General Maintenance

• Keep up regular hoeing and weeding.
• Conserve water and save time by mulching with well rotted manure or garden compost after rain.
• Watch out for diseases such as Mildew and Potato Blight. Caused by hot weather and high humidity at this time of year.

Vegetables

• Harvesting should be in full flow now. Any disease free wast should go on the compost heap.
• Lift Garlic and Shallots as the foliage turns yellow, dry in a well ventilated area for storage.
• Keep harvesting Beans and Courgettes, allowing them to mature slows down production of further crops.
• Sow Spring Cabbage, make a few sowings, the plants need to be big enough to get through the winter, but not so far advanced that they bolt.
• Sow main crop Turnips
• Sow headed Chinese Cabbage, these like the cooler late summer temperatures, high temperatures will make them bolt.
• Sow Runner Beans in situ until the end of the month.
• Out door cordon Tomatoes need side shooting regularly.
  Pinching out the growing tips (stopping) after 5 or 6 trusses can help the fruit to develop and ripen.
• Feed Tomatoes with a high Potash fertilizer.
• Pinch out growing tips of trailing Marrows and Pumpkins.
• Keep up a vigil against garden pests, watch out for caterpillars of the Cabbage Whit Butterfly on all Brassicas.

Fruit

• Pick and store summer fruiting Raspberries, Black, Red and White currants.
• Keep tying in and prune any trained fruit.
• Thin out Apples and Pears.
• Protect ripening plums from birds and wasps.
• Clean up Strawberry plants that have finished fruiting.
  Clear away straw from under the plant and cut off any old foliage.
• Propagate new Strawberry plants from runners, plants that are more than three years old start to produce less fruits.

Greenhouse

• Keep watering and feeding Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Melons, Aubergines and Peppers etc.
  Feed with a high Potash fertilizer to help fruit development.
• Tie in plants to supports and remove any yellowing or diseased foliage.
• Ventilate and damp down the floor on hot days.
• Regular harvesting of young fruits will encourage more production.
• Inspect plants frequently for pests such as Aphids, White fly and Red spider mite.
• Greenhouse Tomatoes will need side shooting on a regular basis.