What should I be doing in my garden in July?
July gardening jobs in Buckinghamshire have got to include relaxing and just enjoying the garden! This picture is of our lead designer, Jamie taking some time to stop and just look at the flowers in our gold award winning garden at the Blenheim flower show. Perhaps we should all take time to simply look at nature more often.
The borders are bursting with blooms, bees are busy, and warm evenings invite us to enjoy our outdoor spaces. But with all this beauty comes the need for a little maintenance to keep everything looking its best. Here’s what’s to do this month to keep our gardens thriving:
Gardening jobs in July include deadheading roses
Most repeat-flowering roses are still going strong. Deadhead spent blooms to encourage more, by doing this you can get your roses to flower well into autumn months. If you mulch with well rotted manure and feed with a specialist rose fertiliser this will also help to keep the display going. Snipping off spent blooms encourages many plants (like cosmos, and geraniums) to produce more flowers rather than setting seed so it’s a good idea to get those secateurs out every day while you’re watering.
Prune Rambling roses after they have flowered. It’s really very easy, all you have to remember is they produce flowers on wood produced the previous year. All side shoots that have flowered can be pruned back to one or two buds from the main stems. Any new, strong shoots should be tied in to replace older shoots. Any very old stems should be cut right back down to the base. In this way you’ll encourage new shoots. If you’re not sure if you have a rambling rose or climber, ramblers are more vigorous and do not repeat flower. It’s important to know the difference because they require different care routines!
Summer Pruning of Wisteria
Complete summer pruning of Wisteria this month. Again it’s very simple, just prune all the long new whippy growth back to five or six buds from the main stem. This encourages the plant to produce flower buds. If you have a young plant and want to extend the framework, leave the side shoots on but tie them in to where you want the growth to be. Established Wisterias are very vigorous so it’s important to let them know who’s the boss in the garden, prune this month and again in February and they will reward you with abundance.
Should you water the garden every day in hot weather?
It’s been such a dry hot spring and summer so far this year in Buckinghamshire, there are few gardens that won’t have needed some water. But please water wisely. Water early morning or late evening to reduce evaporation. It’s much better to give a thirsty plant a really good soaking once a week than a little sprinkle every day.
As with all living things, plants will die if they receive too much, or conversely too little water. The first sign that a plant is suffering from drought is that the leaves wilt. They become limp because they are no longer swollen with water, nearly always turn yellow and sometimes in extreme cases, become brown at the ends and the leaves drop off. Too much water can be just as harmful as too little. Many plants will not tolerate sitting in water-saturated ground. Be especially careful with Taxus(Yew) and Ilex(Holly). Prioritise containers, hanging baskets, new plantings, and veg plots. Mulch where possible to retain moisture – compost, bark chips, or grass clippings work well. A mulch is simply a ‘covering’ over the soil so it helps reduce evaporation in hot sunshine.
Feeding the July garden
Most cultivated plants can’t survive on water and sunshine alone! If you’ve noticed that some of your plants have weak growth, or less flowers or fruit than normal, particularly container grown plants, it can be because of a deficiency in these nutrients – nitrogen , phosphorus and potassium. If your plants are looking unhealthy, try giving them a boost with a fertiliser. You can buy these in a garden centre in organic or inorganic forms. Organic fertilisers are plant and animal-derived products, such as bonemeal, seaweed extract and blood, fish and bone. The picture is of compressed chicken manure pellets, which I’ve found easy to get hold of and to be a good organic fertiliser. These products are broken down in the soil before the elements they contain can be absorbed by the plants’ roots so they are longer acting. For a more instant ‘boost’ inorganic fertilisers once dissolved in water, are immediately available to plants. However, because they don’t need soil bacteria to break them down they do nothing for the long-term health of the soil. I use a mixture of organic and inorganic ferlilisers in my garden. For plants in containers a liquid feed every couple of weeks is best to keep them flowering all summer long. Roses, clematis, dahlias and bedding plants all appreciate a mid-season boost.
Hedge pruning in the July garden
Gardening jobs in Buckinghamshire can include trimming conifer hedges to keep them under control, as they won’t grow too much more this year. Conifer hedges have received a bad press recently mainly because of the notorious Leyland Cypress. It can grow very tall very quickly and is too vigorous for a small garden; if neglected it can quickly become a large that can be a nuisance. As with all conifer hedges it needs trimming at least once a year, preferably twice to keep them in check. If you start doing this while they are small, long before they reach the height and width you eventually require, you will have built up a good thick layer of leafy growth over the surface of the hedge.
I’ve just finished pruning my beech, hornbeam and photinia hedges. I only do it once a year, using shears not a hedge timmer so it’s a bit more time consuming but you get a better result.
Pests and diseases in the July garden
With warm weather pests and diseases can rapidly become a problem. There are various sprays available from garden centres to deal with infestations but the best way is to build up biodiversity in the garden by planting a variety of species. This way you will attract beneficial insects and other wildlife, the aim being to have a healthy balance between your friends and foes. It takes effort and motivation to create a truly sustainable garden but in the long term it’s possible to achieve a healthier garden. Check under leaves and around new growth. If you spot a small infestation of aphids, you can squish them gently with your fingers (gross but effective), or spray with a mix of water and a dash of washing-up liquid.
Try to avoid harsh chemicals because they also harm your friendly garden guests like ladybirds and bees.
What fruit is good to pick in July?
This must be the best of the July gardening jobs in Buckinghamshire! Enjoy the fruits of your labour, there’s nothing quite like harvesting fruit and vegetables straight from your own garden. We planted some damsons trees a few years ago and this year it looks like we will have a bumper crop. I’ll be making some damson jam later this month – just delicious! The autumn raspberries are just beginning to ripen up for picking. I prefer autumn raspberries, such as ‘Autumn bliss’ to the summer fruiting varieties, I find they are much less hassle to deal with. You don’t have to support them and the fruit tend to be larger and sweeter. The currants are finishing but goosberries are almost ready to harvest. This is a labour of love…they are incredibly prickly plants to deal with. I carry out pruning at the same time as harvesting by taking out the whole of the fruiting stem, using leather gauntlet gloves for protection. We have a cherry tree in the garden, which fruits generously, but the birds always beat me to harvesting. The only way to stop this is by netting the tree, not a practical option for me, one year a blue tit got tangled in the netting, traumatising us both until I managed to set it free – a happy ending!
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