Gardening tips for July
July is one of the most beautiful times of the year for your garden. Summer colour is in full bloom and your borders, patio containers and hanging baskets are filled with vibrant displays of foliage and fragrance.
It’s time to fully bask in your garden’s greatness and make the most of the summer. There are also a few maintenance jobs you can do to keep your garden in tip-top condition, encourage your flowers to continue blooming beautifully, and invite whimsical wildlife to pay your garden a visit.
Watch the weather carefully this month in case a heatwave is forecast, as if so, your plants will need some extra care. Keep reading to find out exactly the steps you need to take to ensure your plants, flowers, and the rest of your garden is well-looked after this July.
This month is all about: Caring for your flowers
While we have our fingers crossed for a warm July, the hotter weather can cause your flowers to struggle, so it’s important to take extra care of those flowering plants you’ve worked hard on growing this far.
Keep an eye on the weather this month. If there are any hot spells, check your beds, borders, pots and baskets regularly to see if the soil has dried out. If so, give your plants a good drink of water. Some smaller container plants might even need watered twice a day. A good trick for watering your plants correctly is to count to ten while soaking each plant to make sure you’re giving it enough water to soak through to the roots.
Regularly deadheading your bedding, container and basket plants and any other repeat-flowering perennials is another great way to care for your flowers and enjoy a longer display of blooms in your garden. This is also a wonderful way to keep your garden looking attractive for the summer months, as it gets rid of any wilted or dying flower heads and makes way for new ones. Use a sharp pair of secateurs to cut above the first set of healthy leaves, discarding the spent blooms.
Finally, your flowers may benefit from a liquid feed, particularly your container plants, roses, and our outdoor plant of the month, the dahlia. This encourages them to bloom, as well as makes them more resistant to pests and diseases.
Seeds to sow in July
It’s good to start planning the vegetables you might want to grow in time for use in your favourite autumn and winter dishes – particularly Christmas dinner! This month is the perfect time to start sowing many autumn vegetables which you can harvest and use later in the year.
Fruit & vegetables
- Main crop carrots
- Beetroot
- Leek
- Dwarf French beans
- Early peas
- Turnips
- Lettuce
- Radishes
- Spinach
- Spring cabbage
July lawn care 
During dry, hot spells, cut back on your water usage and keep your grass looking green by raising the cutting height of your lawn mower blades when trimming your grass. Don’t worry if your grass browns in the heat. Once it rains again, it should return to its usual state quite quickly.
After cutting your lawn, don't forget to finish it off by trimming the edges with a grass trimmer or edging shears to keep it looking neat and orderly.
Fruit & veg to grow in July
With Wimbledon in full swing this month, there’s never been a better time to grow your own strawberries. Young strawberry plants are still available to buy in-store, ready to be planted outside in beds, large pots or hanging baskets. Soon, you’ll have fresh, juicy strawberries to enjoy in the summer months. As well as eating them in the classic way with strawberries and cream, enjoy your strawberries outside in the garden by themselves, make your very own strawberry tarts or jam, have chocolate fondue with the kids, or make a fresh fruit salad - the possibilities are endless!
Stone fruit trees such as cherry and plum can be pruned this month. These types of trees are susceptible to fungal diseases through open wounds if they are pruned in winter, so pruning during the summer months helps to reduce the risk of infection.
If you live in the north of the UK, then you might need to nip out your tomatoes. Use your finger and thumb to nip out the very tip of the plant to stop its stem growing longer. This allows for the plant’s energy to be used to develop ripe and tasty fruit. For bush and trailing varieties no pinching out is needed.
Your vegetable crops like tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers still need regular feeding with a high potash tomato fertiliser, such as Levington Tomorite organic tomato food.
BBQs taste better with a side salad, especially if it’s one you’ve grown in your own garden! If you want to add some homegrown crops to your summer salads, then late sowings of beetroot, radishes, lettuce, and salad crops grow quickly in the warm soil.
This is the month in which cherries, currants, apricots, peaches, strawberries, raspberries, gooseberries, blackcurrants, spinach, courgettes, peas and beans, carrots, potatoes, beets, salads, spring garlic and onions should all be ready to harvest.
Indoor gardening
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Going on holiday? Make sure your houseplants are cared for. Most can tolerate a few days of neglect without suffering, but if you’re away for longer than a week then you’ll need to provide them with some care. Thoroughly watering them before you leave can sometimes be enough, or you can display them in a self-watering plant pot.
Alternatively, don’t worry if you're not going somewhere tropical on holiday this summer! Recreate the look in your home with our houseplant of the month - the popular Monstera deliciosa. With large, lush, evergreen leaves, it’s the perfect fit to recreate that that tropical atmosphere in the comfort of your own home.
General maintenance 
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As well as cutting back and feeding any basket or container plants, you’ll also want to prune any fast-growing hedges in your garden, like Leyland cypress. Make sure to tie-in any ramblers too as they continue to grow. Ensure any newly planted trees and shrubs don't dry out by regularly checking their soil and watering when it feels dry.
Weeds thrive in warm, dry weather, so continue hoeing any weeds around your beds or vegetable patches in dry weather as this gives you the best chance of not allowing them to re-root.
If pests are an issue in your garden, there are several ways you can address them. For a more natural method against slugs and snails, try barrier granules, copper tape, or for resistance against a wide range of pests, you can give companion planting a go. This is an organic method of planting where a strongly scented herb or flower is planted next to your fruit or vegetables to confuse the best with its smell, while at the same time attracting beneficial insects such as ladybirds and lacewings which prey on aphids.
Look after wildlife
If you have a bird bath in your garden, keep it topped up with fresh water and make sure to clean it whenever it starts looking grubby. During this time of year, many birds will be in competition for food too, so keep your bird feeders full and consider having multiple feeders on display in your garden.
If you have a garden pond, keep an eye out for frogs and toads which might start to appear this month. Plant foliage around your ponds to keep these critters safe from predators.
We would love to see what you get up to in the garden this July - take a picture and tag us on socials with @dobbiesgardencentres for your chance to be featured on our social media channels
We would love to see what you get up to in the garden this July - take a picture and tag us on socials with @dobbiesgardencentres for your chance to be featured on our social media channels