Gardening Calendar

JULY

The garden should be at its peak, with borders filled with colour and the vegetable garden producing fine crops. Long summer evenings in the garden can be enjoyed to the full, relaxing and entertaining friends.

The garden should now be looking its best. It’s high summer; the borders are full of colour and the scent from flowers such as roses and sweet peas fills the air, especially on warm summer evenings.

July is a good time to:

• Train a standard fuchsia – learn more here!
• Harvest Herbs for Drying
• Summer prune Wisteria
• Water vegetables regularly
• Continue deadheading flowers as they fade

July Weather Watch

July and August are generally the hottest months of the year, with the highest temperature occurring inland away from the cooling influence of the sea. One of the highest temperatures ever recorded in the United Kingdom was at Cheltenham in Gloucestershire: 37.1C.

Training a standard Fuchsia

	1. Choose a cutting with a strong, definite vertical main stem, and very carefully remove all sideshoots.
	2. Insert a cane and train the main stem up it, again pinching out any sideshoots while as young as possible.
	3. When the main stem reaches 1-1.2m (3-4ft), 30cm (12in) or so taller than you want clear stem to be, pinch out the tip.
	4. Let side shoots and their sideshoots develop on the top third of the main stem, pinching their tips meticulously every time they have 3 or 4 pairs of leaves.
	5. Stop pinching when the head is well-formed to allow flowering. Pinch off any shoots on the clear portion of the stem.