Jobs to do in the garden in July

Colourful double herbaceous border containing dahlias, echinacea, heleniums, echinops and ornamental grasses with a grass path in between

With borders in full swing, make sure you put your feet up and enjoy them! Image: Dreamstime

Phew! It’s July. Borders are at their peak, but growth is slowing down so you should have time to put your feet up and take some garden notes. Observe what has and hasn’t worked, plants which need dividing and gaps which need filling. Then, after rousing from your recliner to crack on with the ‘Hampton Court Hack’, reward yourself by compiling a greedy wish list of your must-have plants and seeds for next year.

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Rewilding the lawn

This white tailed bumble bee is enjoying selfheal flowers which have spontaneously popped up in an unmown lawn
Image: Plantlife

Which would you choose? A barren desert wasteland? Or a tapestry of wild flowers teaming with insects, mammals and birds?

Lawns are great for leisure and as a foil to colourful planting, but they are also wildlife wastelands. Just 1% of our countryside is species-rich grassland but Plantlife suggests that ‘with 15 million gardens in Britain, our lawns have the potential to become major sources of nectar’, helping to reverse alarming declines in our insect populations and support a host of other wildlife.

Browse our wildflower seeds for inspiration. You don’t have to lose the lawn completely, but here are three ways to allow some wildness into your lawn, starting with the easiest.

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The Best Plants for June

close up of a cottage garden border with roses, alliums, and iris

Image: Canva

In June the garden bursts into an extravagance of flowers and it’s almost impossible to choose amongst them, but here are five of my perennial favourites.

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Jobs to do in the garden in June

Naturalistic cottage garden style border with gravel paths between argyrathemums, angels fishing rods, delphiniums, foxgloves and yellow achilleas In June the garden is at its freshest. It’s time to sit back and enjoy long summer evenings surrounded by abundant flowers and lush foliage whilst surveying the results of all your work earlier in the year.

If you worked hard in May, you should already have crossed many of June’s jobs off your list!

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Fairytale Foxgloves

Blurry close up of foxgloves in golden sunset lighting

Image: Canva

There has long been an association between fairies and foxgloves. Folklore says that fairies gave the flowers to foxes to wear on their paws so they could tread silently when hunting. There is certainly something magical about their slender spires and they make excellent border plants, lending both romance and an airy architecture to gardens as well as providing ample food for bees. Seed sown in May/June will provide foxglove flowers next year. Or buy established plants now for instant impact this season. 

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