July
Gladiolus little darling.
All your hard work during spring and early summer has been worth it! Your garden looks glorious with a huge array of plants in full bloom including roses, sweetpeas, alliums and delphiniums. Regular feeding with a high potash fertiliser, watering and dead-heading of bedding plants in containers and pots on the patio will keep them blooming again and again for you to enjoy on summer evenings and afternoon barbeques.
If you simply haven’t had the time to tidy up your garden, mow the lawn and dead-head old plants, call the Gardeneer. Their teams of gardeners enjoy nothing better than sorting out a garden so that you can enjoy it looking just the way you want it. The Gardeneer teams will tidy up your garden, redesign it, build patios, put up fences and lots more.
More hints and tips for garden tasks to help you 'Enjoy your garden looking just the way you like it'.
Roses
Roses are really putting on a show now. Dead-head them as soon as the petals start to drop and this will encourage extra blooms. You do this by cutting the stem 8-10cm below the bud and above a healthy leaf. Careful selection of climbers mixed with clematis will give a continuous display and the opportunity to bring the more highly scented ones into the house as cut flowers.
Rhododendrons
The rhododendrons are nearly over now and the old flowers have a rather sad look. It will do no harm if you want to tidy them up by dead-heading them. Take care not to damage the new growth.
Borders
In the borders, large ornamental poppies are just ending their display but are followed closely by their smaller cousins in yellow, red, purple and white in both single and double formation. Delphiniums are still growing strong and fill the gap in height between lupins and hollyhocks. Lupins are out in their multi-coloured, candle-shaped stems and the hollyhocks will be lording it over the rest of the shorter plants any time now. How do they manage to stand so tall without falling over?
Shrub beds
In the shrub beds, the summer flowering spirea with its pink canopy are attracting the bees and soon the buddleia will work the same magic for the butterflies. Senecio is a blaze of yellow daisy-like flowers and we still have the sweetly scented philadelphus which is heavenly, although I guess hay fever sufferers may disagree.
Regular dead-heading of summer flowering perennials during summer keeps displays looking neat and encourages plants to produce new flowers. Lupins are a typical example of this - when the faded lupin spikes are cut down to the lower side shoots, further flower heads are produced.
Lawns
With a probable hosepipe ban in sight, it's advisable to raise the height of the mower blades during hot weather - hopefully the grass will stay green even without being watered. But remember, even if your lawn does suffer from some drought in the summer, it will recover quickly in the autumn.
Hedges
Most hedges can be given a light trim to keep their shape looking good. Yew and box, which are slower growing, can be left a little longer before they get their annual cut.
Plants to look for in July
Hostas, Pelargoniums, Heucheras, Potentillas and Pinks
