Things To Do In July

USE THE WARMEST PARTS OF THE DAY TO HARVEST AND TEND THE VEGIES

- Jennifer Stackhouse

COOL & TEMPERATE

VEGIES

Winter can seem a chilly time to be outdoors, but the cold weather brings benefits as it reduces pest numbers and encourages deciduous productive plants to form good flowers and fruit.

For a productive but trouble-free vegie patch over winter, concentrate on fast croppers like snow peas and Asian greens along with more traditional crops such as English spinach and lettuce. Keep everything growing well with organic liquid fertiliser applied weekly.

Broad beans will flower and fruit once the coldest winter weather is over. In cold zones there’s still time to plant broad beans.

Most pests and diseases take a break over winter, but the cabbage white butterfly may be about. Handpick and squash the green caterpillars. In areas with wet winters, also check for snails and slugs. Use traps, scatter an iron based bait or do a snail patrol in the evening or when it’s raining. Dispose of snails and slugs in a bucket of salty water. When it’s dry, snails often wait it out under the rims of pots or in crevices, so keep an eye out.

FRUIT

Cold weather is vital for the formation of crops on most deciduous fruit trees, but frosts and cold spells damage subtropical fruiting plants such as citrus in colder climates. Cover or protect cold-sensitive plants while deciduous trees chalk up the hours needed to form flowers and fruit. Chilling hours range from several hundred for apples, pears and peaches to more than 1000 hours for cherries. In milder winter areas look for low-chill varieties.