Monthly Growing Guide By Alan J Hartley For
Wellington Fields Allotments - Hixon.
Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec

July
Seeds To Sow.
Most of the year’s crops should be in the ground and growing by now, but it is not too early to start thinking about some things for next season, in the new-year. Young plants of vegetables to harvest next Spring such as Spring Cabbage will not be available to buy for a few weeks yet, but you can certainly start to think about sowing them to grow on ready for planting out in a month, or so.

Other Jobs To Do.
If you haven’t already harvested your Onions and Garlic they will be ready by now unless you made a particularly late planting of your Onions. Both Onions and Garlic need to be dried off properly and kept in a cool, but dry and airy place, for good storage. Making a “Rope,” to hang up in your garage, out of your Onions, or Garlic, is a particularly good way of storing them and doesn’t take as much skill as you might think. Both Onions and Garlic will keep for a long time, although Soft Neck Garlic stores better than Hard Neck varieties. Elephant Garlic is another totally different type that produces Cloves many times bigger than normal. Indeed one Clove of Elephant Garlic is usually, nearly as big as a whole Bulb of ordinary! Elephant Garlic is milder in flavour and lends itself nicely to roasting as you might a whole Onion. 
If you planted your Broad Beans at the back end of last Autumn you will probably have already harvested them by now and avoided trouble with Black Fly that they are very susceptible to. The old fashioned remedy for this pest was simply to pinch out the soft growing tips, as these are what the flies go for. You can try Companion planting of such things as Marrigolds that will draw the Black Flies away from your Beans and of course there are many insecticide sprays that will deal with them, but make sure the sprays are suitable for vegetable crops.
Early Potatoes should be ready by now with other types following on. It is said that leaving the Potatoes in the ground for a couple of weeks after taking the tops off will thicken their skins and make them better for both handling and storage. After being dug up they need to be cleaned and dried before they can be stored. Some people like to leave them on the top of their plots for a few hours, but in really intense sun this can start to turn them green. So, perhaps, drying them by spreading them out over night in a well-ventilated garage is a better idea.

Chrysanthemums plants should be growing well by now, so it is a good idea to give them some support for the flowers that will come soon. Frames for the flowers to grow through, can be expensive, but if you have a row of plants it is a simple matter to run a length of Chicken Wire over them and string that to some strategically placed posts such as Dahlia Stakes for support.

 


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