Can it be July already? With such a late spring, time seems to be galloping on. Take the time this month to do a bit of garden visiting – the national garden schemes are a wonderful day out, particularly when a whole village takes part. It is lovely to saunter around someone else’s garden and get ideas on planting partners – and hopefully a lovely bit of homemade cake! Check www.ngs.org.uk to see where is available in your local area.

Try to keep insects under control
Keep checking for pesky red lily beetles and squash them! You may have problems with your Bay trees having yellowed, distorted and curled leaves at the tips – this is caused by Bay suckers, which are sap-feeding insects and prevalent at this time of the year. Prune off affected stems to keep it under control and remove the leaf litter from around the base of the Bay. I wouldn’t spray with anything, as you will be wanting to use the leaves in cooking. However, if you don’t plan to use the leaves in the kitchen, use a contact insecticide in early May to kill the females before they have laid their eggs and repeat in June – a handy tip to remember for next year!

Pea shoots are really tasty in a salad
If you have grown early potatoes they should be ready to lift now. Keep sowing ‘cut and come again’ varieties of lettuce in small batches in old mushroom boxes, etc. They need to be placed out of the hot sun and kept moist but not soaking. These can be kept by the kitchen door and snipped at for sandwich fillings and salad bowls. Do the same with peas, as pea shoots are really tasty in a salad and they grow easily in containers.

Try your hand at taking cuttings from perennial herbs like Lavender, Rosemary and Sage. Take the cuttings early in the day and choose non-flowering side-shoots that are soft at the tip and woody at the base – about 10cm long.

Cuttings should have rooted by late August
Pull away from the main stem gently, leaving a little bit of the bark still attached (these are called ‘heel’ cuttings). Take off the lower 5cm of leaves from the stem, dip the end into hormone rooting powder (garden centres have this) and then insert several of these cuttings into a small pot of gritty compost. Firm them in and water well, then cover the whole pot with a plastic bag (ensuring it doesn’t touch any of the leaves), label and place somewhere warm but out of direct sunlight. The cuttings should have rooted by late August.