Page 13 - ALG Issue 2 2025

Fruit work:
•
Top fruit such as apples and pears should
naturally start to shed a little excess fruit.
For larger, tastier crops manually thin out
culinary apples, pears and plums.
•
Tidy strawberry beds and mulch; peg
down runners.
•
Tie in new growth on blackberries,
raspberries and hybrid berries.
•
Watch out for gooseberry sawfly attacks.
Greenhouse work:
•
Ventilate greenhouses, polytunnels and
cold frames on warm days to prevent
damage to young plants.
•
To reduce red spider mite attacks,
dampen down floors, staging etc.
•
Tie in new growth on tomatoes,
cucumbers and melons and keep
well-watered.
Fruit work:
•
Prune apples and pears that are trained
as espaliers, step-overs, and cordons.
Reduce all this season’s growth by one
third.
•
Protect ripening cherries from birds.
•
Finish harvesting rhubarb by the end of
the month. Give crowns a heavy mulch of
manure or similar.
•
Prune side shoots of mature
gooseberries and red/white currants,
cutting them back to 4 or 5 leaves to
encourage fruiting buds to form for next
year.
Greenhouse work:
•
Keep greenhouses, polytunnels etc. well
Fruit work:
•
Finish all summer pruning on trained
apples and pears.
•
Prune blackcurrants by removing fruited
branches.
•
Reduce side-shoots on red and white
currants by two thirds.
•
Remove straw from around spent
strawberry beds and add a general
fertiliser.
•
Prune summer fruiting raspberries and
hybrid berries, tie in new unfruited canes
and feed.
Flower work:
•
Continue as last month.
•
Ensure that any winter bedding seeds are
sown no later than the beginning of the
KEY
Harvest
Sow direct
Sow with heat
Sow under cover
Plant out
Flower work:
•
Plant dahlias out before the middle
of the month, and stake well for
the taller varieties. Keep them
well-watered.
•
Harden off annual cut flowers and
plant out early in the month.
•
Chrysanthemums that have been
stopped earlier should be thinned
and side growth removed to
ensure the bigger blooms.
Produce J J A
Aubergine
Beetroot
Bean - broad
Bean - French/Dwarf
Bean - runner
Broccoli and Calabrese
Brussels Sprouts
Cabbage - spring
Cabbage - summer
•
•
•
ventilated, and in the hottest weather
keep damping down.
Continue to tie in new growth on
tomatoes, cucumbers and melons.
Tomatoes should be well-watered to
avoid blossom end rot and feed regularly
with a high potash (potassium) fertiliser.
Melons may require pollinating. To do this,
remove a ‘male’ flower (one without a
small fruit behind it) and push it inside a
‘female’ flower (one with a small fruit).
Flower work:
•
Water cut flowers and keep cutting.
•
Keep tying in sweet peas and cut off
faded blooms.
•
Keep dahlias well fed; they are greedy
plants.
Cabbage - winter
Carrot
Cauliflower
Celeriac
Celery
Chinese Leaves
Courgette
Cucumber
Kale
Lettuce - all year round
Lettuce
Marrow
Melon
Onion
Peas
month. Winter pansies, violas, wallflowers
and primulas can really brighten up
winter plots.
Pepper
Potato
Radish
Salad leaves
Spinach
Spring onion
Squash
Strawberry
Swede
Sweetcorn
Swiss chard
Tomato
Turnip
Allotment and Leisure Gardener | Issue 2 2025 | 13