– Take photos and notes of your borders for future planning.
– Continue deadheading plants such as roses, annuals and dahlias
– Summer prune Wisteria by cutting back the whippy green shoots to 5 or 6 leaves which will encourage flower buds to form.
– Keep Camellias and Rhododendrons well watered, particularly those in pots, as they need moisture now to produce flower buds for next year.
– Keep up your watering regime, especially for pots and hanging baskets.
– Check sweetcorn for ripeness. When the tassels have turned brown peel back an area of the leaves and pierce a corn kernel, if a watery liquid squirts out it is unripe, if it is creamy it is ready for picking.
– Remove the tips of runner bean shoots once the plants reach the top of their support. Pick regularly should allow the plant to crop for 8 weeks or more.
-Check fruit, particularly apples, pears and plums, for signs of brown rot. Remove and dispose of any damaged fruit.
-Summer fruiting raspberries can now be cut back right down to ground level. Select six to eight strong young canes and tie them in 8 – 10 cm apart along the wire supports for fruiting next summer.
– Now is the time to prune apple trees trained as espaliers or cordons.
-It is a good time to buy yellow rattle seed to establish a wildflower meadow. This suppresses the growth of grass and should be sown in late summer or autumn.
-Turn compost heaps to add air. The contents should be slightly moist. If it is not covered by a lid, place a layer of cardboard on top to retain heat and moisture.
-Sow green manure to cover the soil that may otherwise remain bare. This month is a good time to sow clover, trefoil, buckwheat, Phacelia, grazing rye and winter tares.