Jobs to do in July

Support heavily laden fruit branches with a prop or stake to stop them snapping. If you have freestanding plum or cherry trees with very long or weak branches, prune them straight after harvest.

Sowing and planting

Vegetables

• Direct sow spring cabbage, turnips, Chinese cabbage, pak choi, tatsoi, mizuna, chicory, fennel, and autumn/winter salads.

• Carrots can still be sown, but you may need to grow them under reused or biodegradable fleece to protect them from carrot fly. 

• It’s the last chance to sow French beans and runner beans to crop before autumn (south of England only).

• Plant out leeks and brassicas for a winter supply, if not yet done.

Pruning and training

Fruit

• Continue training fan-trained stone fruit trees such as plums and cherries.

• If you have freestanding plum or cherry trees with very long or weak branches, prune them straight after harvest.

• Summer prune gooseberries, redcurrants and white currants.

• Summer prune kiwi fruit if not done last month.

• Remove the lower sideshoots of indoor melons, from the first 30cm of the stem.

Prevention

• A few aphids are nothing to worry about and support the food chain in your garden, including baby birds.

• Check asparagus plants for asparagus beetle and remove them by hand.

• Keep an eye out for the sunken brown patches of blossom end rot on tomatoes. Aim to keep the compost or soil consistently moist with stored rainwater and stick to the instructions on your fertiliser pack to avoid overfeeding.

• Inspect plants for early signs of potato blight and tomato blight (pictured below), especially in warm and humid weather. Remove affected leaves and add to your council green waste collection.

General care

Fruit

• Check tree ties as the trees grow.

• Water cranberries, lingonberries and blueberries regularly with stored rainwater. If this runs out, use tap water sparingly.

• Pollinate female indoor melon flowers, then pinch out stems 2cm beyond the flower to redirect energy into growing a fruit.

• Pinch out the main growing tip of outdoor melons twice, four weeks apart.

• Water outdoor melons regularly with stored rainwater to keep the roots lightly moist but not soggy. Feed weekly with liquid seaweed.

• Pull off suckers appearing around the base of fruit trees.

• Check soil moisture at finger’s depth and water fruit plants only when needed to avoid drought stress. Those that are in containers, against a wall or newly planted are most likely to experience drought stress.

• Feed container plants with liquid fertiliser such as liquid seaweed when growth slows or the leaves look pale. 

• Support heavily laden fruit branches with a prop or stake to stop them snapping. 

Vegetables

• Water vegetables deeply in dry weather, preferably in the morning or evening to reduce evaporation and using stored rainwater if possible. This will aid healthy development, and help to avoid diseases, disorders and bolting.

• Hoe off weeds that are threatening to outcompete other plants. Do it in dry weather so they dry out and don’t regrow.

• Remove the main growing tip on cordon tomatoes, just above the fourth truss (set of developing fruit) if growing outdoors, or the seventh truss indoors, to help all the fruits ripen. Bush tomatoes can be left unpruned.

• Climbing beans may also need stopping, to maximise cropping on existing sideshoots. Pinch out the tips when they reach the tops of their supports.

• Water beans well while pods are forming, preferably with stored rainwater and focusing water at the base to reduce waste. 

• Check climbing vegetables are securely tied to supports with jute twine.

• Earth up non-self-blanching celery, wrapping the stems with a protective collar of paper first to avoid direct with soil.