JULY

FRUIT

·         Pick fruit when ready.

·         Check tree ties for constriction.

·         Complete thinning on apples.

·         Support heavily laden branches.

·         Apply irrigation when necessary.

·         Begin summer pruning of all trained forms by the end of the month but delay if wet.

·         Continue pruning fan trained plums and cherries, and cherry trees.

·         Continue to train wall trained peaches and nectarines.

·         Protect fruit against birds.

·         Immediately raspberries have cropped prune out old canes and tie in new ones.

·         Immediately after cropping of strawberries, remove foliage and straw, remove surplus runners, and all weeds, dispose of debris.

·         Train in new canes of blackberries, tip layering for new plants can be done at the end of the month.

·         Continue to control sawfly, mildew and leaf spot on gooseberries and currants after cropping.

·         Control slugs and mildew on strawberries if a problem.

·         Apply a 2nd spray for codling moth caterpillars on apples, 3 weeks after the first.

·         Continue regular sprays against mildew until mid Jjuly.

o        Continue spraying against bitter pit.

o        Check whether scab is present and if necessary spray until mid July.

o        Inspect for wholly aphid and treat.

o        Spray blackberries at dusk for raspberry beetle at first open flower.

LAWNS

·         Mow regularly at summer height.

·         Water if dry and rake as for June.

·         Use a good selective weed killer against clover, pearlwort, and yarrow, little late but do not ignore..

·         See friends about mowing lawn while away on holidays.

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The above helpful advice has been reproduced by kind permission of Will Hart, whose experience includes working for Blackburn Rovers FC (as a groundsman at their Training Ground, Academy and Ewood Park), for the Sultan of Oman (at his French residence in Fontainebleau, south of Paris) at the 1999 Martell Grand National at Aintree and for a variety of different sized local gardens and estates.  Impressive credentials I am sure you will agree!