General Maintenance
- Keep up regular hoeing and weeding.
- Conserve water and save time by mulching with well rotted manure or garden compost after rain.
- Watch out for diseases such as Mildew and Potato Blight. Caused by hot weather and high humidity at this time of year.
Vegetables
- Harvesting should be in full flow now. Any disease free wast should go on the compost heap.
- Lift Garlic and Shallots as the foliage turns yellow, dry in a well ventilated area for storage.
- Keep harvesting Beans and Courgettes, allowing them to mature slows down production of further crops.
- Sow Spring Cabbage, make a few sowings, the plants need to be big enough to get through the winter, but not so far advanced that they bolt.
- Sow main crop Turnips
- Sow headed Chinese Cabbage, these like the cooler late summer temperatures, high temperatures will make them bolt.
- Sow Runner Beans in situ until the end of the month.
- Out door cordon Tomatoes need side shooting regularly.
Pinching out the growing tips (stopping) after 5 or 6 trusses can help the fruit to develop and ripen. - Feed Tomatoes with a high Potash fertilizer.
- Pinch out growing tips of trailing Marrows and Pumpkins.
- Keep up a vigil against garden pests, watch out for caterpillars of the Cabbage Whit Butterfly on all Brassicas.
Fruit
- Pick and store summer fruiting Raspberries, Black, Red and White currants.
- Keep tying in and prune any trained fruit.
- Thin out Apples and Pears.
- Protect ripening plums from birds and wasps.
- Clean up Strawberry plants that have finished fruiting.
Clear away straw from under the plant and cut off any old foliage. - Propagate new Strawberry plants from runners, plants that are more than three years old start to produce less fruits.
Greenhouse
- Keep watering and feeding Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Melons, Aubergines and Peppers etc.
Feed with a high Potash fertilizer to help fruit development. - Tie in plants to supports and remove any yellowing or diseased foliage.
- Ventilate and damp down the floor on hot days.
- Regular harvesting of young fruits will encourage more production.
- Inspect plants frequently for pests such as Aphids, White fly and Red spider mite.
- Greenhouse Tomatoes will need side shooting on a regular basis.
