Firstly, let me introduce myself. I'm Chloe, an organic market gardener for seven years and now managing Vital Seeds' social media, and helping out with admin. I'm going to be writing some of our newsletters too, and if you contact us with any growing questions it's likely to be me that'll reply!

As we move towards the end of July and step into August, the celebration of Lammas is almost upon us.

Lammas is a celebration of harvest abundance, a moment to reap and enjoy the fruits of your labour and share them with those you love. Why not take a moment to take stock and celebrate your successes and dedication?

While you might have had a tricky start (and didn't we all, with the endlessly wet winter and slow, cold spring), you might find that there is still plenty of abundance and beauty to be found in your garden. Growing, after all, is an act of resilience.

Gaps may be starting to appear in your garden as you (and slugs and other garden critters) begin to harvest. These can be filled by sowing successional crops, and now in particular is a great time to sow oriental greens like pak choi, mizuna and purple frills.

For a full list of seeds that can be sown in July, please follow the link below.

Jobs to keep your garden tip top

While you can definitely start to relax a little, there are still plenty of jobs to do this month including:

• Side-shooting and trellising your cucumbers and tomatoes, removing lower leaves from both to increase ventilation and prevent disease
• Deadheading flowers to ensure continuous blooms
• Keeping on top of your courgette harvests (unless you like marrows!)
• Covering your brassicas with fine insect mesh to keep out cabbage white butterflies
• Keeping emerging weeds at bay with regular hoeing

Germination testing

It's crunch time! Our annual germination-testing marathon is now underway.

We use vigorous techniques to germ test, counting how many seeds successfully germinate either on top of paper, between corrugated paper or in soil in seed trays. Each species has different requirements (e.g. temperature) and specific germination rates that we're looking to surpass, making it quite the undertaking.

Our internal standards are set far higher than the minimum legal requirements, ensuring our seeds are of the highest possible quality when they land on your doorstep.

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Happy sowing and growing

Chloe and the rest of the team

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P.S. Our 'Second Spring' seed collections are flying off the shleves but there's still time to pick one up - get your winter veg sown now!