King Charles' gardener says this is 'important now' for your plants

July is prime time for wanting to keep your garden in great shape, but it can be difficult to know what to do and when it needs to be done. Whether you're a seasoned gardener or just starting out, we all want our garden to look its best in the summer - and with the help of King Charles’ senior gardener, Jack Stooks, there’s plenty to do when it comes to flourishing your outdoor space this month.

To help you get the best out of your garden, the expert - who has worked in the royal gardens at Highgrove for more than 20 years - has revealed his top tips when it comes to all things plants and maintenance. Sharing his monthly checklist with Betway, he says that now is the time to deadhead any of your flowers and plants in order to keep fresh ones coming.

He added that gardeners also need to feed and water their gardens in the warmer weather to keep them looking their best. As well as sharing his advice on plants, Jack touches on which fruit and vegetables to pick and how to maintain your grass in the summer heat.

Flowers and plants

Jack said: “Now is the time to be doing any deadheading of plants. If you have any annual plants, you want to keep those fresh flowers coming - you don’t want them to go to seed, as they won’t produce many flowers. If you are doing that, you also want to be giving the plants feed and water to keep them as healthy as possible. Cutting back can be done now as well, so when you are looking at a border and things have gone too far over, you can trim those bits back.”

Maintaining your garden

Jack said: “Mulching beds is important now. If you are doing border work, this will keep the moisture in and suppress the weeds. Watering should obviously be done throughout July and we should look towards autumn and what plants you might want to plant. Now is also a good time to be staking plants, any tall flower heads that you don’t want to lose you should stake those and tie them in.

“In hotter weather, you don’t need to cut your lawn as short as you normally would. For example, if you cut it into a three, you might want to take it up to a four or a five depending on how you like it to look. You can do it regularly but don’t scalp the grass, especially when it's dry, it can look a little bit yellow but it is nothing to worry about because it will come back. If you have ponds and lakes in your garden, it’s a good time to be doing maintenance and clearing, if you have any big weeds that have grown you can clear those out to make space.”

Fruit and vegetables

Jack said: “You want to start picking things that are growing in your garden. Right now, you might have courgettes or tomatoes that are coming up so you want to pick those. Any salad crops can be harvested now, and you want to constantly keep these cut because you will help the plant keep going. Any potatoes can be picked, as can runner beans, all the beets and any early raspberries.”

House plants

Jack said: “House plants shouldn’t need anything excessive. I would say carry on as normal unless there is an extreme temperature change and they start to wilt then you know to give them a little more attention and water.”