- EP283 What To Sow In The Garden In July & Other Gardening Jobs: July's Seed Sowing Guide for Garden Continuity

Welcome to your essential July seed sowing guide for continuous harvests! While many gardeners think the main growing season has passed, strategic planting now ensures your garden remains productive through autumn, winter, and into early spring.

Though July's planting possibilities are fewer than May's abundant options, this focused approach actually gives you the most benefit in extending your harvest calendar. Continue your monthly successional sowings of quick-growing crops like spring onions, spinach, radishes, and lettuces to maintain fresh harvests. This is also the perfect time to introduce autumn and winter salad varieties that will bridge the gap when temperatures drop later in the year.

Don't believe everything you read on seed packets! While conventional wisdom suggests it's too late for many brassicas, experienced gardeners know July sowings of calabrese, cabbage, and purple sprouting broccoli will still produce harvests around March next year. Kale is particularly well-suited to July sowing, while beetroot, pak choi, chard, and even French beans can still be productive when planted now. The key is understanding how these plants develop through seasonality rather than strictly following calendar rules.

Garden management becomes crucial as summer progresses. The combination of warmth and moisture brings potential pest challenges, but encouraging biodiversity through wildflower areas and nesting boxes brings natural predators that help maintain balance. This is also the time to learn the subtle harvest indicators—potatoes are ready when foliage naturally dies back and onions signal harvest time when their tops flop over. Looking ahead to bed rotation becomes essential as early crops finish, creating space for autumn and winter vegetables that maintain productivity throughout the year.

Want more gardening insights? Next week's episode explores homemade fertilizers based on listener questions. Share the podcast with fellow gardeners, subscribe on YouTube, and send your own gardening questions to info@mastermygarden.com to help shape future content!

Chapters

• 0:11 July Seed Sowing Introduction
• 2:41 Monthly Successional Sowings to Continue
• 7:50 Late Brassicas and Beyond
• 11:58 Garden Pests and Vigilance
• 14:44 When to Harvest Potatoes and Onions
• 21:10 Planning Forward and Next Episodes

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:11

how's it going, everybody, and welcome to episode 283, master, my garden podcast. Now, this week's episode is the usual one that we do at the start of the month. Now, I realized june's one was slightly late, but on the first friday of every month we do a seed sowing guide for the month ahead. And, yeah, this proves to be really, really popular episodes, because it gives people a sort of a reminder or sort of keeps to the front of their mind what they can sow in that month, or what's suitable to sow. And, you know, as we enter July, the list is getting quite small. Now, you know, we've gone from the month of May, I suppose, with the most possibilities for sowing seed, and as we progress through June and into July, that list gets smaller. Still useful to do this, though, because it's the continuation of sowing that makes sure we do have crops as we get, you know, into the back end of the year and even through until next year. So, while it's not the, you know, you know in in most people's minds, it's not the, the sort of main sowing period, and it's certainly not it's the time that actually gives you the most benefit. By sticking to, you know, a kind of a monthly sowing guide, you can ensure that you have sort of continuity of your crops. As I say, that list is getting smaller, but it is certainly. It is certainly still worth sowing and continue to sow during this month, the, the garden itself.

Speaker 1: 1:45

The growth has been phenomenal, while all of Europe, I think, is getting caked with sunshine and really dry spells and quite high temperatures. Speaking to somebody in France this week and they're struggling, to be honest, it's some temperatures into high 30s in degrees Celsius, the UK again speaking to someone there last week and they're finding that things are just burning up. It has been dry and has been dry for a long period of time. Here we are still getting, you know, a good mix of showers, good mix of showers and, and while it's not raining constantly, we're definitely not getting, you know, the same levels of sunshine that they are across the water, and so growth is still phenomenal. You know, everything is really really growing strongly at the moment. All the vegetables are growing really, really well. They're, you know, things are filling out their the likes of potatoes and onions. They're growing and expanding and getting bigger and, from a veg perspective, things are growing really really well in the polytunnel. Tomatoes are doing really well and just just at the point of harvesting, or starting to harvest, the first few harvests will be small, but there's a few red ones starting to come and that's that's obviously the big excitement, and that's, you know that, um, probably a few weeks ahead of last year, so it is, you know, in terms of growth, it has been a really, really good season so far. It is, you know, as I say, we're still getting showers here and there. Just today here we've had no rain, but I was driving earlier on, I was 20 minutes away and the rain that fell in the space of 10 or 15 minutes was just phenomenal. Now, it was the sort of rain that fell so heavy. It was probably not ideal, it was going to run off, but we, we we still do have very, very good growth levels because of these high temperatures and because of, you know, relatively decent water levels or or moisture levels within the soil, and that in itself brings sort of other potential problems which we'll kind of touch on at the end.

