What to do in the garden or allotment in Summer

At this time of year, there is, hopefully, little chance of frost, which means the growing season has arrived and stretches out till the end of summer. Your garden is probably looking at its best, but a summer of input will ensure it keeps you happy over the next few months.

Bedding
There is still time to plant pots and containers and it is best to use a loam-based compost, which provides optimum feed to hungry plants and is easier to keep watered than peat-based composts. 
Petunias, Pelargoniums and silver-leaved tender perennials like to be in bright areas and will flower better and longer if they receive the sun. Nicotianas, Impatiens and Begonias can live with a little shade, but keep them somewhere warm so they can get going before planting in the shade.

Keep your lawn green
Towards the end of summer a lot of garden lawns can look dry and stubbly. If you use a tonic now, it will remain spring-like for the rest of summer. Use Westland Aftercut, which greens lawns up in just three days. The way to apply it is with a little garden compost, preferably on a cloudy day and then water it in; do this after you have cut the lawn.

Tend the tulips
The spring bulbs that were in pots before summer bedding should be dried off in the sun, so what is left of their foliage can soak up its goodness. Place in a tray in a warm spot for a week, and if wet, put under cloches or plastic.

When the foliage withers, clean and store dry in a shed. Tulips do not perform as well their second year and should be thrown away on the third. When they have finished flowering, feed them weekly with tomato feed, which builds up the  bulbs. Most pot-grown narcissus will return year after year with this type of treatment.

Watch out for mildew
When it is dry, pulmonarias are prone to mildew. Don’t spray, instead cut them back and water well to get a fresh crop of foliage. Watering is what prevents mildew, but rather than wasting water, only concentrate on the plants that need it and soak deep to encourage roots to come to the surface.


Pulmonarias; popular with bees

Vegetables
Growing your own vegetables in your garden or allotment is the best and cheapest way to source locally grown organic food. Some people find this daunting, but In-Ex has put together the following guidelines for what you should be getting up to, vegetable-wise, over the summer period.

The first task is to harvest your peas, while they are still small and juicy and remember that young lettuce is also ready. However, there is lots more to consider in your vegetable patch.

Hopefully, the next few months will be warm, which means now is the time to plant carrots that you can eat throughout the summer and autumn and put in storage for the winter.

Plant carrots now

If you want to store carrots, the Autumn King 2 is a winner, if you want to eat them over summer, the Amsterdam 2 Sweetheart or the Nantes 2 are both quick maturers.

Tending more to the exotic, are the coloured varieties of carrot; the Purple Haze, the Yellowstone, the Rainbow F1 hybrid and the Red Healthmaster. These are all great raw and extremely healthy.

Keep on sowing Purple Sprouting broccoli and Chard, plus salads and cut-and-come-again oriental vegetables for late summer and early autumn.

Another vegetable needing ten frost-free weeks is the Winter radish, which is easy to grow.

Pick your garlic and hang in a shed or garden

Shallots and garlic should be ready in June/July. The bulbs should be hung out to dry in the sun or in a shed; the smell of drying garlic is too strong for the house. This harvest coincides with that of tomatoes, so salads and Italian dishes are called for.

Seasonal vegetables are the mantra and asparagus can be planted now, but should not be overcropped until it is in its third year. It looks great in the beds and can be used as a backdrop for low perennials, giving something edible in the flower garden. 

Early potatoes should be ready for cropping this month, but wait for the first flowers to open before harvesting and water well if the weather is dry. If wet, watch out for blight. If it hits and the leaves collapse, cut off all foliage and burn. If you want your own potatoes on Christmas Day, consider planting Carlingford seed potatoes, which are currently in cold storage and should be planted in August and harvested in December.