The garden is in full swing at the moment. The grass is flying up quicker than we can mow it, beds are bursting with blooms and the fruit is forming heavy on the trees. With all of this activity, however, it's easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to start. Here's a quick guide on some of the more pressing jobs we shouldn't be neglecting.
Watering
This may seem like an obvious one but it's easy to forget when you are busy with other things. Quite often we focus our watering on borders and baskets but it's crucial not to forget the trees and shrubs in the lengthy dry spells. Trees can suffer a lot with drought stress so be sure to run a hose at their base when watering the rest of the plants. When watering bedding and softer plants try and not do it when the sun is at its strongest during the middle of the day as the leaves can get scorched. If it's unavoidable to do it at this time water underneath at the base/roots of the plant to avoid the upper leaves.
Thin out fruit crops
The fruit trees have done very very well this year, because of this a lot of them have made their branches too heavy for their own good. Plum and apple trees particularly can weigh down their branches so much that they break so it is important to thin out the clusters to the more healthy fruit. Simply take out the shrivelled or much smaller fruit from the laden branches, quite often they will come away with the least amount of effort but for bigger crops you may have to snip them out with a secateurs. Be sure the secateurs is cleaned prior to this as the warm weather is a haven for fungal diseases at the moment.
Feed the Vegetables
Tomatoes, Peppers, Courgettes and similar vegetables can all do with a good feed right now. Maxicrop Organic Tomato Fertiliser is a great option as it's seaweed based and organic, you can also use it for the other vegetables too, not just the Tomatoes!
Roses can also do with a little extra help at the moment, if you have access to horse manure it is ideal or Organic Chicken Manure Pellets are good too. You can also give the bedding plants a bit of a boost by adding Miracle-Gro All Purpose Plant Food to your watering routing once every couple of weeks.
Net Fruit Crops
As I mentioned above the fruit has all done very well this year so a lot of the usual suspects for robbing the fruit crops aren't as much of a nuisance this year however if you do want to keep all your raspberries, cherries, or blackcurrants to yourself you need to net them now. Any simple garden netting will do, just be sure to anchor it well to stop it blowing away. It's also important if you do use netting to check it everyday as birds can get caught up in it.
Finally, though not a job as such, it's the right time now to sit in and enjoy your garden. You can take it in properly in its full bloom and think about what you would like to add or change for the next year. Take a pen and paper and jot down ideas that you can reference later in the year.
Happy gardening :)
