1 May 2025
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Conserving water and nurturing soil health are on the to-do list for Chris Collins this summer
Keeping your soil healthy , moist and regularly replacing nutrients is key if you want to keep your little garden looking good and productive all summertime . At this time of year , I care to add together a top - dressing of compost to the container ( home - made if possible ) to help boost my growing works . I ’ll also add together an organic feed such as comfrey pellets or liquid feed .
If you ’re growing hungry food crop such as courgettes and tomatoes , they will benefit from being mulched in summer . The mulch should be lower in depth toward the plant crown , allow puddling when watering . This in twist creates humidity around the plants , and squash racquet away the fearsome powdery mildew that courgettes often succumb to .
One of the most pleasant tasks of the summertime months is the aristocratical nontextual matter of dead heading . This is when you remove spend flowers to encourage further buds . It keeps the colour coming but also helps our pollinators with a longer time of year of nectar and pollen . works such as roses or seasonal genus Pelargonium will sure as shooting benefit , and at the same metre you’re able to plunk off any all in or fading leaves . This practise will help dissuade common mildew that appear during the hotter , dry weather .
Watering is a central task in warmer temperatures , and while it might seem strange to blab out about water salve after such a wet winter and natural spring , it ’s important as this wanted resource can soon become scarce . seek to pick up water where possible . If elbow room earmark , fix a water butt to your gutter and drain organization . Grey water can also be saved from moisten up ( verify there ’s no impregnable detergents or too many food for thought bits in the water ) and used on mature specimens of tree diagram and shrubs . Water other dawn or last affair in the evening to maximise the shock and melt off transpiration .
Our plants are not the only ones that need piddle . think of to provide a cool pool for razzing and bee to drink in and bathe , and your summer garden will soon be filled with lovely scents , sights and sounds .
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Small Space Q&A
Q. Do I need to change the character of feed I apply in my container in the summertime ?
A. At this metre of yr I move from a more general fertiliser to a potash - based feed . Potash or potassium is the nutrient that promote the production of fruit and flush , so this is the idealistic time to implement . I expend comfrey ‘ Bocking 14 ’ , which Garden Organic ’s father Lawrence Hills attain was a fantastic fertiliser , filth and compost do-gooder , bee magnet and compost accelerant . Find out more at gardenorganic.org.uk/comfrey or see the National Collection of Comfrey at the charity ’s Organic Garden in Ryton , Coventry .
Q. I ’m so behind on my seed sowing , is it too later to inseminate now ?
A. you may still inseminate salad crops , carrot , bread , Brassica rapa and spinach in mid - august . Leafy herbs such as parsley , Chinese parsley and basil will also enjoy the warmer soil . Remember to have a few of these flower for pollinators .
Q. I get hold it hard to tell when my jackpot need watering , and often over water . Any tips ?
A. Use the fingerbreadth trial to verify if the grime is dampish a few centimetres down . If it is , the plant does not demand watering . Test the weight of your pots , by lifting them up when they are amply watered , so you may recognize when they need a drench .
