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Garden Advice For July
July 08 2008

 JULY

We’ve just passed the solstice so the light is still strong and days are long, but shortening. This decreasing day length has the crucial effect on some plants of putting them off flowering until the spring – eg broad beans. It also brings some plants into flower – eg. Chrysanthemums.

We are entering the wettest period of the year – more millimetres of rain fall in July and August than in any other 2 month period. And it usually falls in heavy showers at this time, giving the soil a useful thorough soaking. This combination of light, warmth and wet is perfect for growth and you can almost watch those courgettes swell and the runner beans lengthen as you stand and watch. If the rain falls every couple of days or so we get bumper crops, and we can start filling our freezers and jars with the surplus. With our tomatoes, courgettes, beans and basil we have entered the home-made ratatouille season. Hooray!

Winter Veg Transplants
This is the month for planting out winter brassica and leek plants. Brassicas are the cabbage tribe and over-wintered types include cabbage, kale, sprouting broccoli, winter and spring-heading cauliflower. Brussels Sprout is another winter brassica but these should have been planted last month, but if you have any transplants left they will still make a useful crop of greens.
Water transplants in well. Some gardeners cut the larger leaves of brassicas to about half their length to avoid drought hitting them too hard. Once settled in most brassicas and leeks are fairly drought tolerant – they can wait until the wet soils of autumn and winter to make their growth.
Spring cabbage can be sown as late as August and transplanted in October.

Veg sowings

Apart from Spring Cabbage you can also sow now: Beetroot, oriental greens, kohl-rabi, peas, radish - both summer and winter types, Swiss chard, turnips and salads.


Soft Fruit

The earlier Currants may have started to ripen last month but the bulk of varieties will be ready this month. Redcurrants are particularly loved by birds so you’d be wise to net these.
Raspberries too will come into their main cropping period now and are also a bird magnet.
The first fruits of the bramble types appear now, with Tayberry and the related Tummelberry and the earliest of the Blackberries start to crop this month, varieties like Silvan, Waldo and Adrienne.
Blueberries also start now, good early varieties being Bluetta, Duke, Spartan and Patriot.

Start pruning currant and gooseberry cordons now, cutting back sideshoots to 4 leaves.

Tree Fruit
The first tree fruit harvests start this month – Cherry Plum, Cherry and the early Plums. If you want to have cherries to eat you need to net them against the birds. This is much easier with a cherry tree on a dwarfing rootstock like Ghisela 5 or Tabel. These will make trees that reach about 2 metres, so a net can be thrown over them. If you only have room for one tree you’ll need a self-fertile variety – Stella was the first self-fertile dessert cherry and is still one of the best. 


Juneberry – Amelanchier species – ripen more often in July on this side of the Atlantic. This genus is very hardy and grows well almost anywhere. They are commonly planted in civic landscape schemes around car parks and along roadsides because they are tough and attractive. Starry white blossom in early spring, bronzy young leaves often nicely shaped, and blue-black edible fruit about the size of a large blackcurrant. They make a large shrub or small tree and can clipped to a hedge. There are about a dozen or so types available in the UK but one of the best ornamentals that also has good quality fruit is ‘Ballerina’, usually available as a grafted shrub that eventually reaches about 2 metres. 




Berberis darwinii – another large shrub to small tree that’s grown as an ornamental but has edible fruit. It’s an evergreen with small spiky leaves like a miniature holly. It’s a glorious mass of orange blossom in spring and this gives way to blue-black berries. Sweet when fully ripe, said by Ken Fern to be excellent in muesli and porridge, and used for preserves.

















Stone Fruit pruning
The Stone Fruits – Prunus – are all summer pruned to avoid Silver Leaf Disease. A good time to do this is when you’ve finished the harvest, as you’ll have spotted any stem problems while picking, and at the same time probably broken a few twigs. If you need to make large cuts use a wound paint immediately afterwards.

Grapes
Prune grape vines to remove any unfruitful side shoots and remove the leaves that are covering the bunches. Keep the prunings clean and they can be used as Vine Leaves for cooking wrapped around a tasty filling, or they make an excellent wine [ yes, on their own without the fruit! ]. As you‘ll be pruning the vines a few times in the course of the season, you can enjoy a very pleasant wine while you’re waiting for the grape harvest. And the traditional name of this vine-prunings wine?

Surprisingly, its known as ‘Folly’ !

Recipe supplied on request to phil.corbett@cooltemperate.co.uk


Cheers!

Phil Corbett , Cool Temperate