Dear Member,

🌱 Green Manures & Soil Care

Now that you are harvesting your flowers and vegetables, you may find gaps of bare soil. If you have access to manure, you may be planning to dig some in. If not, green manures are an excellent alternative.

Green manures cover bare soil to prevent weed growth, improve fertility, increase humus content, and enhance soil structure. They are especially useful in autumn after crops have been lifted. Choose species based on the job required and the length of time the area will be unused.

Some species are not winter hardy, meaning they naturally break down over winter and can be cultivated in spring without special digging‑in.

🌾 Types of Green Manure

🌸 Buckwheat

• Deep‑rooting: breaks up subsoil
• Produces lots of growth → boosts humus
• Attracts hoverflies (great for greenfly control)
• Fast to establish → excellent weed suppression
• Dig or rotavate in before frosts

🌱 Field Beans

• Nitrogen‑fixing
• Sow in rows 20cm apart, 10cm between seeds
• Winter hardy (Sept–Nov sowing)
• Dig in early spring (March–May) before flowering

🌾 Grazing Rye

• Not the same as ryegrass
• Extensive root system → improves soil structure
• Dig in during spring before flower heads form

🌼 Phacelia Tanacetifolia

• Quick to establish
• Excellent weed suppression
• Winter hardy → sow in autumn for spring digging‑in
• Adds humus and improves soil fertility and structure

🍃 Winter Tares

• Fast‑growing annual vetch
• Nitrogen‑fixing and winter hardy
• Best weed suppression when mixed with Rye
• Sow July–September
• Dig in during spring before flowering

Price: Packets £1.47 (covers up to 25m²)

🌿 Mustard Seed (Loose)

One of the fastest‑growing green manures.

⚠️ Do not use where clubroot is present.

Dig in before flowering — often just 3–4 weeks.

• 250g — £1.80 (covers 90m²)
• 500g — £3.50 (covers 180m²)
• 1kg — £6.90 (covers 360m²)

🌼 Still Time to Sow

Preferably under cover:

• Fennel, kale, kohlrabi, beetroot, lettuce, chard, leaf beet

Direct sow:

• Carrots (as soon as possible)

Until month’s end:

• Sprouting broccoli (for overwintering)
• Endive (autumn salads)
• Chicory (for radicchio)
• Winter radish
• Chinese cabbage (even early August for autumn hearts)

🌕 Moon‑Favourable Sowing Period

24–27 July is a strong period for sowing, boosted by the waxing moon ahead of the full moon on 29 July.

🏷️ 10% Monthly Offer for July

Last chance to stock up on all Tomato Feeds.

🌻 Happy Gardening

Mick Goodman

Membership Secretary

Dear Member,

July is the height of summer; the bees are busy and with the temperatures we’ve been seeing of late, there has been plenty to keep gardeners occupied. Vegetable plots are full and ready for harvesting, and flowers should be blooming beautifully.

It’s your last chance to sow:

• Beetroot
• Carrots
• French Beans
• Runner Beans

These will give you a late‑season crop.

You can also sow Pak Choi this month — it’s less likely to bolt now than earlier in the summer.

🌿 Quick Crops

• Pea shoots — ready in three weeks, perfect for salads.
• Radish — fast-growing and ready in 3–4 weeks.

🌱 Sow Now for Next Year

July and August are ideal months to sow a few vegetable seeds for a spring harvest, or to sow flower seeds for next year’s display.

🥬 Cabbages

Three varieties can be sown this month:

• Greyhound — sow before the end of July.
• April — sow now until end of August.
• Wheelers Imperial — sow now until end of August.

Hardy cabbages sown now grow slowly through winter, then surge in spring. They’ll be ready from March to July, filling the hungry gap when stored winter produce runs out and early spring crops aren’t yet ready.

🥦 Calabrese

• Stemia F1 — sow now for a March harvest next year.

🍃 Chicory Palla Ross

Bright red, round heads with crisp white ribs — delicious in mixed salads.

Sow now for a spring crop.

🥗 Lettuce

Many lettuces can be sown now for quick cropping.

For winter growing:

• Arctic King — ready around March.
• All the Year Round — also suitable for winter and early spring harvests.

🧅 Onions

Many of you will soon be lifting onions planted last autumn or spring.

But remember: August is the ONLY month to sow Senshyu onion seeds.

🌱 Spring Onions

• White Lisbon Winter Hardy — selected for winter hardiness.

Suitable only for autumn sowing for a spring harvest.

🌸 Pansies

• Winter Flowering Mixed
• Frizzle Sizzle Mixed

Sow now until September for early‑season colour next year.

🌺 Sweet Williams

• Sweet William Auricula Eyed Mixed — sow until the end of July.

Produces large flower heads with distinctive eye colourings.

🏵️ Foxgloves

During August and September, sow:

• Digitalis Purpurea Apricot

A lovely apricot-coloured variety perfect for cottage gardens. Plant in clumps for best effect.

🌼 Wallflowers

Sow by end of July:

• Cloth of Gold — rich yellow flowers for bright spring days.
• Persian Carpet Mixed — apricot, gold, orange, purple, cream and rose shades.

Plenty to think about!

Count down to the Produce Show – now only 55 days to go.

🛒 10% Monthly Offer for July

All Tomato Feeds

Happy Gardening

Mick Goodman

Membership Secretary

🌱 Weekly Update for Members

Last week I mentioned that we will not be stocking any Christmas seed potatoes this year, so you may have to start looking around the garden centres very soon before they run out.