Speaker 1: 4:01

But for now, the the seed sowing guide. So let's get into it. I suppose, and what you're looking at again this month is we have the usual successional sowing crops and these are. These are the ones, as I've said before, they'll repeat on every single month and they're the kind of ones that you do need to continue sowing because they'll you'll use them quite quickly typically, and they're also ones that will run to seed quite quickly, so you're not going to get long periods of time out of it. So you do kind of need to be sowing them every month if you want to continue to fresh, freshly harvest some of these crops, and so what we're looking at there is spring onion.

Speaker 1: 4:39

A spring onion is one that we can continue to sow and, for any of you that listen to podcasts for a while, it's on the list every month and then, as we get later on in the year, when there's no possibility of them sort of getting too strong, too quick, I'll do a huge sowing. At that stage, you know, much bigger than I would do on a monthly basis, and because the growth levels are slowing down, you'll be able to harvest for longer periods of time. So we're not there yet, so I'll just do a standard sowing this month. But spring onion is is one that's regular on. That's on it every month. For me, anyway, I would sow every month.

Speaker 1: 5:16

The next one is spinach and you do need to kind of sow this regularly as well, especially this time of year, because what ends up happening is it's running to seed quite quickly. So you're only getting, you know, a few weeks harvest and then it's sort of looking to bolt and that happens very, very quickly, regardless of whether it's inside or outside. You get a little bit longer outside, but the fact that you're able to continue sowing that means that you will continue to have fresh spinach to harvest. Radish is the same again, going to run to seed quite quickly at this time of the year. So the fact that you can sow every month is a big, big help.

Speaker 1: 5:50

Lettuces were probably you know this is a can be a tricky month for lettuce because if you get really high temperatures, lettuce won't germinate, kind of above 20 degrees. So at this stage it can be actually tricky and you might wonder why seeds haven't germinated if especially if you're, if you have them in a polytunnel or a greenhouse it's, you know, if it's above 20 degrees that they don't germinate and they'll just sit there. So just watch out for that. You can direct sow, certainly at this stage of the year. That will help. Sometimes they can get a little bit hotter in seed trays, you know they can get. The heat can be a bit more concentrated, they can dry out easier. But if you direct, sow them, you know, either in the, in the greenhouse or outside, you should have good results.

Speaker 1: 6:34

But continue to sow lettuce and we'll switch varieties as we move a little bit further through the year. But for now you're on your normal, all your normal, all your normal varieties you can still sow away. You will start to introduce at this stage some of the autumn leaves, things like you know, the winter salads, the mezuna, clitona, some of those will start to introduce these later in the month and there they will become more regular as we move through august and into september, and they're the ones that will give you this, you know, bridge this gap at the back end of the year, when the temperatures start to drop and when we start to move to more winter-like conditions later on in the year. These are the ones that will continue to give you these winter salads that we all like at that time of the year. Next one that you can sow at this stage is cress. Again, it's a regular one that we'd sow and you can sow all of the herbs as well. So coriander, again, I've mentioned before. That will kind of be a repeat. So because again it runs, runs the seed quite quickly, but then things like dill, sherville, parsleys, all of those can be sowed. Now you know, rosemary, any, anything, any of the herbs really can be sown now. Then, in terms of you know brassicas, we're starting to get to the point where we won't sow it is anymore.

