TOP JOBS FOR JULY

STEPHANIE HAFFERTY OUTLINES THE ESSENTIAL TASKS FOR YOUR VEG PATCH AND PROTECTED CROPS

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FEED CROPS

Keep feeding hungry fruiting plants, including tomatoes, melons and aubergines to encourage plenty of fruit. Use home-made feed, or a bought in liquid seaweed feed

LIFT POTATOES

Harvest second early potatoes and dry for storage. Tamp down the soil on the bed and it is ready for sowing or to plant out again with the next vegetable transplants

MULCH RHUBARB

Stop picking spring cropping rhubarb and leave to recover to encourage bountiful crops next year. Mulch with some compost and water if the weather is dry

STORE HERBS

Harvest and store herbs including mint, basil, lemon balm, lemon verbena and oregano, for use during the winter. Once completely dry store in jars. Don't forget to label them!

TEND TO CORN

Summer warmth and sunshine will encourage sweetcorn to head for the skies. Sweetcorn is wind pollinated and growing in a block should result in good fertilisation. To be sure of harvests of plump cobs filled with sweet, fat kernels, gently shake the male flower heads, which resemble tassels, to send the pollen down onto the female flowers below.

This is a good opportunity to hand weed among the grid of sweetcorn plants. If the weather is hot, leave annual weeds on the surface ‘chop and drop’ style as a mulch. This helps to keep the soil moist by reducing evaporation and also helps to prevent weed seeds germinating.