July

Vegetables

• In the veggie garden plant Cauliflowers and Cabbage seedlings and sow early Peas. In warmer areas you can also plant Lettuce, Silver beet and Broccoli seedlings and Onions.
• Lay your Potatoes out in a tray and get them sprouted.
• You can now sow vegetable seeds in trays for planting out later.
• Asparagus crowns are now available and can be planted out in a well composted and fertilised bed. (no animal manure though)

Lawn Care

• At the moment there is not a lot that needs to be done with your lawn. Mow when the grass is dry.
• Lift the height of your lawn mower if you are going to mow to reduce damaging your lawn.
• Keep an eye out for puddle spots and plan to put in some irrigation in the warmer months.

Fruit / Edibles

• Fruit trees and Brambles will be available now and can be planted immediately.
• Prune fruit trees this month to remove all old and diseased wood and to reduce the overall size of your tree

Indoor Gardening

• Don't forget to feed your indoor plants because they are still growing. Take caution not to over water them though.

Trees & Flowers

• Roses - It's time to plant now – choose good sized, healthy looking plants. When planting add rose compost to the soil to give your roses the best start to your garden.
• Pruning roses can be done now if not already done.

General Gardening

• Daphne’s are in flower this month along with hellebores, polyanthus and primroses make a very pretty Winter display.
• Polyanthus will benefit from an application of Dried Blood to increase plant vigour and flowering.
• When bulb flowers have finished (and some of the early jonquils will already have bloomed), water every week with some Thrive Soluble Plant Food.
• Plant Gladioli corns for early Summer flowering.
• Under glass sow seeds of antirrhinum, carnation, calendula, lobelia, nemesia, sweet peas, verbena and viola for planting out in Spring.
• Dahlias, gladioli, and peonies are also coming in this month and can be planted from now until September.
• If young trees or shrubs need transplanting now is a good time to do it whilst they are at their most dormant stage.
• Remember to continue protecting your plants from frosts with Frost Cloth or Microclimba.
• Prune your grape vine now the weather is at its coolest.

Organic Gardening

• Turn over your compost now and add some moisture if the pile is dry. Cover with plastic or pea straw to maintain the heat.
• Rake up the least of the winter leaves and place in large rubbish bags, sprinkle with water and leave to rot. Next season you will have a wonderful composted leaf mulch.

  Tools/Pruning

• Complete rose pruning this month. Pruning removes unproductive wood and thin, soft stems while controlling the size and shape of plants. Prune just above a strong bud, preferable one pointing outwards. Standard roses should be pruned to about 25cm above the main stem and bush roses can be cut back about two-thirds, leaving 3-4 buds on each branch. Climbers can go back leaving 5-6 strong canes.

Plant Care / Spraying

• Spray plants with Super Sulphur Protectant Fungicide to control fungus diseases and insect pests.
• Aphids are the worst pests with hellebores on still Summer days. Keeping old foliage tidied up helps keep them at bay and an insect spray such as Mavrik or a natural garlic spray will benefit them if there are bad infestations.