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In your vegetable garden in July 2010

The weather this year has been unusually cold, hot, wet and dry – so who knows exactly what vegetables that gardeners across the country will be harvesting now! But by now you should be reaping  rewards of some sort from your vegetable plot or pots : freshly picked salad leaves and herbs, beetroot, onions, garlic, peas, baby courgettes and first early potatoes.

In fact why not show your nearest and dearest how good organic growing can be and treat them to a lunch, picnic, buffet or barbecue with an organic twist to raise much needed funds for Garden Organic’s charitable work. Find out more about Garden Organic here.

Effective watering
When watering  vegetables, the golden rule is 'soak not splash'. Give plants an occasional thorough soaking, at the appropriate stage, rather than little and often. Apply water directly to the soil in the mornings to prevent leaf scorch. For more tips follow the link: watering vegetables.

Gluts?
In theory of course, your advanced planning was so good that you no longer have 'gluts' of vegetables.

Some of the vegetables you could be enjoying right now.

Lettuce 'Palla rosa', courgette 'Green bush' and beetroot 'Carillon'

Try Something Different.

Why not experiment by adding some edible flowers or leaves from your July garden to brighten up a salad or any dish and create something a little bit different. See our factsheets: Edible flowers and Edible leaves.

Things to do in the vegetable garden this month

• 
  Removing tomato side shoots
  
  
  Carrot fly protection
• Before going on holiday, hoe, weed and mulch to keep weeds under control, and the soil moist, while you are away., . See our factsheet: Mulches for weed control (requires members' password).
• Organise someone to pick vegetables while you are away. Beans, peas and courgettes in particular will tend to stop producing new fruits if the crop is not picked regularly.
• Cordon tomatoes (grown with a single main stem):
  
  Continue to tie in new growth to support string or stake. Pinch out side shoots. If the plant has produced 4 or 5 trusses (bunches) of fruit, pinch out the main growing point to stop the plant growing and encourage fruit ripening.

• For information on some common tomato problems at this time of year go to the following link: Tomato Troubles.
• Continue to make regular sowings of salad crops to see you into the autumn.
• Keep harvesting vegetables as soon as they are ready. Most veg taste better when young. Plant another crop in its place, getting more our your land.
• Finish planting out winter brassicas.
• Summer cauliflowers may need shading to prevent the curds opening or becoming scorched. This can be done by bending a few leaves over the curds to prevent the sun reaching them.
  Pinch out runner beans. Removing the leading shoot will encourage side shoots hence more beans will be produced.
• Cut and dry herbs while they are at their best.
• Beware of carrot fly when thinning carrots. See our factsheet on Carrot fly (requires members' password)
• Keep adding material to your compost heap, mixing greens (nitrogen) with browns (carbon) at a 50/50 ratio. Cover the heap to retain moisture.
  For more information on making compost, see How to make compost.
• Cover flowering pea plants with fine mesh or fleece to protect against Pea moth.
• Earth up maincrop potatoes to keep light from the newly developing tubers. This will also help protect the tubers from blight.
• Check all vegetable netting for holes and gaps that may allow pests to attack.
• Sow bare ground with a green manure crop. Suitable for this month are buckwheat (Polygonaceae), mustard (Brassicaceae), phacelia (Hydrophyllaceae), alfalfa, crimson & Essex red Clover, fenugreek, lupin, and lrefoil (all Leguminosae).

• For more information on green manures see our factsheet How to grow green manures in the vegetable plot or visit the Organic Gardening Catalogue.
  
  Access to factsheets online requires members' password.
  Find out more about Garden Organic membership.

Sowing and Planting

• Continue to sow outdoors

  
  Chinese cabbage
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This is a Heritage Seed Library
  pea variety called
  'Champion of England'
  More information on HSL
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Swiss chard

  M	Beetroot	early and maincrop; until July. Try 'Boltardy', good resistance to bolting, with fine texture and flavour, available from the Organic Gardening Catalogue.
  M	Chinese cabbage	until end August. Do not transplant from a seedbed - either sow direct or in modules. Some varieties, such as Tatsoi, should not be sown before the end of June, or they will quickly go to seed. Others, such as Nikko can be sown as early as March.
  M	Calabrese	until end July
  	Carrots	early; until end July Try some in a box if you've run out of space in the garden. Use an early variety such as the extra sweet Sugarsnax or the spherical rooted Paris Market.
  M	Cauliflower	mini - until early July
  	Chicory	until end July; Pain di Zucchero, harvest in October.
  	Chicory, red and sugar loaf	until end August
  M	Florence fennel	for sowing before mid June, choose a cultivar listed as suitable for early sowing; some cultivars are very sensitive to day length and will bolt if sown before the longest day (21st June); until early August
  M	French beans	until end June, or July for a late crop of dwarf beans under cloches
  	Hamburg parsley	Until end July. Grown for its white parsnip-like roots.
  M	Kohl rabi	until August. Try Azure Star, striking blue/purple ‘bulbs’ with white, mild flavoured flesh.
  M	Lettuce	looseleaf, Cos, crisphead and butterhead. Lettuce, apart from crisphead varieties, germinates poorly when the soil temperature goes above 25C. This can happen in summer. To avoid this risk in hot weather, sow into well watered soil between 2 and 4pm, then cover with some form of shading material for the first 24hrs.
  	Salad onions	to mid June; sow winter varieties from August onwards, such as Ramond
  M	Pak choi	until end August
  M	Parsley	Until end July
  	Peas	maincrop, mangetout and sugarsnap [ to end July]. Where pea moth is a problem, delay sowings until mid May, so they will be flowering after the pea moth lays its eggs.
  	Radish, mooli	until end August
  	Radish, winter	Until end August. Sow winter varieties such as China Rose and Black Spanish.
  M	Spinach, perpetual	Until mid August, or end of August under cover. You'll find it under Leaf Beet in the Organic Gardening Catalogue.
  M	Swiss chard	Until mid August, or end of August undercover. To brighten up your winter plot, try the variety 'Bright Lights'. Stems can be orange, yellow, red, bright pink or even white! You'll find it under Leaf Beet in the Organic Gardening Catalogue.
  	Turnip	early varieties till end August; maincrop varieties till August.

