The height of summer doesn’t have to bring an end to the sowing and growing. After a wet May, followed by a spell of hot days, many gardens will be full of lush growth. But if yours is failing to deliver, there is still time to sow and plant, provided you choose the right things.
Five things you should plant
Nerines are autumn-flowering bulbs that offer fireworks of candy pink on long stems just when everything else is dying back. The Bowden lily, Nerine bowdenii, is the hardiest, and does well in sunny gravel gardens: the base of a brick wall is ideal.
While buying roses in the depth of winter makes sense financially – bare root roses are much cheaper than those bought in pots – there is something to be said for being able to see and sniff a rose before you buy, as one person’s delicious bouquet is another’s off-putting aroma. You can plant roses in large containers now to add instant scent and colour. Cultivars labelled as “patio roses” are usually 30-60cm tall, so can be accommodated in smaller gardens; Queen Mother is a repeat-flowering rose with shell-pink semi-double flowers that will attract bees.
Oriental greens do best if planted after the summer solstice, so now is the time to get these crops in the ground. There is a dizzying range, but some of the more familiar ones are tatsoi, mizuna, pak choi and mibuna. You can buy collections of young plants from mail-order nurseries, or check your garden centre. It is not too late to start some from seed, either: Real Seeds has a great selection.
If your borders are looking sparse, dahlias can add colour as summer draws on. You can buy garden-ready potted dahlias online or from garden centres, and rather than trying to shoehorn them into the soil, you can pot them into large containers to fill gaps with minimum effort. Smaller-flowering dahlias tend to work best; just make sure you protect them from slugs and snails.
Sown now, dwarf French beans can produce a good harvest within weeks, and don’t require the hassle of setting up a support network as they grow to knee height. The cultivar Speedy is, as the name suggests, quick to crop and will keep going to the first frosts.
Five garden maintenance tasks to complete
If your tomatoes are flowering and maybe even fruiting now, it is time to do a head count. Tomatoes flower and fruit on trusses – stems that emerge from the main stem. Once you have four or five trusses flowering, it is time to stop the plant from making any more by chopping off the top of the main stem, above the final truss that you want to keep. This stops the tomato putting energy into fruit that won’t have time to ripen. Nourish regularly with tomato feed and keep well watered.
Bearded irises fail to flower when they get congested, so if yours are not performing, it’s probably time to divide the clump. Carefully prise the rhizomes (the bumpy, chunky ground-level stems that irises grow from) out of the ground with a fork, and cut them into chunks, each with a fat, healthy rhizome attached. Disregard anything that looks wizened, then trim the leaves and roots by half and replant so the rhizomes sit at roughly soil level – a little deeper in sandy soils.
Terracotta pots and hanging baskets may need some TLC: both lose a lot of water to evaporation in hot weather, so remove any weeds that may compete with your plants, trim back straggly growth and remove dead flowers to encourage more. Regular feeding and a deep soak every few days rather than dribbles of water here and there will help plants perform best.
It is time to give rhubarb a break from the harvesting so it can regrow ready for next year. If it has started flowering, cut flowering stems down to ground level. For those seeking a longer rhubarb season, add the variety Livingstone to your food patch, as it crops in late summer and autumn.
Deadheading roses will keep the flowers coming for longer: cut back to just above the top leaf joint. Roses are hungry plants, so if yours have run out of steam after a flush of flowers, they will benefit from being fed with a proprietary rose fertiliser.
Five further ways to enjoy your garden
Love-in-a-mist (Nigella), pot marigold (Calendula), opium poppies and other flowering annuals are all popping out seedheads by the dozen; once they are dry and strawlike, pick them, stems and all, and hang upside down somewhere airy indoors, with a paper bag over them to catch the seeds. Buy glassine envelopes to store these somewhere cool and dry, ready to sow in autumn or spring in spots where you have noted a lack of summer colour, or share with fellow gardeners.
If you are cutting the grass after a holiday or a break from mowing, check through it carefully for hedgehogs, toads and frogs, which all like to hang out among long stems. Grass cuttings can be added to compost heaps in thin layers, alternating with ripped-up cardboard, or use them as a mulch on your veg patch or allotment.
Water is a precious resource, so make the most of what you have by installing water butts on your downpipes. “Grey” water from washing up and baths can be safely used on non-edibles, but use it straight away rather than storing it. Water early in the morning or in the late evening to minimise the amount of moisture that gets evaporated by the sun before plants have a chance to use it.
If you planted a tree last winter, it is worth watering it during dry spells to make sure it doesn’t suffer from stress as it establishes. As the trunk grows, keep an eye on ties and loosen them to accommodate its increasing girth.
Harvest lavender in the mornings to harness the maximum amount of essential oils. Choose stems where not all of the flowers have opened, and snip with a pair of garden scissors or secateurs. Hang them up inside, tied in bunches to dry.
