What to sow & do in a July kitchen garden
There’s so much to sow, do and pick in a July kitchen garden. This month is when all the hard work gardening in late winter and spring truly starts to pay off, with plenty of delicious crops to pick and eat.
It’s also time to start thinking ahead and preparing for other seasons. There are plenty of seeds to get started off, including some successional sowings for more late summer and autumn food, plus other new seeds for overwintering.
This is good news for anyone who wants to begin a new edible garden right now, it certainly isn’t too late to start an allotment or kitchen garden in July.
The plant care to-do list is on the long side, especially keeping on top of the watering and pest control, but it’s worth it for the extra crops it will provide.
Here are the main things to sow and do in a kitchen garden or on your allotment this July. It’s a busy month:
What to sow in July
Some of my favourite places to get seeds and small plants include:
- Dobies – great seed catalogue from long-established company
- Marshalls Garden – good variety of seedlings and plants
- RHS – good for ‘Garden Merit’ tried and tested varieties
- Suttons – lots of 99p seeds and handy advice for beginners
- Thompson & Morgan – all kinds of seeds, strawberry plants, fruit bushes etc
- Wilko – the bargain seeds are back, plus lots of multi-buy offers
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There’s still plenty to sow this month – have a look at all these seeds:
- Beetroot (last chance)
- Calabrese
- Carrots
- Cauliflower
- Chard
- Chicory
- Chinese cabbage
- Endive
- Florence fennel (vegetable)
- Kohl rabi
- Leaf beet (perpetual spinach)
- Lettuce & other salad leaves
- Maincrop potatoes (last chance)
- Pak choi and choy sum
- Peas (last chance)
- Radish
- Rocket
- Spinach (long day types)
- Spring onions
- Swede (last chance, early July)
- Turnip
AND: Sow these now for winter crops
- Kale
- Spring cabbage
- Winter radishes
There are also some garden jobs to do in July to give you bigger and better crops. July is when most kitchen gardens really get into their stride, so there’s lots to pick and look after this month.
Garden jobs to do in July
There’s plenty to be getting on with right now. Have a look at this handy checklist:
1. Planting out in July
- Last chance to plant out baby leeks
- Maincrop potato & sweet potato tubers
- New strawberry plants for next year’s crops
- Winter seedlings: endive, winter cabbage etc
2. Care of vegetables in July
- Check tomatoes & potatoes for blight
- Pinch out (‘stop’) outdoor cordon tomato tips once 3 – 5 trusses have fruit, and remove side shoots
- Pick beans, courgettes & cucumbers regularly
- Deadhead soft herbs & take cuttings of woody herbs
- Earth up potatoes & Jerusalem artichokes
- Stake/support large brassicas (sprouting broccoli, Brussels sprouts)
- Lift autumn-planted garlic
- Pinch out runner bean tips once they reach the top of their supports
- Protect vegetables from carrot root fly and cabbage butterflies
- Stake large brassicas on windy sites
- Top dress slow-growing vegetables with compost
3. Care of fruit in July
- Cut back dead strawberry leaves if fruiting is over
- Remove or propagate strawberry runners
- Thin tree fruits (last chance)
- Train or tie in fruit canes, vines & fan or espalier trees
4. Other garden jobs in July
- Collect seeds from annual and biennial herbs
- Collect seeds from companion plants such as marigolds and nasturtiums
5. General jobs to keep on top of
- Check crops for pests
- Feed plants with liquid feed every 7 – 14 days
- Pick ripe fruit, courgettes and beans regularly
- Protect fruit from birds
- Slug and snail protection
- Tie in plants as they grow
- Ventilate greenhouse or cloches
- Watering
- Weeding
My July kitchen garden diary
We’ve had quite a few strawberries so far, more than any other fruit this year, and I’m hoping the late season strawbs take over after the mis-season Cambridge Favourite plants to extend the season. The autumn rasperry canes have flowered with the first raspberries ready to pick, and we have a last flush of rhubarb stems to pick and process.
I usually grow lots of salad, but we mostly seem to have rocket this year. That’s because I’ve accidentally grown violas in most of the salad boxes, so I probably mixed the packets up when I was rushing to get things sown on a cold rainy day earlier in the year. Ooops. But at least they’re pretty, and I can split them up and plant them out around the garden for a splash of colour.
Some sequential sowings of lettuce and mixed baby leaves are next on the list, to make up for the mistake. I’ll put the seeds in just as the sun goes down on a cooler evening, and keep them watered well to help germination.
The main pests so far this month have been squirrels, which seem to be jumping in and out of the pots and eating unripe strawberries, as well as their usual trick of trying to bury acorns in the salad boxes.
Our courgettes, cucumbers and tomatoes are more established now, with tiny fruits on them, and I’m hoping to be able to start picking those later in the month. For now I’m tying them in as they grow, and keeping them happy with a little liquid feed every now and again.
The other thing to do will be starting off a few quick modules of chard, leaf beet and kale. This ten minute investment should produce decent sized plug plants to go straight into gaps as various summer plants end their life cycle. They take up very little space, but will hopefully give us some autumn and overwintering crops.
Enjoying this article? You may also like:
- What to sow & do in a June kitchen garden
- British seasonal food in July (what to harvest this month)
Are you growing any fruit, vegetables or herbs this season?
How’s your plot getting along?
