Gardening July
The garden now needs to be spruced up a bit. Deadhead the roses, spray for black spot and aphids. Cut down the lupins and delphiniums and you will be rewarded with a second flowering. Deadhead the dahlias every day for continuous flowering. It is the pointed shape that have flowered and the round shape that are the buds. Keep watered. Do pick the sweet peas and
allow no seed pods to form. Keep well watered and fed. I am growing Matucana again this year. It is a very old variety, which was introduced
into England in 1699 from Sicily. The flowers are deep purple and lighter purple, they smell wonderful.
Cut down old fruited raspberry canes and tie in the new ones. Remove the fleece or nets from currants and strawberries. Pegs down strawberry runners
for new plants.
We are lifting potatoes each day for dinner. We are still picking broad beans and the dwarf French beans are starting now. Keep the runner beans
well watered now the flowers have set, beans will be ready in a couple of weeks. For the first time ever our garlic crop is poor this year. A lot of
the cloves have not developed properly so we will have to use them sparingly not forgetting to save a few good heads for next year.
In the greenhouse the tomatoes have started to ripen, I picked my first one yesterday and can see several more nearly ready. Keep on regular watering and give a feed with Tomorite every few days. The peppers are looking good
but there is no colour on them yet. The cucumbers are slow to form but I can see several tiny ones coming along. I bought a pot of Basil and one of
Parsley and planted them out in the garden while I wait for my seedlings to develop.
Keep cutting the lawn with the blades on a high setting and trim the edges for a good finish.
Don’t forget to sit back and enjoy the garden!
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