🥕 Harvesting Now

Harvesting should be in full swing with:

• Broad beans
• Early potatoes
• Beetroot (early thinning’s)
• Carrots (early thinning’s)
• Peas

If you have spare space and are not planning to grow more flowers or veg, consider sowing green manures.

🌿 Green Manure Explained

Green manure refers to fast‑growing crops sown to cover bare soil, then dug in while still green.

It helps to:

• Boost soil fertility
• Improve soil texture
• Prevent erosion
• Suppress weeds

💡 Quick Tips

🌽 Shake

Shake your sweetcorn to encourage good fertilisation, helping create fat, kernel‑filled cobs.

🍅 Feed

Feed hungry crops including aubergines, peppers and tomatoes, especially those growing in pots.

🌳 Mulch

If the weather is hot and dry, make sure young fruit trees are well watered and mulched.

Drought can kill young trees.

🔍 Watch Out For

🍅 Tomato Troubles

• Blossom end rot: Caused by calcium deficiency due to irregular watering.

Look for a dark patch at the flowering end of the fruit.

Keep plants consistently watered.

• Brown tomato leaves: Often fungal diseases (like blight), watering mistakes, or nutrient issues.

Remove damaged leaves and water only the soil.

🌬️ Moulds & Mildews

Often caused by poor ventilation.

Keep airflow good in greenhouses and polytunnels, avoid crowding, and remove affected leaves.

🌼 Sow Now

Vegetables:

Basil, beetroot, carrots, chard, chervil, chicory, dill, Florence fennel, French beans, radish, pak choi, spring onions.

We also have a winter spring onion variety that, if planted now, will be ready early spring.

Others to sow now: spinach, kale (cavolo nero), turnip, radish.

Flowers:

Pansies, lupin, delphinium, foxgloves, sweet William, wallflowers.

🏆 WHGAA Garden & Allotment Produce Show

Keep checking which of your flowers and vegetables will be good enough to enter the show:

📍 Caroline Haslett Primary School, Faraday Drive, Shenley Lodge, MK5 7DF

📅 Saturday 5th September

We currently have a TV celebrity awarding the prizes — someone most of you will know.

It was suggested I mention the name in Morse code, but that would be too easy.

🎄 Christmas Potatoes

If you are planning to grow seed potatoes during August for a Christmas harvest, please note:

We will NOT be stocking them this year.

🌷 Autumn Bulbs

Arriving from late August:

• Amaryllis
• Hyacinths (for Christmas flowering)
• Tulips
• Narcissi
• Daffodils

Autumn‑planting onions and garlic are due in mid‑September.

🏷️ 10% Monthly Offer for July

All Tomato Feeds

🌻 Happy Gardening

Mick Goodman

Membership Secretary

Dear Member,

We are now well into the growing season, and you are probably looking to harvest many of your vegetables. Early potatoes may be ready (depends on when you planted them), broad beans will need picking as well as the garlic. For me, July is the best time of the year as when I walk around the supermarket, I look at the cost of the veggies and give a little smile knowing that I can go home and pick some fresh ones and not pay those silly prices.

🧄 Garlic

Carefully lift your garlic once the top half of the foliage has turned yellow. The bulbs will be deliciously juicy — this is known as wet garlic.

🌬️ Check: Brassicas

Tall winter brassicas like brussels sprouts and kale can get top‑heavy. Make a mound of soil around the base of their stems to stabilise them and prevent falling.

🌿 Sow: Oriental Vegetables

July is the ideal time to sow oriental vegetables such as:

• Pak choi
• Tatsoi
• Chinese cabbage
• Chinese broccoli

They prefer the shortening days.

🧅 Shallots

Gently slip your fork under the base of shallots and half lift them out of the soil — this starts the drying process ready for harvesting.

🌱 Growing Onions from Seeds

During December I always suggest sowing onion seeds on Boxing Day, but now I’m going to suggest you start some in AUGUST.

This is the ONLY month you can sow Senshyu onion seeds!

I tried them for the first time last year and kept them in pots throughout winter (though they could have gone in the ground). They went onto the plot around March. I covered them with fine fleece to avoid onion fly until early June, and they have grown extremely well — my best ever onions from seed.

Seeds are not available from the hut but can be ordered from Kings Seeds direct (£1.95 for 150 seeds). Senshyu onion sets are also available for autumn planting, but I prefer the seeds.

🌡️ In the Greenhouse

• Remove lower leaves from cucumbers and tomatoes around ripening fruits.
• Damp down the floors with water to help maintain humidity.

🌾 More Sowing Options

Why not try:

• Chicory or kohl rabi — sow now for a late‑September harvest
• Radish mooli — ready in November
• Cabbage April — sow now for a spring harvest next year

🏆 Time to Look Over: WHGAA Produce Show

Start planning which of your flowers and vegetables will be good enough to enter the WHGAA Garden and Allotment Produce Show, held at:

Caroline Haslett Primary School

Faraday Drive, Shenley Lodge, MK5 7DF

Saturday 5th September

We currently have a TV celebrity awarding the prizes — someone most of you will know.

Count down at 64 Day

More information can be found at https://www.whgaa.org/whgaa-produce-show-2026-5th-september/

🎄 Christmas Potatoes

If you are planning to grow seed potatoes during August for a Christmas harvest, please note:

We will NOT be stocking them this year.

I wanted to let you know early in case you were expecting them.

🛒 10% Monthly Offer for June AND into July

All Tomato Feeds

Happy Gardening

Mick Goodman

Membership Secretary