July Self-Sufficiency Garden Tasks: Your Monthly Guide

As summer unfolds, July presents prime opportunities for enhancing your self-sufficiency through effective garden management. Here’s your essential guide to maximising productivity this month:

Essential Self-Sufficiency Gardening Tips for July

Sowing and Planting

Vegetables:

• Spring Cabbage, Turnips, and More: Now is the time to sow spring cabbage, turnips, Oriental vegetables, chicory, fennel, and autumn/winter salads.

• Carrots: You can still sow carrots, but be mindful of carrot flies when thinning seedlings.

• Beans: This is the last opportunity to sow French beans and runner beans, particularly in the south of England.

• Winter Crops: If not already done, plant out leeks and brassicas for a steady winter supply.

Pruning and Training

Fruit:

• Fan-Trained Trees: Continue training your fan-trained trees.

• Cherries: Prune cherries immediately after harvesting if needed.

• Gooseberries and Currants: Complete the summer pruning of gooseberries, redcurrants, and white currants.

• Kiwi Fruit: If not pruned last month, now is the time to summer prune your kiwi fruit.

• Indoor Melons: Remove the lower side shoots of indoor melons up to a height of 30cm (12in).

Addressing Problems

• Aphids: Regularly inspect your plants for aphids.

• Blight: Be vigilant for signs of potato blight and tomato blight.

• Asparagus Beetle: Keep an eye out for asparagus beetle.

• Blossom End Rot: Watch for sunken brown patches on tomatoes, indicating blossom end rot.

• Other Pests: Manage woolly aphid, plum rust, pear leaf blister mite, and pear rust.

General Care

Fruit:

• Tree Ties: Regularly check and adjust tree ties as the girth of the tree trunk increases.

• Watering: Use rainwater to regularly hydrate cranberries, lingonberries, and blueberries. When rainwater is scarce, tap water can suffice.

• Pollination: Pollinate female indoor melon flowers, then pinch out 2cm (0.75in) beyond the flower.

• Outdoor Melons: Pinch out the growing point of outdoor melons twice, at four-week intervals, and ensure they receive regular water and feed once established.

• Suckers: Remove suckers appearing around the base of fruit trees.

• Drought Stress: Ensure fruit trees, especially those in containers or against walls, are not drought-stressed.

• Liquid Feeds: Regularly provide liquid feeds to plants growing in containers.

Vegetables:

• Consistent Watering: Maintain a regular, consistent water supply for all vegetables to promote healthy growth and prevent diseases, disorders, and bolting.

• Weeding: Continue hoeing weeds in dry weather to prevent them from re-rooting.

• Cordon Tomatoes: Stop cordon tomatoes by removing the main shoot above the fourth truss to ensure all fruits ripen by the end of the season. Let bush tomatoes grow naturally.

• Climbing Beans: Stop climbing beans when they reach the tops of their supports to maximise cropping on existing side shoots. Ensure they are sufficiently watered to aid seed pod setting.

• Support and Secure: Check that climbing vegetables are securely tied to their supports.

• Celery: Earth up non self-blanching celery cultivars with a protective collar of paper between the stems and the soil to promote blanching.

By following these tips and tasks, you can ensure your garden thrives throughout July and is well-prepared for the coming months. Happy gardening!