This year I have learnt that ‘little and often’ is the key to gardening happiness. I have twigged that half an hour in the
garden after work doing some hoeing or tidying is far more pleasurable than a whole weekend of work now and then.

Being an office worker, three hours gardening feels like a marathon; thirty minutes at the end of a desk-bound day feels like a pleasant potter.

Little and Often
With my new gardening philosophy in place, I have not limped into summer ashamed of my own garden’s weeds and generally half-abandoned look but I have bounded into the season with renewed enjoyment. This July my garden can hold its head up high!

Dead or Alive
Rachel Petheram, florist and cutting gardener at Doddington Hall says she ‘deadheads like mad’ during July.

Rachel suggests we deadhead flowering plants to make the most of their flowering season. Plus, deadheading also removes any flowers past their best so they look less unsightly.

“Take flowers off as soon as they begin to droop.” explains Rachel. “This will help by conserving the plant's energy, preventing them from setting seed.”

Annual plants benefit most from daily deadheading as it will extend the life of the plants and encourage them to continue
producing more flowers through the summer.

Rachel prefers to check her plants daily, so it only takes her a short while, plus it’s a lovely excuse to walk around the garden!  Frugal as ever, Rachel pops her dead flower heads on the compost rather than in the bin. If you don’t have a compost heap, pop yours in your garden waste bin.

Some of July’s tasks to seem to be more pleasurable than others – one task in particular Rachel calls liveheading!

If you grow plants for cutting, in July you’ll doubtless be enjoying the generous harvest of sweetpeas, cornflowers, scabious, larkspur, roses, astrantia, lady’s mantle, love-in-a-mist, marigolds or stocks.

Your home will be full of fabulous scent in July. Gathering stems of pretty flowers destined to cheer up your dressing table, dining room or kitchen window sill is a gardener’s perk.

Administering Haircuts
If as a child you were, like me, obsessed with cutting dolls’ hair, and at times your own fringe to disastrous effect, you will like Rachel’s next task for July!

“Plants such as lavender which produce masses of flowers can be given a 'haircut' with secateurs or scissors as soon as the flowers lose their colour,” she explains.

“This will encourage bushy side growth and will keep plants compact.” For me, rather
scissor happy given half the chance, this is a rewarding job and far more enjoyable than trimming the edge of the lawn.

Sweetpeas
Sweetpeas come into their own at this time of the year but ironically they can run out of **** just when you are desperate for them to look – and smell – amazing. Heat is the problem.

Sweetpeas are delicate little souls that wilt and come over all fey like an elderly aunt at the Chelsea Flower Show. If it is hot and dry, ensure that you give them a really decent drink then mulch thickly. This will keep their roots cool and moist.

Think of it as keeping the elderly aunt’s ankles cool and damp while you give her a massive G&T. Do your watering and mulching earlier in the day to minimise bud drop and to prevent scorching. If ‘great aunt’ is looking really weak, feed with a weak solution of your flower plant food.

Rachel is very keen on sweetpeas, more so the heritage varieties that have fabulous scents. You must pick to keep them coming. “The moment you stop picking them they start to form seed pods and think their
flowering time is over.” explains Rachel.
“So you have every excuse to pick bunch after fragrant bunch the moment they are about to reach their peak!”

Beetles and Other Pests
Vast numbers of Pollen Beetles — small black insects — do little to ingratiate themselves to you by accumulating in blooms, particularly on lighter coloured varieties.

“There is no chemical control available,” explains Rachel “So the best advice is to place vases of affected flowers in a dark room with a light source at one end. The beetles will be attracted to the light and should abandon the flowers.”

For those not fancying a room full of insects, open the window or better still use a dark shed.

Cut and Come Again
July is a good month for taking cuttings as herbs are producing lots of lush fresh new growth, which is suitable for softwood cuttings; the term is given to the type of cutting taken from young growth in the spring and early summer.

It’s simple to do, and you may wish to try it yourself – as well as being an enjoyable gardening skill, you may well end up with some new plants which were free! First choose a healthy young shoot, two to four inches long, and cut cleanly.

Trim the leaves from the lower half of the stem and dip the end into rooting hormone if you have any. Fill a medium-sized pot with a fine potting compost mixed with sharp sand – you can put up to five shoots in one pot. Place the pot in a tray and water from below; pierce a bag and cover the pot to hold in moisture. You can transplant your shoots into their own pot when roots appear.

Do more than you need as not every cutting will root just as every seed you buy may not germinate. The success rate of cuttings is between 60-70%.

Just as my ‘little and often’ philosophy has helped me keep my own garden tidy, I hope to apply the same technique to cuttings.

This month I hope to set in place plans for more herbs next year. Not just for the kitchen, they do provide the most delightful border plant. Sage flowers in particular are charming, and give lavender a run for its money when comes to creating a purple haze.