Harvest early peas, and prepare for a late sowing to get an autumn crop. Thin fruit, especially apples and plums for bigger fruit,less biennial bearing and fewer broken branches. Sow lettuces and radishes to fill in any gaps between slower maturing vegetables such as brassicas. Net soft fruit bushes to stop the birds taking the fruit. Sow overwintering carrots, such as Autumn King’. Plant out leeks when they are pencil thick. Make a deep hole with a dibber and drop the leek into the hole, if the roots are very long they can be trimmed to roughly 2cm, do not push the soil around the plant, just pour water into the hole and let the earth fall around the plant.
Put out fresh water for birds. Feeding them dry food such as stale bread can hasten bird’s dehydration. Ensure birdbaths are always full of clean water in hot spells. Leave out food for hedgehogs and badgers if they visit your garden.
Regularly mow lawns, mowing in different directions to prevent wear patterns and to encourage upright growth. A high-nitrogen summer lawn fertilizer can be applied if there isn’t drought conditions.
Herbaceous plants can still be staked now, if they require some extra support. Tie in shoots of climbing and rambling roses horizontally as possible to encourage better flowering. . Protect plants from slugs and snails. Cut down oriental poppies to ground level after they have flowered, and they will send up new foliage. Check roses for signs of blackspot, aphids and leaf rolling sawfly damage. Cut down daffodil bulbs now as it has been at least 6 weeks since they flowered. Dear head camellias and rhododendrons. Divide bearded irises after flowering.
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