Here are our gardening tips for July:
· Watch out for pests and diseases. Greenfly and blackfly can multiply especially fast. Particularly check under leaves and spray with insecticide if necessary.
· Deadhead flowers, particularly roses. By cutting off old flower heads they will continue to grow and provide more flowers later in the year. Some roses finish flowering in July, and this is a good time to prune them but not too severely. Just tidy them up.
· If you have Box hedges, watch out for the Box caterpillar which can decimate your plants. Originally from China these beasties have spread widely in the UK and have destroyed many hedges. The National Trust’s Polesden Lacey replaced all their plants with a different type because of the damage they caused. First signs are eggs underneath leaves followed by yellowy green caterpillars. These then form silky cocoons before developing into moths.
Hose off or manually remove the caterpillars and cocoons and then treat with Topbuxus insecticide (Amazon supplies it).
· Prepare your garden for holidays (hopefully) – water well and plan for someone to take care of things if you are going away. Someone to water in your absence to avoid a return to dead plants and, if you are growing vegetables, someone to pick them in your absence.
· Supply of water may be short. Collect and conserve what you can. Install and use water butts to collect rain from your gutters.
· Clip fast growing hedges. If you have leylandii, this is a good time to chop them back. If they grow too tall it might be a job for the lumberjack (sorry – tree surgeon).
· Take cuttings from shrubs. This is a good time to increase your stock of plants or share them with friends. Cuttings can be taken from the current year’s growth once the stems have started to become woody. Remove shoots about 4-6 inches long and trim the end at a slant. Remove the lower leaves and dip the base into a hormone rooting compound (again Amazon can help out here). Pot in a peat-free compost and cover with a polythene bag to create a humid atmosphere. Keep your fingers crossed and in 4-6 weeks hope to see signs of activity. Hydrangeas are particularly suitable for this treatment as well as hedge plants.
· July is also a good time to divide plants with rhizomes such as Irises and Lily of the Valley. Rhizomes look like stem ginger (which is another plant grown from rhizomes). Use a fork to lift the plant out of the ground making sure you don’t spike the rhizome. Pull the clump apart (maybe into two or three separate bits) and remove the oldest growth. With a sharp knife, cut down the leaves to half their length and replant. The tops need to be exposed to the sun to ensure that it flowers.