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Summer

   JUNE

  • You can sow: pak choi, kohl rabi, peas, radishes, salad leaves, spring onions, squash, pumpkins, swedes, corn, swiss chard, turnip, French and runner beans, beetroot, broccoli, cabbages, carrots, chicory, courgettes and marrows, cucumbers, fennel  and kale.

  • Keep weeding your pots and borders.

  • Plant out summer bedding plants.

  • Water plants regularly and feed when necessary. Make sure you check pots and baskets after rain, they will not always get a sufficient amount of water, even in wet weather.

  • Deadhead annuals and perennials to prolong flowering season.

  • This is a good time to take softwood cuttings of shrubs and short-lived perennials (sign up for our newsletter to find out about our ‘Propagation Workshop’ and learn how to take cuttings).

  • Watch out for blackfly on broad beans and cherries (curling of leaves, presence of ants); Lilly beetle on lilies (nibbled foliage, presence of red beetle and soft dark larvae on leaves). Advice and methods of controlling are available at the garden centre.

  • Remove suckers from roses; prevent black spot by removing infected leaves and/or apply fungicide.

   JULY

  • You can sow: French and runner beans, beetroot, broccoli, spring cabbages, carrots, Florence fennel, kale, pack choi, peas, radishes, salads, spinach, spring onions, Swedes and turnip, swiss chard.

  • If you are going away for the Summer you can prepare your garden by: watering thoroughly just before you go; putting all the pots in a shaded spot or gathering them together (this shades the pots and prevents evaporation); picking your crops; setting up watering systems; asking your friends or neighbours in return for some sweet strawberries or crunchy peas.

  •  Propagate clematis from inter-nodal cuttings (you can join our propagation workshops or sign up for our news letter to find out how).

  • Make sure you deadhead the roses. If they have finished flowering cut off about 3-4 inch of the stem just above a healthy leaf of a young side-shoot. This will encourage the plant to produce another truss of flowers. Feed with general-purpose or a special rose fertiliser (both available at the nursery).

  • Prune wisteria to maintain its framework and encourage flowering. Cut all the long new shoots back to 6in long. Remove any damaged or displaced growth.

  • Deadhead, water and feed regularly your annual and container-grown plants.

  • Watch out for cabbage white butterflies that lay eggs on brassicas (e.g. cabbage, cauliflower, kale, broccoli, Brussels sprouts). Remove any eggs or young caterpillars from the underside of leaves.

   AUGUST

  • You can sow: kohl rabi, lettuces, pak choi, radishes, spinach, spring onions, swiss chard, turnip and Florence fennel.

  • Water and feed your plants regularly, especially those in containers and baskets; make sure you check them after the rain to ensure they’ve received enough water.

  • Weed pots and borders. Fast growing weeds compete with plants for water, space and nutrients.

  • Keep deadheading flowering plants; ensure you remove the whole flower stalk not only a flower head.

  • Prune summer fruiting raspberries. Cut all the stems that fruited this year down to 1 inch (they are usually woody and still have remains of brown calyces left after picking fruits).

  • Prune blackcurrant. A few of the fruited and older branches should be cut close to the ground; young stems are the most productive.

  • Prune gooseberries and redcurrants. Remove any new side shoots of the main trunk and cut back all the side shoots on main branches by one-third. Remove any damaged or crossing shoots.

  • If you want to expand your strawberry collection, now it’s perfect time to collect rooted strawberry runners. Cut them off from the parent plant, pot up or plant into a new position.

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