Speaker 1: 7:49

Now for the month of july. I still think it's worked. Some, you know, some publications and some seed packets will tell you it's too late. I still think at this stage of the year it is worth doing a sowing of these. So what am I talking about? About here, the likes of Calabrese. Again, you will be switching to sort of autumn and winter varieties, if possible Cabbage you know Savoy's and winter cabbage. Technically speaking, it is a little bit late in terms of getting you know your harvest at the typical time, but you'll still get a harvest. It might be just into kind of March time of next year, so it'll be slightly slower to come to maturity, but I still think it's worthwhile doing another sowing it does. The same goes for purple sprout and broccoli. Again, all the seed packets will say that you should have this done, there's no more chance to sow. But I still think again you can get a sowing done now.

Speaker 1: 8:43

Allow the plants to grow on through august and september, october. Obviously growth will stop. Then you start to get through january, february. You're unlikely to have any harvest unless we've a really grotty winter, which you know we typically won't but we could have. But either way is, at some point in time you'll get a flush of growth, typically through way is, at some point in time you'll get a flush of growth, typically through March and at that point in time you should be able to get a bit of a harvest off, which will be late now.

Speaker 1: 9:09

It's touch and go at this stage, but those things are worth doing if you have the space. So I would definitely. I would definitely try a sowing of those. One that's definitely okay to sow is kale. You can sow kale away this month, no problem at all. Another one that'll be on the last sowing this month. Again, technically you should have it done in June. But beetroot, I will do a sowing in the polytunnel, probably at the end of the month, and just give it a sowing. At that stage you'll just get a little bit of germination. There won't a lot happen until probably later on in the year, and then we should start to see little baby beets later in the year and, and you know, it's always there's always with with a greenhouse or even outside at times if the weather plays ball.

Speaker 1: 9:53

Some of these sowings, while breaking the rules a little bit, they do give you the opportunity to, you know, do things that, as I say, the, the book or the the back of the packets may say is not possible. So just if you have the space, why not? Then pak choi can, can be. So this month. Charred is another one again. You don't need to sow charred on a regular basis but you can do a sewing of it, especially good to put into a greenhouse at this stage. Once you do your sewing of it especially good to put into a greenhouse at this stage once you do your sowing, then plant out into the, into the greenhouse and you'll have charred kind of all winter and again right through until next spring and into early next summer. So not again, not not one that you can technically sow at this stage, going by the rules, but it will work.

Speaker 1: 10:38

French beans is another one there that would fall into that. It's again a little bit late in terms of, you know, in terms of sowing, but they're going to germinate so quickly. If you've got good quality seed, you'll sow those. You will be planting them out in probably two weeks time. You should be able to plant out in two weeks time and then, once they get into the ground, they will grow really, really fast and you should be able to get a harvest a good harvest, you know, in a couple of months time off those. So some of those ones, you know the conventional wisdom will say don't sow these, but they're definitely worth a shot. So the ones that I'm talking about here are, you know, some of the calabrese, purple sprout, broccoli, cabbages, french beans, beetroot, and they are all worth a shot at this stage, you know. You know inside, inside or outside, they're worth, they're worth a shot.

Speaker 1: 11:32

The other thing that is sort of on the agenda and I mentioned it just in relation to the weather is the in the UK, I know it's been very dry, but here it's been. We're getting these periods of wet, so slugs can become an issue. I actually don't have any issue at the minute touch wood with with any slugs. So no issues from slugs up from my point of view, but just be vigilant of that over the coming weeks. You know we've we spoke about kind of the husbandry things that you can do. Root fly is definitely something to watch out for. If you, you know, if you're growing carrots or that, try not to do too much tinning on them. The less tinning you do, the better. In terms of prevention of carrot root fly, use bio netting or enviro mesh, you know, where possible. Then things like aphids, just keep an eye out for those, particularly on salads.

