Grow your own on an allotment
Grow your own in July
Growing your own is healthy, fun and good for the environment.
July has been one of the hottest on record and our early mulching is paying off. Our courgettes are flourishing, our pumpkins and squash are rampant and the tomatoes are ripening beautifully. So what else is there to do apart from watch and enjoy your crops?
It gives us great pleasure of an evening to sit down to dinner and count up how many of the veg on our plate have been grown on the plot.
Got five hours to spare? Go to the allotment pages at Cardiff Council and Get an allotment.
Jobs for July
- Plants which don't like these very warm dry conditions need watering and mulching, try watering in the evening so that the water does not evaporate off in the heat of the sun. If you don't give
things a good water they can bolt and go to seed quite quickly. - Hoe round your vegetables to stop the weeds using up all the valuable moisture. Plants such as beans will become tough if they don't get enough water.
- If you want to store your potatoes, cut back the top growth and leave the tubers in the ground for 2 weeks. This should toughen their skins. At this time of year we are eating shallots,
potatoes, herbs, onions, artichokes, cucumber, courgettes, salads, beans, garlic and cabbages. - This is your last chance to sow carrots and runner beans.
- If you want salads over winter now is the time to get them in.
- You should also sow successional beetroot, turnips, spinach and salad onions in the next few weeks.