With the summer sun shining across H&F, it's the perfect time to pull on a pair of gardening gloves and get growing.
From window boxes and patio pots, to community gardens and allotments, any patch can become a green haven for planting.
The gardening experts at Fulham Horticultural Society – a local group that celebrated its 100th anniversary last year – have shared their top tips for growing success this summer.
Whether you're a fan of eye-catching flowers, fancy having a go at growing fruit, or you're a seasoned vegetable producer, the friendly horticultural society's advice will help keep the gardening tasks on track.
Rose Craston, from Fulham Horticultural Society, explains:
July is the most important month to start sewing the crops you will be harvesting in autumn and into winter.
"Get your brassicas sewn, then they have time to establish themselves in time for you to replace your summer crops. One crop you might not have tried is broccoli leaf, a cross between broccoli and savoy cabbage, which is grown for its leaves. Enjoy the wonderful weather and keep gardening."
To find out more visit the Fulham Horticultural Society website, or follow the team on Instagram @fulham_horticultural_society.
Summer gardening tips from Fulham Horticultural Society
1. Start sowing the seeds of overwintering crops – kale, spring cabbage, radicchio, chicory and spinach to mature in early summer next year. Now is also the best time to sow the main crop of carrots.
2. Regular deadheading bedding and perennial plants directs energy into stronger growth and more flowers. This is because once the flowers are pollinated, seed heads and pods form at the expense of further growth and flower development.
However, to attract birds with the tasty seeds, you can leave the faded flowers on plants including rudbeckia, cornflower and sunflower, or those with ornamental seeds or fruits such as alliums, love-in-a-mist (Nigella), and stinking iris (Iris foetidissima). There is also no need to deadhead rose cultivars that bear hips or other plants that bear berries in the autumn.
3. Applying used coffee grounds, eggshells, chopped-up banana peels, and other organic matter directly to your soil (no composting required) can offer plants nutrients as they decompose. For already-growing beds, scatter and bury the items within the first few inches of soil.
4. Water thirsty plants such as celery, beans, peas, courgettes, and pumpkins regularly. Water fruit trees and bushes, then lay a thick mulch of garden compost around their base to hold in moisture. Water tomatoes daily to prevent drying out, which can lead to split fruits and blossom end rot.
5. Sow small batches of fast-maturing salad leaves, rocket and radishes every few weeks for continuous pickings – these are perfect for window boxes and pots.
6. Cover brassicas with fine netting to prevent cabbage white butterflies laying their eggs on the leaves.
7. Pinch out the side shoots of cordon tomatoes, which grow upright with a single stem and need specific care for the best growth. This encourages the plant to produce flowers and so fruits. Remove the growing tip once four flower trusses have formed.
Feed tomatoes, chillies and cucumbers with high-potash tomato fertiliser every week to encourage fruiting.
8. Sow a last batch of peas and dwarf beans around mid-July for an autumn crop.
9. Fruit crops need trimming and thinning. With strawberries, trim off the foliage to just above the crowns after fruiting, remove unwanted runners and rake away old straw. For raspberries, continue thinning out crowded new canes, pruning unwanted canes down to soil level to leave remaining ones about 15cm apart.
Cane fruit including loganberries and tayberries can have their old, fruited canes cut to the ground once the fruit has been picked. Tie in all the new canes that have formed this year to support wires, spreading them out evenly.
10. Order cold-stored potato tubers for planting in a greenhouse or cool porch next month, to harvest at Christmas.
11. Clean accumulated dust off large-leaved houseplants to keep them looking their best. Take leaf cuttings from houseplants including Begonia rex, African violets, Cape primroses, crassula and kalanchoe.
12. Be vigilant for aphids, vine weevils and other pests, and treat immediately so infestations don't get out of hand. Pests including aphids and pea moth can be sprayed with insecticidal soap. Nematodes will deal with caterpillars, such as cabbage white caterpillar.
