July Gardening Tips and Snips
Cuttings
Ceanothus Concha flower close up
Now’s the time to take semi-ripe cuttings from some of your favourite shrubs like Hebe’s, Rosemary, Weigela, Ceanothus and Hydrangeas. Take the cuttings from the current year’s growth just below a leaf, remove the leaves from the lower half of the cutting and dip the end in rooting hormone. Then insert the cuttings in pots of cuttings compost. Cover the pots with a polythene bag or put them in a propagator and place somewhere warm and sheltered but out of strong, direct sunlight. They should be ready to pot on in a few weeks. Don’t forget to pick up everything you need when shopping to ensure perfect cuttings including pots, cuttings compost, dibbers, rooting hormone, labels and propagators.
Wisteria Pruning
To get the most from wisteria it’s important to build up a good framework of permanent branches to cover the support, so make sure you tie in stems as they grow. And now’s the time to give your wisteria its summer prune. Cut back all this year’s leafy side shoots to five to seven leaflets. After pruning feed with a potash-rich granular feed such as a rose fertiliser. And if you were jealous of everyone else’s wisterias earlier this year then get buying and planting today, wisterias can take many years to flower so the longer you leave it the longer you are without beautiful wisteria blooms. Remember they need a spot in full sun and a sturdy trellis or similar for support.
Weeds
Weeds can soon take over the garden and not only do they look unsightly, but they can smother your prized plants, steal valuable water and nutrients from the soil and become hosts to pests and diseases. Now’s the time for an all-out assault on them using a hoe for annuals and small weeds, mulches and planting membranes to keep beds and borders permanently weed free and weedkillers to stop even the most persistent weeds taking over. Use a weedkiller based on Glyphosate for persistent, deep-rooted perennials.
