Fruit, Vegetables and Herbs
- Sow a batch of the salad vegetables that mature quickly, Chinese vegetables and some chard for next spring.
- Dont let weeds go to seed.
- Plant out winter cabbage varieties, if not already done.
- Continue to spray apple trees for apple scab, and pears for pear scab if it has appeared.
- Harvest herbs for winter use as they come ready by drying or freezing.
Greenhouse and House Plants
- Lots of plants should be flowering at this stage.
- Water the floor and staging of a greenhouse in the morning to cool the air.
- Continue watering and feeding all greenhouse plants to maintain strong growth.
- Water plants in pots or grow-bags regularly, as these dry out and plants can be badly set back.
- Train and side-shoot tomatoes and cucumbers.
- Pot on house plants as necessary, if not already done.
- Continue to keep a grapevine free of excessive new growth.
Trees, Shrubs and Roses
- If the weather is dry, there is no need to spray for blackspot disease of roses, but if it turns out wet, it is necessary to spray rose bushes, well into summer especially in the damper parts of the country.
- Early flowering shrub roses and ramblers that have now finished could be pruned.
- Water young trees and shrubs if they look like they need it, applying about twenty litres per plant at a time, if there is a dry spell more than a week.
- Take cuttings of the soft growth of shrubs, such as cistus, lavender, weigela and tree mallow.
- Layering can be used to raise a small number of plants – pin down a low-hanging shoot in good compost with a wire pin or a rock.
Lawn
- Keep up regular mowing, as growth has been good, but feed the grass if growth is poor or the colour is light.
- Use high-nitrogen lawn fertilizer during a wet spell but make sure more rain is on the way.
- If weeds have built up in the last few years, apply a lawn weedkiller during a fine spell when growth is active. Most lawns need weed control every three years or so as weeds re-establish from seeds in the ground.
Flowers
- Pots and baskets need regular watering and feeding with liquid feed every two weeks or even every week to keep the plants going after the first flush of flowers.
- Remove seed heads of flowers that self-sow, such as foxgloves, aquilegia and libertia if this is not wanted as these can self-sow around the garden.
- Seeds of perennial flowers such as lupins, tickseed, mallows and foxgloves could be sown now for flowering next year.