Speaker 1: 12:26

Again, I'm not having any issues with with aphids at the moment, or caterpillars, which is the next one that I was going to mention, the I have an abundance of birds in the garden at the moment. There was, you know, definitely in terms of having those birds, the likes of the, the blue tits and so on. They are really, really doing their job in terms of caterpillars and aphids in the garden. So I've mentioned it before the likes of wildflower meadows, the likes of nesting boxes, all of those things that bring biodiversity into the garden. They all help and they help from a practical gardening perspective as well. You know, sometimes we talk about these in a kind of a nice way that you know it's good to encourage in wildlife, but there is practical benefits and I think that's you know, from a gardener's point of view. If you're able to show those practical benefits and prove those practical benefits, then it's of massive, massive benefit to you as a gardener to have these creatures, to bring in these, I suppose, allies in the garden to fight against your aphids, your caterpillars, your slugs and so on. So yeah, those things some of you will be having issues with them at the moment. Keep an eye out for them, be vigilant.

Speaker 1: 13:38

The next thing is blight, and there seems to be a huge amount of confusion around blight. We mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. There was a blight warning on the on the weather here in Ireland, and that you know. That prompts people to start worrying at this stage, though. A lot of airdees, a lot of second airdees. You will start to see natural dying back of the leaves at this stage, and sometimes people get confused as to is this blight or what is this? And nine times out of 10, just looking in the Facebook groups everyone says oh, it's blight, it's blight. You have to do this and you have to do that Sometimes when you're talking about earlies and second earlies, given that we've had a really, really grotty spring. They've reached their potential. Natural thing at this stage is for the foliage to die back, and so just be aware of that.

Speaker 1: 14:32

And the other question that people ask is when are your potatoes ready? And the same goes for onions, actually we might talk about that in a minute. But when are the potatoes ready to harvest? Well, it's very straightforward really. You know there is x amount of days in a typical typically. So you're looking for 80 to 100 days for your earlies and your second earlies and 100 to kind of 120 days for your main crops. But that is very much a guide. Sometimes, if you get kind of hit hit, kind of perfect weather conditions. So if the potato hits the ground during warm, warm enough temperatures, which in most cases it did this year, and then it gets good, warm temperatures and adequate amounts of moisture all the way through, your harvest interval will be at the lower end of that scale, so you can harvest quite quickly or quicker than in other years.

Speaker 1: 15:22

So when are your potatoes ready? Well, they're ready. When they're ready. Just have a look. I know that sounds a little bit silly, but have a look. Um, I know that sounds a little bit silly, but have a look at them, see you know where. What's under them is there a decent amount of potatoes? Is the size of the potatoes. Are you happy with that? If the foliage is still green up on top and still growing and vibrant up on top, then they'll still continue to fill out. If it's not, and they're starting to wither back and the potatoes underneath are at an adequate size, then the plant has just ran its natural life cycle and they're ready to be harvested. And that's a good indication of when to harvest and the guide of 80 to 100 days and so on. That's a typical in a normal season and that's roughly what it's going to be, but in some cases, if everything goes perfectly, it can be 70. If everything was like last year where you had a really, really cold and wet spring and a lot of you know a lot of plate of crops just kind of sat and stagnated a little bit, then it could be like 110 days or 115 days for your earlys or secondaries. You know that that's just the way it can be. So the potatoes are ready to harvest when they're ready to harvest and the foliage up on top will tell you that there's nothing left to give here and this is the best we're going to get, and then you harvest them and enjoy them and that's that's the thing.

Speaker 1: 16:47

For onions it's kind of the same thing I would, depending on the soil, so like if you've the right, the right soil conditions, they should be growing. If there's too much nitrogen, you'll end up with a big fat um neck on the onion and a big, a big kind of fat, uh bulky stock coming off it. You don't really want that. So what you want is the onion to be bulking out but the stem itself to, you know, to be relatively, relatively big, but not a big bulging one. If there's too much nitrogen, that's what you'll get. You'll get more leaf growth and less sort of bulb fill out, but in when to harvest basically if they're grown in the right side conditions, you'll see at a certain point in time the top leaves will have to underting you'll have a good size bulb underneath. The foliage will kind of fall over and as soon as they do that they're ready to harvest. You're not going to get much more of a fill out into your, into the bulb at that stage.

