Village Voice June July 19

In the Garden
with Alan Edmondson of
Bowercot Garden Design
June/July
Gardening Tips
• If dry weather sets in, Gladioli will require a good soaking when the flower spike can
be felt.
● Trim dead flowers from aubretia and saxifrage and clip over other alpines after
flowering to keep them tidy.
● Tomato plants require regular watering and a weekly feed once fruit has set.
● Provide extra food for the birds and hedgehogs in very dry weather. Hedgehogs
would benefit from some pet food and water (NOT milk). Replenish the water bowl
regularly.
● Thin apples after the ‘June drop’. Leave two or three apples to each cluster.
● Plant outdoor tomatoes on prepared sites and continue to sow seed of salad crops,
peas and French beans.
● Keep the hoe in operation to control weed seedlings.
● Lupins and delphiniums can be cut to ground level when flowering is over. Feed to
encourage a second flowering. Geranium pratense and its various forms can be treated
in a similar manner.
● If your bearded irises have not flowered check that the rhizomes are not planted too
deeply. They should be planted on the surface of the soil.
● Strawberry plants should be discarded after three years. Start to produce
replacements by pegging down runners from healthy plants.
● Do not dead head roses such as Rosa rugosa and Rosa moyesii as they will have a
good show of hips later in the year.
● Sow seeds of alpines as they ripen. They should germinate readily now.
● Infestations of aphids on water lilies can be washed/hosed into the pool.
● Woody stemmed herbs such as thyme and sage will root quickly from cuttings at this
time of year
Alan Edmondson of Bowercot Garden
Design, Lymington, is a regular
contributor to BBC Radio Solent’s ‘The
Kitchen Garden’ formerly ‘The Good Life’.
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