The Vegetable Plot – July

Thyme and inclination

The keen vegetable gardener will be harvesting the vegetables of their labours, turnip, tender carrots, beetroot and towards the end of the month you should have runner beans, French and broad beans. Remember to keep the bean family well watered and mulch if it’s hot and dry.

Thyme, sage and rosemary harvested now can be dried or frozen and parsley sown in a sheltered spot for a winter supply.

Garlic should be ready when the tips turn colour and shallots when the leaves turn yellow and you can lift and store autumn sown onions.

Tomatoes need feeding and steady watering – too much all at once causes splitting. Keep the greenhouse well ventilated and the plants shaded where necessary. You can be sowing salad crops and spring cabbage or if you don’t have the inclination today, sit back and enjoy the garden.

• Earth up winter celery 
• Plant out winter greens and keep watered
• Sow lettuces, spinach beet, Swiss chard
• Plant out leeks sown in mid-March
• Nip out side shoots on tomatoes
• Put well-rotted manure or compost around tomato plants
• Sow parsley in pots – move to the greenhouse in autumn