Weeding & Watering
Keeping beds weed-free and watered is the priority this month and the two are linked because weeds take valuable water and nutrients from your crops. When watering, soaking once a week is much better than a daily sprinkle. Mulching bare earth or coving it with weed suppressant fabric (available in the shop) will help to retain moisture in the soil.
Feeding
Once the tiny fruits have started to form you should feed tomato and pepper plants with comfrey tea or other liquid fertiliser each week. Not before, which will just encourage more leaf growth. Pinch out the side shoots and continue to stake the plants so they don’t topple over.
Potatoes
You can start to harvest first early potatoes as the foliage dies down but only lift as many as you are going to use immediately, as they keep much better in the ground than in your kitchen cupboard. Earth up the rest of the crop to stop the light from turning them green and give them a good soaking once a week.
Fruits
If you were wise enough to net them you should be harvesting black, red and white currants, gooseberries, summer fruiting raspberries, cherries and apricots. (If not the birds will probably have got to them first.)
Once strawberries have finished fruiting cut off runners and pot them up to make new plants.
When you have taken this year’s harvest, cut back gooseberries, redcurrants and whitecurrants and lightly prune blackcurrants. https://www.gardenersworld.com/how-to/grow-plants/how-to-prune-blackcurrant-plants/
Prune cherry, plum, damson and apricot trees after harvesting. All stone fruits should be pruned in the summer to avoid leaf curl.
Thin our apples and pears to allow the remaining one to grown to a good size.
Tie in new shoots on blackberries rather than cutting them – they are the branches that will produce fruit next year.
The Allium family, Onions
Lift garlic, shallots and onions and allow them to dry in the sun or under cover.
Still time to sow
Sow the last beetroot, French beans, peas and Florence fennel for this year.
Propagation
Take cuttings from shrubby herbs – thyme, rosemary and sage- which will be welcome at the plant sale next spring.