After a very slow start to the growing season due to the cold and wet weather, we can finally start to harvest the fruits of our labours. Home grown fruit and vegetables taste fabulous - time to enjoy!
Jobs to do in the garden this month:
• Water and feed all areas regularly with our liquid fertiliser, especially onions if you are growing them
• Dig up and enjoy early potatoes and start to think what you can plant in the space they will be leaving
• Peg strawberry runners down to propagate them. Once they have established roots cut them from the mother plant so the energy in the mother plant can then go back in to fruit production
• Harvest raspberries and remove suckers
• Keep an eye out for mildew on Gooseberries
• Vegetables and fruit will all be ripening, so keep up with harvesting them and freeze batches so you have supplies through the winter
• The more you pick of certain crops the more they will produce: courgette, beans and tomatoes for example
• Sow French beans, peas, lettuce, beetroot, carrots, spinach, pak choi, swiss chard and radish for a constant supply all summer
• Add some of our plant feed and soil conditioner to the soil before sowing to ensure the seeds have a good supply of nutrients to get them off to a flying start
• Feed your tomato and cucumber plants weekly with our organic liquid feed
• Keep an eye out for pests and spray them with a homemade organic spray or a hard jet of water
• Tie up tomatoes and continue to nip out the side shoots. Watch out for blight.
• Harvest onions and garlic and hang up to dry
• Soft fruit will be ready for picking: strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, blueberries
• Prune cherry trees after harvesting
• Water blueberries and cranberries with lots and lots of water. Give them a weekly feed with our natural fertiliser diluted with rainwater. This is the time to help all the lovely fruit develop
• Trim Leylandii hedges
• Start to prune shrubs to prevent them going bare around the base
• Feed all border plants with our organic liquid fertiliser
• Water all hanging baskets and and potted plants regularly, and give them a weekly feed with our natural fertiliser liquid. A mulch of our plant feed and conditioner over the surface of your hanging baskets or potted plants will help to retain the moisture on hot days, at the same time as providing a slow-release feed.
• Spray roses for greenfly with a homemade organic spray, or wash them off with a sharp jet of water from the hose
• Perennials that have flowered early, can be pruned back to encourage more active growth and a second flush of flowers
• Raise the height of your mower for your lawns. The longer grass will provide some shade for the soil, will hold more moisture and the roots will be protected from the heat
• Feed your lawn with our approved organic liquid feed to keep it in tip top condition
lawn feed, prune shrubs, spray roses, feed tomatoes, early potatoes
