July Jobs For The Garden

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It’s a wonderful time to enjoy your garden – soak up the sunshine, admire the summer colour, and make the most of those long, light evenings. There’s still plenty to do to keep things looking their best, but nothing too heavy – just a few gentle jobs to keep you happily pottering in between relaxing moments with a cuppa or a cool drink.

Watering

Water wisely – early or late
Give plants a deep soak early in the morning or later in the evening, when the sun is low and water has a chance to soak in. Prioritise thirsty veg like courgettes, tomatoes, and leafy crops. Consider using soaker hoses, drip irrigation systems or water-retaining gel to reduce evaporation and make watering more efficient. 

Check containers and hanging baskets daily
Pots dry out rapidly in hot weather. Lift them to check their weight – if they feel light, it’s time to water.

  • Add saucers under pots to catch excess water.
  • Group pots together to provide mutual shade and raise humidity.
  • Mulch the surface with bark chips or coir to reduce evaporation.

Keep an eye on pots
Avoid letting plants wilt – even if they bounce back, their growth can be stunted. If water isn’t draining, check for blocked holes. Compost can also become compacted in heat, so aerate gently if needed.

Use compost mindfully
Remember: garden compost (used as a soil improver) differs from seed or potting compost used in containers. Both can become dense and waterlogged over time – use fresh, peat-free compost for best results, or mix your own using coir, composted bark, loam and sand.

Reuse grey water
During dry spells, you can reuse bath, basin or washing-up water on ornamental plants – just avoid anything that has bleach, salt, or harsh cleaning products. Soap residue is generally fine for most plants.

Lawn Care

Don’t mow too short
Lawns can turn brown and stop growing with so little rain, but don’t worry – they’ll bounce back when it rains again.

  • Raise your mower blades and mow less frequently.
  • Longer grass helps shade the soil and encourages deeper roots.

Fruit & Vegetables

Peg down strawberry runners
Encourage new strawberry plants by pegging runners into pots of compost – you’ll have extra plants ready for next season.

Tomato feed – not just for tomatoes!
Tomato feed is high in potassium, which helps plants produce more flowers and fruit. While it’s perfect for feeding your tomatoes once they start to flower, it’s also great for other crops like peppers, chillies, aubergines, cucumbers, courgettes, and even strawberries. You can also use it to boost flowering in ornamental plants such as dahlias, hanging baskets, and summer bedding. A weekly feed throughout the growing season can make a real difference to your harvest – and to your garden display.

Harvest regularly
Everything from strawberries and tomatoes to beans and courgettes will ripen quickly in the heat. Pick courgettes regularly to stop them turning into marrows. Continue pinching out any side shoots growing from the leaf joints of cordon tomatoes.
You can still sow quick-growing crops like radishes, lettuce, spring onions, and beetroot for late summer harvests. 

Flower & Shrub Care

Cut lavender for drying
Pick newly opened lavender flowers and hang them in a cool, dark place to dry. Perfect for making potpourri or scented sachets later on. If your lavender has finished its first flush of flowers, now’s the time for a light trim. Snipping off spent blooms and a little soft green growth will encourage a second flowering and help keep the plant neat and bushy. Just be careful not to cut into the woody stems – save any hard pruning for late summer.
 

Deadhead daily
Snip off spent flowers to encourage continuous blooms, particularly on roses, dahlias, cosmos and bedding plants. It only takes a minute and makes a big difference – bring on flowers all summer long! 

Summer prune your wisteria
Wisteria benefits from pruning twice a year – once in mid to late summer, and again in late winter. July or August is the time to tidy up those long, whippy green shoots that shoot out after flowering. Snip them back to around five or six leaves from the main stem (or just above a leaf joint) – but only once flowering has finished. This helps keep the plant under control (no tendrils sneaking into windows or gutters!) and encourages more flowers next year. The second prune happens in January or February, when you cut those same shoots back even further – to just two or three buds – for a neat, flower-filled framework.

Planting for sunshine and heat
Got a sun-baked border or patio that’s struggling in the heat? Now’s a great time to plant drought-tolerant varieties that thrive in hot, dry spots. Think Mediterranean – lavender, rosemary, thyme and oregano – alongside sun-loving stars like salvias, sedums, achillea and verbena. These plants not only cope with heat, they often attract pollinators too, and many will flower right into autumn with minimal fuss.

For more tips and all your gardening needs, visit us at Haddenham Garden Centre.

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