Hope you are all keeping well and busy in the community garden. Please see July of what to do in the garden/community plot.
Enjoy
Vegetable & Fruit July Growing Guide
July is usually one of the hottest and driest months so a lot of time
may be spent watering. You can reduce water loss and so save yourself some
time. Mulching with a layer of organic matter will help preserve moisture but
may encourage slugs so you will need to take action against them. Another good
method of preventing water loss is to hoe. This not only kills the weeds but
breaks up the top of the soil stopping water from being drawn to the surface by
capillary action and evaporating.
Those early potatoes should be coming out of the ground now and although they do not store as well as the maincrop varieties they will store until finished.
Sowing &
Planting in July on the Vegetable Plot
Direct
Sowing
In dry weather draw your drill and water it well prior to sowing and
then just water with a fine rose after to settle the seeds in.
In really hot spells you might need to water young seedlings early
morning and late evening to keep them going.
Although the sowing season is coming to a close there are still things
to sow in July
Spring
Cabbage Chicory Chinese cabbage Kohlrabi
Lettuce Peas French Beans Beetroot
Carrots Radishes
Planting Out
If they've not gone out yet, it's time to plant out your leeks. Just dib
a hole about 150mm (6") deep and drop the leek into the hole. Water it in
and the job's done. Don't follow old advice about trimming the tops and roots,
it has no beneficial effect and is probably harmful. You don't need to fill the
holes with soil, enough will wash in with watering and rain. The reason you
plant in a hole is to blanch the stem.
Brassicas from pots can go out as well: broccoli, calabrese, Brussels
sprouts and cabbage
Green
Manures
To follow on the first early potatoes with leeks but otherwise a green
manure can avoid bare ground which is just going to grow weeds. Mustard is fast
growing and is supposed to confuse the potato eel worm into breeding at the
wrong time, hence a follow on to potatoes. It is a brassica so don't use it
if you suffer from club root.
Another fast growing green manure crop you can use is French beans. Even
if you have enough beans for the kitchen, the plant produces a fair amount of
leaf and stem plus the roots, as with all legumes, have nodules containing
bacteria that fix nitrogen from the atmosphere.
Cultivation,
Pests & Problems
The same advice as for June applies to watering, slugs & snails and
butterflies. If you've not netted your brassicas against butterflies (and
probably if you have!) then I guarantee you'll have missed some butterfly eggs.
It really is worth double checking, look close to the stem, and getting
any caterpillars that may have hatched out. There's little left in the
gardener's kit bag in the way of sprays nowadays so pick them off into a bucket
and drown them. A major cause of poor crops with potatoes is poor nutrition.
They are a very greedy plant and a boost now will pay a dividend in tubers. A
feed balanced as for tomatoes is ideal. If you make your own feed from comfrey,
this is ideal.
Keep on top of the weeds; it really is far easier to hoe them as small
seedlings than as grown plants. Even if you cannot see any weeds, hoeing will
actually be killing tiny seedlings you have not noticed and will be helping
reduce moisture loss
With broad beans you can pinch out the tops which are most attractive to
blackfly. Another 'trick' is to plant some nasturtiums which attract blackfly.
You can then pull the nasturtiums and their blackfly.
Keep your onions well weeded and don't forget to feed them as well to
get the best possible crop. As they mature they need to dry out, so don't over
water if at all. Keeping the weeds off allows air to circulate; the last thing
you want is a muggy atmosphere around the onions developing moulds.
Fruit
If we do get
a prolonged dry spell, don't forget that that fruit bushes and trees need
watering. Swelling apples and currants need water as much as leafy vegetables.
Give a good soaking rather than little sprinkles that encourage surface
rooting.
Finish thinning apples, pears and plums etc. if needed. It's the right
time for summer pruning as well. Keep the base of trees weed and grass free,
mulch to keep in moisture and add fertility with garden compost.
Pick soft fruits now assuming you've kept the birds away with netting or
a cage and they've left you some. Don't forget to use strawberry runners to
grow new plants and remove unwanted runners so the plants retain strength. Grub
up and replace in another spot strawberries after 3 or 4 years cropping.
In the
Greenhouse / Polytunnel
Ensure good ventilation. It can get incredibly hot in a greenhouse with
strong sun and scorch your plants. You should also consider shading the house
either with blinds or films or with a shading wash
Keep pinching off the side shoots with your tomatoes and keep an eye out
for pests such as aphids, whitefly, and red spider mite. If you are subject to
attack by these pests it is worth checking out biological controls as these are
perfectly safe to use and, used correctly, more effective than traditional
chemical controls.
