STIHL GB | STIHL July Garden Guide with Jane Moore | July Gardening Jobs | STIHL GB @STIHLGB | Uploaded July 2023 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
We’re back with the latest instalment of the STIHL garden guide! This month, Jane Moore showcases jobs to do in your garden in July in the STIHL July Garden Guide video.
🔶 Pruning Fruit Trees
Lots of plants need a quick trim in summer to keep them in order. It’s a good time to contain the rampant nature of climbers like Wisteria. Trained fruit trees, like Jane's espalier apple tree, also need a summer prune to keep them in shape and let the light get to the fruit.
Don't delay pruning trained fruit trees, such as apple or pear trees, in summer. Those that are restricted into a certain shape need a light trim to help them keep their shape and to stop the tree putting all its effort into new leafy growth, when you want it to be concentrating on growing apples. This pruning also lets the sun get to the fruits so they can ripen nicely, and, while you’re at it thin the apples or pears to two fruits per cluster, so they get nice and big.
🔶 Pruning Trees
It’s also a good time to do a spot of light pruning on other trees in your garden. Cherries, plums and all their relations are prone to a fungal disease called silver leaf, which means that winter pruning isn’t a good idea.
🔶 Pruning Wisteria
Wisteria needs regular pruning to keep its growth and size under control, otherwise it will be off around the drainpipe, up under roof tiles and in the gutter. But regular pruning, including a quick summer tidy up, also improves the flowering enormously. Although it seems complicated, wisteria pruning is quite simple especially the summer pruning which is as straightforward as can be. Simply snip off trailing stems, back to a stub of a few buds. This will tidy it up and, like the apple tree, makes sure that all the energy goes into creating more flowers rather than taking over next doors roof!
🔶 Wildflowers
Lawns in city gardens are often difficult to maintain, you’ll find they never look happy! Paving straight on to the soil, so the wildflower plants have room to grow in between, is a great alternative to an unhappy lawn. It’s also a brilliant way to manage water in a city garden. Heavy rain can soak away into the ground easily rather than running off the top. Not only does this type of paving or hard surface reduce the chance of any flooding issues, but it also means the moisture is permeating the soil and is available for all the plants around.
If you use permeable paving as demonstrated in the video, or keep hard paved areas to a minimum, it can really help to prevent surface water flooding in your neighbourhood, especially if you live in a town or city.
🔶 Deadheading Flowers
Deadheading flowers as they go over is essential to keep the show going and to keep plants looking attractive and encourage even more blooms. Bedding plants and repeat-flowering perennials need to be prevented from setting seed to make sure they keep on flowering. Nip off the finished flowers from all your bedding plants, like Pelargoniums, Petunias and Cosmos. They will keep on flowering as they’re desperate to set seed so they can reproduce themselves – so don’t let them! The more you deadhead, the more flowers you will get, it’s that simple. You can even deadhead some perennials like Lupins, Delphiniums and these Sanguisorbas, but it’s repeat flowering Roses that really need regular deadheading.
🔶 Companion Planting
At this time of year, caterpillars can quickly take over your vegetable patch, and they can reduce your vegetables to shreds in days. If you have a bigger vegetable plot, it’s worth covering them with fine mesh netting which will keep the butterflies out and stop them laying their eggs on the cabbages. But it’s amazing how determined the butterflies can be! Planting nasturtiums nearby is a great way to distract them from your veg. White butterflies often lay their eggs on nasturtium leaves and when the caterpillars hatch and feed, they naturally then choose nasturtiums for their own offspring, taking the focus away from your cabbages.
You might have heard of companion planting. It really does help to protect your plants, although there’s not really any scientific proof as such. But whitefly hate the pungent smell that French marigolds give off, so that makes them ideal for planting near cabbages, tomatoes, kale and anything else that’s prone to whitefly.
🔶 Potatoes
One of my favourite summer jobs is to dig up early potatoes. You must be thorough though as it’s so easy to miss some. Perfect for potato salad!
Hopefully our video has given you a few hints and tips to keep your garden cool in July, but don’t forget to sit back and keep cool yourself. Enjoy your garden, let us know what you’re up to in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe to the STIHL GB channel for more ideas in August.
