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How to grow It's time to: July

It's time to: July


If you want a good harvest in summer, get those tomato seeds in now. Photo - Mark Winwood


Compost

Turn out the compost bin and spread it over the garden to feed the soil.

Gather fallen leaves from your garden, the nature strip, or the roadside, and add them to the compost.

Prune

Prune plants that have finished flowering including hydrangea, salvia, buddleia, angel’s trumpet (brugmansia), sedum, pokers and ornamental grasses. Leave frost-tender plants like hibiscus until spring.

Prune roses. For best results, take a light tough with old roses and with climbers – prune just enough to keep them under control.

 


Graham loves his long-handled pruners. 

 

Feed 

Feed daffodils, jonquils, ranunculus, anemones and bluebells with bulb food.

It’s almost time for orchids to flower so encourage them with some fertiliser.

Frost

A sudden frost can cause damage frost-tender plants. When frosts are forecast wrap newspaper around the base of potential victims. Get up early and hose off any frost before the sun hits.

Move

Most plants are dormant during July so it’s an ideal time to plant or to move plants that are in the wrong place.

Grow

Love mushrooms? Buy a kit and grow your own.

 

Bright Idea  

Get a head start on summer tomatoes by sowing seed into small pots or trays. The best-tasting tomatoes in the recent Sydney Tomato Festival were all heirloom varieties. The winner was ‘Wapsipinicon Peach’; impossible to pronounce but great flavour. The cream fruit are covered by a fine fuzz that seems to deter fruit fly. Runners-up were ‘Black Russian’ and ‘Jaune Flamme’. (All available from Diggers.) Fill a seed tray or small pot with seed-raising mix and thinly sow tomato seed on the surface. Lightly cover with a dusting of sand. Cover trays with a sheet of glass; pots with an inverted, snuggly fitting glass jar. Place on a sunny windowsill and keep just moist. Once the seedlings are robust (in about 4 -6 weeks) pot each one into its own small pot. Keep them indoors, warm and just moist until spring. Once any chance of frost has passed plant them into the garden.

 

 

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Date: 16 February 2015 Author:

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What is the best time and method to propagate daphne?

Any time from spring to autumn is suitable for taking daphne cuttings. Take a cutting of approximately 10cm length, including a node (a swollen section of stem where leaves, stems, roots originate). Dip this into rooting hormone gel or powder and place into propagation mix deep enough so that it stands by itself. A plastic cover over the pot will help retain humidity. Place in a protected position out of direct sunlight. Keep moist and expect roots in a couple of months.

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I planted potatoes in layers of manure and straw in early July and would like to know when they will be ready to harvest.

You should be ready to harvest your first batch in February. Simply use your hands to feel through the light mix you have used and pull up as many potatoes as you need for dinner. You can keep on harvesting as you need the potatoes until you run out, or until the start of next winter.

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