There's still time to tick off July's most important garden jobs before August arrives. Gardening expert Alan Titchmarsh says these essential tasks can help keep your borders blooming, vegetables thriving and your garden looking its best through the rest of summer.
From propagating your favourite plants to adding late-season colour, these are the gardening jobs he recommends prioritising this month.
1. Take softwood cuttings
If you've been meaning to grow more of your favourite plants without spending a penny, now's the perfect time. July's burst of growth provides the ideal material for taking softwood cuttings, making it one of the easiest and cheapest ways to propagate new plants.
‘A favourite job of mine is taking softwood cuttings of my favourite plants,’ says Alan. ‘Plants grow faster in the months of May and June than they do any time of the year, and they produce shoot tip cuttings that make great propagating material.’
He recommends selecting healthy stems with several leaf joints, aiming for cuttings of around three to four inches (eight to 10 centimetres) long. Remove each cutting just above a leaf before preparing it for planting.
Alan prefers using clay pots filled with free-draining seed and cutting compost. After removing the lower leaves, place the cutting into a prepared hole so the remaining leaves sit just above the compost surface, then keep the pot on a bright windowsill while the roots develop.
2. Harvest new potatoes
If you planted potatoes this spring, now is the time to start harvesting. According to Alan, picking them at the right moment will reward you with tender, egg-sized new potatoes instead of oversized ones.
‘If you planted seed potatoes back in spring, this is the month where you can start to dig them up,’ he says. ‘A good rule of thumb is once the plants start to flower, that probably indicates there is a good harvest down underneath the soil.’
To stop potatoes turning green, Alan recommends regularly earthing them up as they grow. If you're growing them in bags, achieve the same result by adding fresh compost whenever the shoots emerge.
‘Then, it's the moment of truth – if you've had fair weather, and the gardening gods are on your side, there will be rather a large crop of new potatoes at the end of each plant,’ Alan says. ‘But what's critical is the timing – do it too soon and there won't be much there at all. Leave it too late, and you'll have whacking great spuds.’
3. Maintain the vegetable patch
Midsummer is when vegetables grow at their fastest, making regular maintenance essential if you want healthy, productive crops for the rest of the season.
‘With any luck, your veg patch will be cropping heavily now,’ Alan says. He recommends lightly hoeing between rows to remove young weeds before they become established, taking care not to disturb the roots of nearby crops.
Watering is equally important, particularly during warm spells. ‘July is also a month where you should be irrigating your veg crops – they're particularly susceptible to drying out at this time of year, and that means they'll stop developing,’ he adds.
July is also the perfect time to grow more strawberry plants for free. Alan recommends pinning or potting any runners into multi-purpose compost now, where they'll root into healthy new plants ready for next year's harvest.
4. Add late-summer flowering plants to borders
If your borders are starting to fade, now is the perfect time to add late-flowering perennials. They'll keep your garden full of colour well beyond summer.
‘You can get echinacea in many colours, but Delicious Candy is particularly striking,’ Alan says. ‘They can grow just under two feet high and, best of all, it flowers from now right on until September and October.’
For a burst of colour that lasts into late summer, Alan recommends crocosmia 'Harlequin'. In a warm, sunny position, it produces vibrant tangerine and deep orange flowers.
‘Another perennial guaranteed to add summer colour is the Japanese anemone,’ he says. ‘You can get them in subtle shades of pink, mauve or white, and they’ll flower on until November.’
For long-lasting colour, Alan recommends planting drought-tolerant red hot poker (Kniphofia) 'Papaya Popsicle'. Its striking salmon-pink blooms cope well with dry weather, helping borders stay full of colour into late summer.
Watch Alan's key gardening jobs for July below:
More on Alan Titchmarsh:
- Why Alan Titchmarsh downsized to a modern Surrey home: ‘It’s liberating’
- Inside Alan Titchmarsh’s new English cottage garden in Surrey after moving from Hampshire
- Alan Titchmarsh says this beautiful tree works in even the smallest gardens
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