🔶 STIHL Website: stihl.co.uk
🔶 Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/stihlgb
🔶 Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/stihl_gb
🔶 Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/stihlgb
We’re back with the latest instalment of the STIHL garden guide! This month, Jane Moore showcases jobs to do in your garden in July in the STIHL July Garden Guide video.
🔶 Pruning Fruit Trees
Lots of plants need a quick trim in summer to keep them in order. It’s a good time to contain the rampant nature of climbers like Wisteria. Trained fruit trees, like Jane's espalier apple tree, also need a summer prune to keep them in shape and let the light get to the fruit.
Don't delay pruning trained fruit trees, such as apple or pear trees, in summer. Those that are restricted into a certain shape need a light trim to help them keep their shape and to stop the tree putting all its effort into new leafy growth, when you want it to be concentrating on growing apples. This pruning also lets the sun get to the fruits so they can ripen nicely, and, while you’re at it thin the apples or pears to two fruits per cluster, so they get nice and big.
🔶 Pruning Trees
It’s also a good time to do a spot of light pruning on other trees in your garden. Cherries, plums and all their relations are prone to a fungal disease called silver leaf, which means that winter pruning isn’t a good idea.
🔶 Pruning Wisteria
Wisteria needs regular pruning to keep its growth and size under control, otherwise it will be off around the drainpipe, up under roof tiles and in the gutter. But regular pruning, including a quick summer tidy up, also improves the flowering enormously. Although it seems complicated, wisteria pruning is quite simple especially the summer pruning which is as straightforward as can be. Simply snip off trailing stems, back to a stub of a few buds. This will tidy it up and, like the apple tree, makes sure that all the energy goes into creating more flowers rather than taking over next doors roof!
🔶 Wildflowers
Lawns in city gardens are often difficult to maintain, you’ll find they never look happy! Paving straight on to the soil, so the wildflower plants have room to grow in between, is a great alternative to an unhappy lawn. It’s also a brilliant way to manage water in a city garden. Heavy rain can soak away into the ground easily rather than running off the top. Not only does this type of paving or hard surface reduce the chance of any flooding issues, but it also means the moisture is permeating the soil and is available for all the plants around.
If you use permeable paving as demonstrated in the video, or keep hard paved areas to a minimum, it can really help to prevent surface water flooding in your neighbourhood, especially if you live in a town or city.
🔶 Deadheading Flowers
Deadheading flowers as they go over is essential to keep the show going and to keep plants looking attractive and encourage even more blooms. Bedding plants and repeat-flowering perennials need to be prevented from setting seed to make sure they keep on flowering. Nip off the finished flowers from all your bedding plants, like Pelargoniums, Petunias and Cosmos. They will keep on flowering as they’re desperate to set seed so they can reproduce themselves – so don’t let them! The more you deadhead, the more flowers you will get, it’s that simple. You can even deadhead some perennials like Lupins, Delphiniums and these Sanguisorbas, but it’s repeat flowering Roses that really need regular deadheading.
🔶 Companion Planting
At this time of year, caterpillars can quickly take over your vegetable patch, and they can reduce your vegetables to shreds in days. If you have a bigger vegetable plot, it’s worth covering them with fine mesh netting which will keep the butterflies out and stop them laying their eggs on the cabbages. But it’s amazing how determined the butterflies can be! Planting nasturtiums nearby is a great way to distract them from your veg. White butterflies often lay their eggs on nasturtium leaves and when the caterpillars hatch and feed, they naturally then choose nasturtiums for their own offspring, taking the focus away from your cabbages.
You might have heard of companion planting. It really does help to protect your plants, although there’s not really any scientific proof as such. But whitefly hate the pungent smell that French marigolds give off, so that makes them ideal for planting near cabbages, tomatoes, kale and anything else that’s prone to whitefly.
🔶 Potatoes
One of my favourite summer jobs is to dig up early potatoes. You must be thorough though as it’s so easy to miss some. Perfect for potato salad!
Hopefully our video has given you a few hints and tips to keep your garden cool in July, but don’t forget to sit back and keep cool yourself. Enjoy your garden, let us know what you’re up to in the comments and don’t forget to subscribe to the STIHL GB channel for more ideas in August.
🔶 STIHL Website: stihl.co.uk
🔶 Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/stihlgb
🔶 Follow us on Twitter: twitter.com/stihl_gb
🔶 Follow us on Instagram: instagram.com/stihlgb
