Mzzz B's July Garden Blog

Mzzz B's July Garden Blog

So midsummer is over, but summer seems to have arrived at long last, with much higher temperatures! Things have done their growing and are now going over, so my time is spent deadheading and cutting back things that will not flower again, or to encourage reflowering like hardy geraniums. I plant annuals in the gaps that appear, things like cosmos, ammi major, marigolds, I also love the vibrant touch of orange that Tithonia gives in late summer. The borders may also need more supports at this time, especially with heavy rain things topple over. I never seem to have enough peas sticks or plant supports!

Harvesting veg is also a major activity, it seems have been a good spring for broad beans and peas, but the courgettes are a bit slow to get going!, Raspberries have done well, but somehow the blackbirds in this garden seem expert at making holes in the netting of the fruit cage and help themselves, I am forever searching out the holes they make at the base to the netting!

The other nuisance currently is bindweed , such beautiful flowers but such thugs, they would take over the garden given half a chance. I seem have both major and minor bindweeds! They are lovely in hedgerows just not completely covering plants in my garden and thereby killing them!

[Jobs to do in July:
]

• First sit in your garden with a drink, alcoholic or not, and just enjoy it!
• But of course whenever I do that I start to see the weeds, which again you need to keep on top of.
• Pick veg often, to keep things cropping, and enjoy the benefits of your hard labour!
• Clear early broad beans and plant out leeks or brassicas for the winter in their place, there is a theory that they capture nitrogen in the soil, so this could be accessed by the next crop of plants.
• Harvest garlic and shallots, leave to dry off in a dry light place.
• Prune currants after picking opening up centres of bushes.
• Sow parsley for winter.
• Prune rambling roses which given half a chance will take over the world, alongside the bindweed!
• Feed container grown plants weekly with a high potash feed, something like liquid seaweed, comfrey, or weak tomato feed.

Photograph: Tithonia, Mexican Sunflower