Jobs in the garden: July

Picking gooseberries

Here's what to do this month in your fruit and vegetable garden

It's time to...

  • Pick gooseberries when ripe. If they're still very green, small and hard leave them a bit longer. Some varieties turn red or white as they ripe
  • Spray potatoes and outdoor tomatoes with Bordeaux mixture or similar to prevent blight
  • Cover brassicas with fine netting to prevent cabbage white butterflies laying their eggs on the leaves
  • Peg down strawberry runners into pots of soil to root new plants. Only ever propagate from healthy, disease-free stock. After fruiting, trim off all strawberry foliage with shears
  • Tie in new growth on cordon-trained tomatoes and pinch out sideshoots. Bush varieties can be left to scramble over the soil
  • Water runner beans, celery, marrows, courgettes and salads
  • Bury shoot tips of blackberries and peg them down to raise new plants
  • Thin heavy crops of apples, pears and plums picking off the smallest. Aim to leave developing fruits about 10-15cm apart along the stems, perhaps thinning congested spurs down to just a single fruit

What’s in and what’s out

Vegetables that can be sown outside during July include: endive, lettuce and salad leaves, beetroot, radishes, spring cabbages, kohl rabi, Swiss chard, winter spinach, Oriental greens, chicory, spring onions, swede, turnips for green tops.
 
This feature originally appeared on the Gardeners' World website.

To find out what jobs you should be doing now in your garden, as well as gardening tips and advice, visit Gardeners World - what to do now.