What to do in the garden in July:

We love July for its bowlfuls of new potatoes to enjoy with a dab of melted butter, sweet new broad beans and vases full of scented sweetpeas. It's a good life – so get out in the garden and enjoy!

General tasks:

• Keep bird baths topped up when the weather is dry and clean regularly to keep disease at bay.
• Hoe borders weekly to chop off the heads of annual weeds before they can flower and set seed.

Ornamental garden:

• Shade Japanese maples by moving them out of the sunshine and keeping them well watered to prevent leaf scorch
• Plant autumn-flowering bulbs including colchicum, nerines and autumn-flowering crocus for a sumptuous display of late colour.
• Keep dead-heading bedding displays and roses as they'll respond by producing more flowers, continuing the display for weeks longer.

Kitchen garden:

• Hand pollinate courgettes if fruit set is poor, removing male flowers, stripping away petals and dabbing it into up to four female flowers.
• Water tomatoes carefully adjusting levels according to the weather so the moisture level in the soil stays as even as possible to avoid blossom end rot ruining your fruit.
• Sow fast-maturing crops like beetroot, spinach, chard and kohl rabi for a late crop you can be harvesting right through autumn.