  M = may also be raised in modules for transplanting

• Sow in a seedbed to transplant

  M

  Kale (borecole)

  to early August

  M = may also be raised in modules for transplanting

• What you could be eating now

  - if you remembered to sow it and if the weather has been kind.

  Globe artichokes Asparagus peas Broad beans French beans Runner beans Beetroot Leaf beet Cabbage Calabrese Carrots Cauliflower, early/mini Celery, self blanching Chard Chicory Corn Salad Courgettes Cucumber (outdoors and in)

  Endive Garlic Kohl rabi Lettuce Mibuna/Mizuna Greens Onions, autumn planted Onions, salad Parsley Peas Potatoes, early Summer squash Radish Rhubarb, from crowns Rocket Shallots Spinach Sweetcorn Tomato, indoor

• 
  Save tomato seed

• Saving lettuce and tomato seed is simple - and satisfying. You can produce quantities of high quality seed at no cost at all. Neither lettuce nor tomatoes interbreed easily, so no special measures are required to keep a variety pure.

  For more detailed instructions on seed saving, click on tomato seed or lettuce seed.

Pest and disease watch

• Asparagus beetle lay their eggs on asparagus foliage in June. The adult beetles, which are around 6mm (1/4in) long, have a distinctive yellow and black pattern. The larvae are grey, with a humped back. There may be 2 or 3 generations a year. Pick off any pests seen.
   
• Potato blackleg is a bacterial disease that affects individual stems on a potato plant. The base of the stem blackens; leaves roll and wrinkle, then die back early. Infected tubers smell revolting as they rot.
  
  Our Potato blackleg factsheet gives more information.
  
  Online factsheet access requires members' password - find out more about Garden Organic membership here
• 
  Tomato blight - on fruit
  
  
  Blossom end rot
  
  
  Cabbage white butterfly
  eggs and caterpillars
  
  
  Lettuce with slug collar protection
• Potato blight may well have made an appearance by now. To protect tubers from the spores that wash down from the leaves in to the soil, earth up plants, or mulch them with a thick layer of straw or autumn leaves.
   
  Potato blight can also attack tomatoes - and is often noticed first on the fruits. The brown leathery patches caused by blight are often confused with the symptoms of blossom end rot - a condition usually caused by irregular watering. Blossom end rot patches are dark brown/ black and always occur at the bottom end of the fruit, away from the plant.
  
  See our Potato blight and tomato blight factsheets for more information.
  
  Online factsheet access requires members' password - find out more about Garden Organic membership here
• Protect carrots, parsley and parsnips from the carrot rootfly, in areas where this pest is a problem.
  
  Our Carrot rootfly factsheet tells all
• When you see cabbage white butterflies on the wing, start checking cabbage and other brassica plants for signs of eggs and caterpillars. Squash or pick off any you see.
   
• Put out slug traps and barriers around new sowings and plantings - preferably a week or two before sowing or planting.
   
• If onion or garlic plants are dying back prematurely, the cause could be onion white rot. Dig plants up carefully to look for the telltale fluffy white mould, containing pinhead sized black spores (known as sclerotia).
  
  Our Onion white rot factsheet gives more information.
  
  Online factsheet access requires members' password - find out more about Garden Organic membership here
• Flea Beetles, mainly pests of brassicas, radish and mustard, can be particularly damaging during dry weather. They eat small holes in young leaves and stems. A severe attack can check and even kill young plants.
  Our Flea beetles factsheet gives more information.
• 
  Damage caused by pea and bean weevil
  to broad bean plant
• Bean and bean weevil
  Adults overwinter in plant debris and vegetation, feeding on plants in spring. Eggs are laid in soil and larvae feed on root nodules, pupating in the soil. Adults emerge in June or July to feed on leaves of beans or peas. Characteristic scalloped holes are eaten out of the edges of leaves.
  See our Pea and bean weevil factsheet for further details.
  
  Online factsheet access requires members' password - find out more about Garden Organic membership here

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