Speaker 1: 17:50

So harvest them, don't do too much cleaning, just lift them out of the ground, put them somewhere where the where the leaves can dry out. So allow them to get a bit of sun, a bit of wind across them, allow them to dry out and then store them in a dark, cool place. And again, when you're putting them into that cool, dark place, don't do too much cleaning on them, you know. Don't go pulling off, you know, stem or roots or cutting off roots or anything like that, because all of those cuts that you're going to make are peeling off outer leaves, because that's going to allow opportunities for for rot to develop. So bunch them up, not too much cleaning, not too much cutting or preparing on them, tie them up, put them into a dry, cool place and then, as you're harvesting or as you're, as you're using these over the coming months, just keep checking them, keep give them a little bit, you know, squeeze them. If there's any that are starting to feel a little bit soft, use up them. And the ones that are really, really strong and hard, just leave them and and do them later. So that's kind of just a way to keep on top of it, and then you'll have almost no waste. You'll have be able to get a full, full crop from the same more or less goes for garlic. You're looking for when is it ready to harvest? You're looking for that big size. You're looking for the, the leaves, to start changing color. They're going to tell you that. You know. There's nothing more I can do here. The bulb has fully formed, and then again the same process dry them, don't do too much cleaning, don't damage them, and then you'll have a really, really good harvest.

Speaker 1: 19:20

When I'm talking about these harvests, that at this stage most people's vegetable beds are going to be fairly full, I know mine certainly are a few gaps a few gaps. I haven't harvested outside onions yet. I've harvested inside onions and brilliant crop, again from polytunnel, same with garlic, but I haven't harvested outside onions yet. And but in a couple of weeks time the onions will be definitely ready, they'll be coming out. I'll be definitely taking out, secondarily, potatoes, and so there's three beds that I know are going to be freed up. So with that in mind, I have an eye on what's going to be going back into those beds straight away. Things like leeks can go back in there and they'll give you a winter, winter and early spring harvest there. So that's, you know. You're looking at your beds now. They might be full, but just be looking a few weeks down the road, down the road, and that's how you get your your continuity. So for me here, as I say, a couple of beds are definitely going to be freed up in a couple weeks time and straight away, as soon as you know potatoes come out, for example, I'm going to get leaks back in there and that's that's going to help with having some continuity.

Speaker 1: 20:31

Um, so, yeah, that's that's kind of the seed sowing guide and that's kind of what's on the agenda for the month. Um, in in a another, another month or two, we will look at perennial sowing, again, brilliant time to year coming into the autumn. So we will look at that. But, and and next month we will do another seed sowing guide for august. You know, in terms of the vegetable garden and it is getting smaller, august will be smaller again, but there's still bits and pieces that we can sew on. That will give us this longevity and this will give us this, I suppose, extension of our harvesting, which is what we're all looking for. As I said before, we have this space. We might as well utilize it as best we can. And, yeah, that's, that's the the seed sowing guide, and next week's episode is a really interesting episode and it's a listener question.

Speaker 1: 21:20

So it's a listener, keen o'reilly, who's listening to the podcast for a little over a year. He's in his garden for the last kind of two years and he's found the podcast in the last year and getting great benefit from it. And next week's next week's episode is all about homemade fertilizers and it's a question from a listener. When I mentioned it on the podcast a few weeks ago for you listeners to get in touch, you know to send me messages, loads of people got in touch on instagram, emailed me on info at mastermygardencom. Please continue to do that. It's great to hear from people.

Speaker 1: 21:54

Several of of the listeners I haven't, you know, heard from before, like keen and he's you know the episode and question next week but always delighted to hear from people. Uh, you know to to have to know who who's listening, where they're listening from, to hear a little bit about their story, their garden or how the podcast is helping or what maybe future content might help within the, within their gardens. That's the whole idea of it. And, yeah, as I said, loads of people got in touch and continue to get in touch. Please. The the more people. The more people know about the podcast, share it whatever you can. Anyone watching on YouTube just like and subscribe. Please Share the episode. Share it on your stories. Anyone that's active on any of the social medias, please do tell people about it. Share it, and the more people hear about it the better. And that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening Until the next time. Happy gardening you.