July. The Harvesting Month
So summer has finally arrived, and hopefully that means you are harvesting plenty of fruit and vegetables from your allotment/garden plot.
Hopefully you are harvesting broad beans, beetroot, cabbage, carrots, courgettes, garlic, lettuce, potatoes, peas just to name a few! Fruit should be ripening thick and fast too. Gooseberries, raspberries, cherries and blackberries should all be at their best now.
Many of the various different herbs, such as basil, chives, mint and sage, will be thriving. All of which can be combined with many of the vegetables to make perfect summer dishes. And often the simplest are the best – new potatoes cooked with mint! Hard to beat. It is always worth drying some herbs if you can to be able to use them throughout the winter months.
Upkeep of your plot
Some of you may be considering jetting off somewhere on a summer holiday soon. Before you go try to hoe as much as possible so that you don’t come back to a weed jungle! See if there is someone that can water your plants for you in exchange for collecting produce.
Your tomato plants will be loving the summer sun, so make sure you keep nipping out the side shoots so all the plants energy is focused on the fruit. Try planting your side shoots to give you a tomato crop in a month or two.
Pests may be an issue for you to now the weather is warmer.
Black fly could have colonised your broad beans, and if they have, pinch out the tops as this attracts them. Plus a note for next year – plant nasturtiums to attract them so they can eat them instead of your beans!
What to plant now
When considering what seeds to sow now always think about what you will actually eat and how many are you going to be feeding. There is little point planting 30 winter cabbages if you live on your own – unless you have a lot of friends, neighbours (or chickens!) to give them to!
If you haven’t already got your leeks in now is the time to get it done. Dib a hole, drop your leek in and fill hole with water, and in the autumn you will have the perfect addition to some winter soups.
Some varieties of potatoes can be planted now to get a crop well into autumn, and may even stretch to Christmas if you time it right. And the same can be said for carrots. Carrot Nanco is a good variety to plant now if you want them for your Christmas dinner.
Many of the typical salad crops, such as lettuce, radish and beetroot, can all still be sown now.
Make sure that you make the most of the long summer days. Take time just to sit and think about what you have achieved already this year, what you have already harvested, and you plan to do next year – whether you have got everything just right or whether there are things you would do differently. But most of all – enjoy harvesting all the goodies that you have spent a lot of love, care and attention over.
