Jobs to do on your veg plot in July-September
July to September can bring heatwaves, although wet and windy spells are also common, especially towards the end of September when conditions become more autumnal. Generally the garden will be in full swing, with colourful flowers and bounteous harvests.
Jobs include the following: –
Ensure you continue regular watering especially during hot weather. If you go away on holiday see if a neighbour can water while you are away, especially if you have plants in containers.
This is the last chance to make successional sowings of mixed salad leaves, lettuces, radishes, rocket and spinach. Clear away spent crops to make space for new sowings.
Make regular harvests of runner and French beans, cucumbers and other salad crops.
Continue to harvest early potatoes. If potato blight strikes, with brown lesions spreading over leaves and stems in wet, humid weather, cut down the tops and harvest the remaining crop as soon as you are able to. Dry them off and store in hessian or paper sacks in a cool, frost free place over winter (not polythene bags which will cause them to sweat and rot). Use any damaged ones first as they will not store.
Harvest asparagus but do not harvest after late June, to allow the plants to recover and give a crop the following year.
Harvest onions and shallots when the tops keel over and start to turn brown. Dry them off in a dry place for winter storage. Autumn onion sets and garlic can be planted from September.
Tidy strawberries when they have finished cropping. You can allow some runners to root from healthy plants, but do not propagate from plants that look mottled or otherwise unhealthy.
Prune early raspberries and loganberries/tayberries once they have finished cropping, removing all old fruited canes and tying in new growth to supports.
Continue cutting grass, including wildflower meadow areas in August/September, removing the arisings to prevent nutrient build-up.
Continue to water and feed annuals and bedding plants in pots, troughs and beds. Remove dead heads to keep the display going. Make sure to keep them well watered especially pots and hanging baskets which will need watering every day, even in showery conditions.
Dahlias, cannas, begonias and other tender bulbs, tubers and corms can be planted out once they are big and robust enough to withstand predation by slugs and snails. Keep them watered and dead headed or pick the flowers of dahlias to keep the new blooms coming.
Dead head hybrid tea and floribunda roses to keep the display going.
If you need to prune or cut down dense shrubs or hedges, remember to check for nesting birds first. If in doubt, wait until the autumn. Remember it is against the law to knowingly disturb or destroy an active bird’s nest. Shrubs such as philadelphus (mock orange) should be pruned when they have finished flowering removing old wood and flowered shoots and cutting back any over-long growths to tidy the shrub.
Apples, plums and pears should be thinned out to a maximum of 2 per bunch to allow the fruit to grow to full size and prevent biennial bearing, where the tree only fruits in alternate years. In late July or early August, cut back long young shoots on fruit trees to encourage fruiting spurs to develop. Plums and other stone fruits should be pruned during summer, removing dead, diseased and crossing branches. Pruning in autumn and winter can allow the spores of silver leaf disease into the cuts, weakening and eventually killing the tree.
Plant daffodil and crocus bulbs in September. Remember to plant a few in pots to enter in the Spring Show next March.