July 2024 Monty Don

JULY JOBS

OUTDOOR TOMATOES

July monty don. A brief context to set expectations.

July monty don: Quick notes

I do not plant my outdoor tomatoes until June. But once they are in the ground they will grow strongly and need regular tying up. This is, of course, if you are growing cordon tomatoes rather than bush or determinate varieties. The latter can be propped up rather like an herbaceous plant rather than tied regularly in.

As I tie them with soft twine I pinch out the side shoots and then water them. I do not feed the outdoor ones as our soil is plenty rich enough and they had a good mulch of compost just before planting, but the indoor tomatoes will have a weekly seaweed feed at the same time.

From late July the risks of blight increase, dependant as it is upon the combination of high humidity and warm days and nights. The best defence for outdoor tomatoes is good ventilation and stripping off the lower leaves as the fruits develop helps this, as well as helping the ripening tomatoes have maximum exposure to sun.

SUMMER PRUNING APPLES AND PEARS

Pruning apples and pears at this time of year in summer is very useful for trained forms like espaliers, cordons or fans or mature trees that have become too large or crowded because, unlike winter pruning, done when the tree is dormant, this hard cutting back will not stimulate vigorous regrowth. 

Unless you are training a particular new shoot, remove all this year’s growth back to a couple of pairs of leaves (usually about 2-4 inches) being careful not to remove any ripening fruits. If you are training the fruit to a particular shape, tie desired but loose growth in as you go. Cutting it back now also allows light and air onto the fruit that is ripening and stops your trees becoming too crowded with unproductive branches.

CUT BACK EARLY FLOWERING PERENNIALS

Early flowering perennials such as oriental poppies, delphiniums and hardy geraniums such as G. phaeum, should all be cut back to the ground to encourage fresh regrowth and repeat flowering in a couple of months time. This also creates space for tender annuals and perennials in the border. Remove all cut material to the compost heap, weed around the base of the plants, water if necessary and do not plant too close to them so that they have light and space to regrow and flower again at the end of summer.

STAKING

The extra warmth of July often leads to a flush of lush growth that plants cannot support. The result is that borders can start to fall all over the place, plants outgrowing themselves and toppling chaotically – especially if lashed by rain, winds or thunderstorms and what was lovely profusion can become a disaster zone overnight.

So it is good to have some brush wood such as hazel pea sticks or metal supports ready and to gently work round the borders easing plants upright and providing the underpinning that they need – but without reducing the border to a stiffly corseted state that loses all the charm of midsummer bounty. Ideally it should not look as though you have done anything at all.

This can often apply to taller growing annuals such as Ammi majus, sunflowers, cleome, Cosmos sensation, tithonias and Leonotis – all of which are stalwarts of Longmeadow. As these are planted individually it is hard to support them in the gently bolstering fashion that suits a large herbaceous perennial, but they can be staked to half their height and tied with soft twine so that they can still move gently but not collapse completely.

PICKING RASPBERRIES

I would trade the very best strawberry for any raspberries and the summer fruiting varieties are at their best in July. Summer-fruiting raspberries carry their fruit on the canes that grew the previous summer – so all the fresh growth made in the current year will crop next July – whereas autumn-fruiting types such as ‘Autumn Bliss’ produce their fruit on the new-season’s growth. There is a freshness and seasonal treat to the summer raspberries that makes them especially good and we often pick a bowl just before supper and eat with a little cream whilst they are still warm from the evening sun. Heaven!

We reference July monty don briefly to keep the thread coherent.

July monty don comes up here to connect ideas for clarity.