What to do in the garden in July

Summertime… and the living is easy. The hard work drops away and you have time to relax and enjoy the beautiful garden you’ve created. There are a few small jobs you can be getting on with, though:

General tasks:

• Edge lawns with edging shears to keep them sharp and neat: lawn edges grow faster than surrounding grass so need trimming more regularly.
• Clip hedges now that the birds have finished nesting, aiming for an A shape so the sun can reach all parts equally.

Ornamental gardens

• Feed roses with a specialist rose fertiliser after regular dead-heading to encourage more flowers to form.
• Deadhead bedding to keep the show going for longer, pinching out fading blooms to encourage new flower buds to form.
• Apply slow release fertiliser granules to containers and hanging baskets to boost growth for the rest of the season.

Kitchen garden:

• Pinch out broad bean shoots to encourage the pods to swell and deter blackfly infestations.
• Harvest and store garlic as soon as the foliage starts yellowing, drying bulbs carefully for two weeks before plaiting them into strings.
• Sow late summer salads in large containers so you can start picking them in as little as six weeks’ time.