Gardening Hints & Tips – July & August 2025

September 16, 2025| Previous Issue, Gardening Hints & Tips

July & August 2025

Worplesdon Garden Club is a friendly and enthusiastic club which meets every second Tuesday of the month from 8-10pm in the Old Church, Emmanuel Parish Centre, Stoughton, Guildford, GU2 9SJ with doors open from 7.45pm.

For more information on Worplesdon Garden Club contact Tim Bonnert on 01483 237702

About Worplesdon Garden Club

Membership is only £15 for the year from January and includes a full schedule of speakers throughout the year, plus a range of social events including Garden Visits, Lunches, Barbecues, and Horticultural Shows. Please see the club website, www.worplesdongardenclub.co.uk, for more details. Visitors (£3) and new members are always welcome.

For more information on Worplesdon Garden Club contact Tim Bonnert on 01483 237702, info@worplesdongardenclub.co.uk, or visit www.worplesdongardenclub.co.uk where you can read our latest Club Newsletter – www.worplesdongardenclub.co.uk/newsletters

Club News:

Tuesday 8th July
Club Meeting in July:
Paul Whittle – ‘New England in the Fall’

Tuesday 12th August
Club Meeting in August
Worplesdon Garden Club Summer Show – Fairlands Community Centre, 8.00pm.

Note change of venue for this meeting.

Gardening hints and tips for July and August

It’s been an exceptionally warm and dry year so far, so if this continues, it is important to water plants properly. If water is needed on flower beds, drench with water once or twice a week rather than giving some water every day.
Pots, containers, and hanging baskets should, however, be watered more frequently so the compost in these containers does not dry out completely.
If tubs or baskets do dry out, a drop of washing-up liquid in the water can help to re-wet an over-dry rootball.
Deadhead old flowers regularly to extend the flowering season.
For hardy geraniums, it is better to cut off all the foliage and old flowers as flowering slows, then to water well and feed with a liquid feed and allow new stems and flowers to regrow from the base for a second flush.
Continue to stake, tie, or support plants to keep them from sprawling or being damaged in the wind.
Feed all plants growing in tubs or containers fortnightly with a high potassium liquid fertiliser.
Feed tomatoes and cucumbers growing in pots or growbags weekly with the same high potassium feed.
The lower leaves of tomato plants can be removed from late July to allow more light to reach the ripening trusses.
Sow seeds of biennials such as wallflowers (Erysimum), foxgloves (Digitalis), Bellis, and sweet rocket (Herperis), perennials such as primulas, pansies and violas, and hardy annuals such as Calendula, and in the vegetable garden, continue to succession sow lettuce, carrots, beetroot and radishes.
Pick fruit and vegetables regularly. This is especially true for beans and peas that will reduce or stop flowering as mature pods ripen, and for courgettes that will become marrows if left too long.
Garlic should be ready to harvest towards the end of July as the leaves start to go brown and drop, but try to harvest, dry, and store the bulbs before the tops are completely dead as it can be difficult to find them in the soil, and the cloves may split open in the bulb if left too long in wet ground. Onions and shallots can be lifted in August.
Mow with blades set one or two stops higher than normal – longer grass will be much more tolerant of dry weather and will stay green for longer. However, dry lawns should not be watered – they will recover once they get some rain.
Summer prune Wisteria by cutting back the long stems of this year’s growth to about five or six leaves to prevent continued leaf formation and encourage flowering buds to form in the leaf axils
Prune any stone fruits (plum, cherry, peach, etc.) as well as formative pruning of apples and pears trained as an espalier, cordon or fan.
Trim Lavender after flowering by removing most, or all of this year’s growth but do not cut back hard into older wood as this may not regrow.
Lift and divide bearded irises now ensuring that the fleshy rhizome remains on the soil surface when replanted so that it can bake in the sun – essential for good flowers next year.
Take photographs and make notes of what looks good in the garden and perhaps more importantly, where there are gaps, colours or heights that don’t work well, or if perennials need splitting – all tasks for the Autumn or next Spring.