbit to add a bit of extra shade from the sun.