Gosh the weather for the past few weeks has been a real scorcher here in the South West. Our patch is thriving...we can't say the same about the growers 😅

July is a fantastic time to be in the garden - it truly feels like life is sprawling and overflowing before us as plants shoot towards the sky and flowers fill the landscape with beauty and colour. Harvest trugs begin to be laden with produce and our plates become even more diverse and delicious.

All change at Vital Seeds HQ

Over at Vital Seeds HQ we've been busy moving into our new bigger and better office in an exciting new barn conversion here at Baddaford Farm. Even though it's just a few barns down it's not been an easy feat - we've collected a lot of stuff over the years!

Tonnes of seeds, seed packets, machinery, equipment and office supplies have been carried by hand, wheel barrowed and ferried in a pick-up truck over the last few weeks and we're slowly unpacking and working out how we're going to get the most out of this space.

We're already loving the huge windows and views across the farm! The cold store is also a welcome retreat on muggy days like today.

Watch this space for more updates when we're finally settled!

Tips to get the most out of your July garden

Get harvesting!

There should be plenty of produce ready to harvest in July. Pick beans, courgettes, cucumbers and peas regularly to keep harvests going!

You should start to see ripening tomatoes and the first of your aubergines might be almost ready to harvest.

If you're growing cut flowers you should start to be able to pick yourself some beautiful arrangements to enjoy inside. sunflowers, lupins, everlasting flowers, zinnias, cornflowers, grasses and cosmos should all be in flower - make sure you deadhead regularly to encourage a longer flowering window.

Keep watering and feeding!

Watering in the morning before it gets too hot can help to reduce evaporation and risks of fungal diseases. A great tip for efficient watering is go over your crops once to lightly soak the soil - waiting a moment for the soil to absorb the water - then watering again more abundantly. It's a great way to ensure the water penetrates down to deeper roots.

Organic homemade or store bought fertilizers such as comfrey / seaweed or compost teas are great for flowering plants and vegetables like peppers and tomatoes. Comfrey is best used before fruiting to encourage flowers and fruits, followed by seaweed once fruit has set to provide nutrients for fruit development.

Container plants may also start to benefit from some occasional feeding.

Keep the soil covered in your patch as much as possible with mulch or green manures to retain moisture, suppress weeds and regulate soil temperatures.

Keep sowing!

After harvesting early crops, sow fast-maturing vegetables like lettuces, radishes, or Asian greens. It's also your last chance to sow a late crop of Dwarf French Beans for a September harvest. For our full range of seeds to sow in July click here.​

July is also a fantastic time to begin sowing for autumn and winter harvests. Why not give our 'Second Spring' Seed Collection a try?

The pack contains a fantastic selection of 10 varieties to sow in July to keep your harvests going all winter. It includes some of our favourites like true spinach, baby choi, mizuna, turnips and rocket.

Keep pests and diseases at bay!

Keep an eye out for aphids - we generally squash small amounts between our fingers but for more established colonies we would introduce biocontrols such as ladybugs and lacewings or use neem oil and insecticidal soaps to manage populations.

Compared to last season our slug pressure seems relatively minor. We hope it's the same in your patch.

From late July the risk of blight increases for tomatoes, especially those grown outdoors. To reduce the risk, strip off the lower leaves as the fruit develops to increase ventilaton and expose the fruits to the sun for ripening. Avoid watering from above and instead direct water straight at the base of the plants to avoid wetting the leaves.

If you haven't netted your winter brassicas like kale and cabbages, it may be worth picking off any cabbage white caterpillars that you can spot. Once they hatch a small population can make a huge dent to your leafy greens.

Enjoy all your hard work!

We take great pleasure in an early morning or late evening crop walk, where we take a walk through our beds and take stock of how everything's getting on.

Away from the hustle and bustle of the hottest times of the day these moments are a great time to see what's ready to harvest, what might need weeding, where there might be gaps to fill or if there are any pests that need managing. We might pick some flowers to bring inside to the dinner table or sample the latest ripe tomato straight from the truss. We might notice that something new has flowered or the first curds of cauliflowers are peeking from their leaves almost ready to harvest.

There's no greater joy than standing in a patch you've toiled and sweated over and seeing what abundance and beauty you've created. Being in this kind of relationship to the living world and acting as an active participant in the biodiversity and growing of life is truly what life is all about. In this way we follow in the footsteps of all the ancestors who have walked before us - marvelling at the efforts made to preserve these treasures for us to enjoy in the present day.

Enjoy and happy growing!

Chloe and the rest of the team

P.S. Don't miss our exciting giveaway on Instagram and Facebook - seeds and a beautiful poppy print up for grabs!