July in the Garden 2011

The drought continues, what rain that does fall barely wets the earth so it is important to keep watering containers and hanging baskets daily, preferably in the evening. Keep watering any newly planted trees or shrubs and plants at least twice a week. The annuals are looking very sad and not really doing much as they too need water. Cosmos and Shoo-fly plants are doing very well despite the lack of water. We have just returned from a garden tour in Sussex and the
Shoo-fly plant is definitely the ‘in’ plant this year, we saw it everywhere. Try it from seed next year, and then you will have it forever as it self-seeds.  
It is very easy.

The box can be pruned now but contrary to popular recommendations it is now thought better to cut it in dry weather than in damp wet weather. This is to stop the spread of the dreaded box blight. Some people are only cutting the sides
and leaving the top uncut for the same reason.  
I have lost one plant, which was in a pot but
I can’t say if this was blight or it got burnt up.
 
The tomatoes both in the greenhouse and in the garden need steady watering and a feed at every other watering. Similarly the peppers and chillies but only water them in the morning or afternoon not the evening as they don’t like being wet overnight. I expect many of you, like me, will have grown too many tomatoes bite the bullet and throw them on the compost heap. No one will want them now also they will look past their best.
I am making a note not to grow so many
next year. Nip out the side shoots on the tomatoes and remove the leaves below the fruit this
keeps air circulating and does not waste the
plant’s energy. Keep sowing salad leaves at
two-week intervals and sow rocket and radish
now as the flea beetle will have passed by,
keep the seeds and seedlings watered. Make life easy for yourself by buying pots of parsley, coriander and basil and planting these out in small clusters in the ground – dead easy, no waiting for germination as it’s all done for you.  I have done this and kept half the pot outside the kitchen door to use straight away.
 
We went garden visiting yesterday and enjoyed Bryan’s Ground, Presteigne and Moor’s Meadow near Bromyard.  The former is a spring and early summer garden so was looking a little past its best, however the structure and many small garden rooms could be admired, this garden has some amusing twists to it. Moor’s Meadow is not for
the faint hearted or unsteady of foot, it is on the sides of a valley and could be very slippery in the wet.  It is wildlife friendly and everything is lush and green.  There are nine different sorts of dragonflies and damselflies on the small lake.  Their vegetables were enormous compared to ours.  I can recommend both gardens.  We had lunch at The Falcon in Bromyard, it was excellent, very reasonable and all home made.  The cakes
and coffee at Bryan’s Ground was very good too, again homemade.