Seeds to Sow in July
July brings with it warm days, plenty of sunlight and ideal seed germinating conditions! The longer days are fantastic for speeding up germination,
giving you plenty of opportunity to sow more salad seeds and keep your harvesting period going throughout the summer.
July is also a great month for sowing biennials such as foxgloves so they are ready to flower next spring.
As well as having plenty of seeds to sow this month, gardeners should also be planting out their seedlings sown earlier in the year, such as courgette, squash, cabbage and sweetcorn.
To see all seeds that can be sown in July, take a look here.
Top Seeds to Sow in July
Foxgloves
Foxgloves are biennials, which means they flower the year after their first sowing. By sowing your foxglove seeds this month, you will give them a good amount of time to germinate and establish, so that they are able to flower next year.
Foxgloves are a cottage garden favourite, with imposing flower spikes in an array of colours. Due to their impressive height, foxgloves are ideal for planting at the back of borders.
Try Unwins Foxglove Excelsior Mix with its pink and yellow flowers, or for a more subtle, pastel mix of colours, go for Unwins Nature's Haven Foxglove Woodlanders Seeds.
Spinach
Spinach is a fantastically healthy crop that can be grown in all sorts of containers and will germinate and grown in a very short time frame, providing you with spinach to harvest in no time at all.
You can harvest spinach leaves early as baby spinach which is delicious when eaten raw with a soft texture and milder flavour. Or wait for the leaves to mature a little into full sized spinach leaves. These are best when cooked very briefly, straight after picking!
Unwins Spinach Piano F1 produce plants that have good disease resistance. They are slow to bolt and have good mildew resistance too. For something a bit different, Unwins Organic Spinach America Seeds produce tender sweet, blistered leaves that are thick and dark green.
Radish
Due to its incredibly short germination time, radish seeds are ideal for successional sowing. They are easy to grow and take up very little space, so are brilliant for sowing between other crops to maximise the number of crops grown!
To ensure a constant supply of fresh radishes, sow a row of seeds each week. Enjoy your radish harvest sliced in salads, pickled or roasted.
For a radish mix with plenty of variety, try Unwins Radish Crunch Mix Seeds. The mix includes Purple Plum, Scarlet Globe, Sparkler, White Turnip and Zlata combining delicious flavours with striking colours providing a feast for the senses. Try Unwins Radish French Breakfast Seeds for longer radishes with white tips.
Other seeds to sow now
Vegetables
- Carrots
- Lettuce
- French Beans
- Turnips
- Kale
- Chard
- Leeks
- Beetroot
Herbs
- Microgreens
- Basil
- Cress
- Rosemary
- Parsley
Ornamentals
- Forget Me Nots
- Pansies
- Wallflowers
Caring for Plants
By August, you should have planted out all your seedlings. This is the last chance to plant out young courgettes, sweetcorn, squashes, pumpkins and cucumbers in order to harvest them before the frosts return in autumn.
If you would like Brussels sprout or cabbages to harvest before Christmas, now is the last chance to plant these young plants out.
Harvesting
Your salads should be at their peak this month, so ensure you are harvesting them regularly to avoid them being eaten by the bugs! Beetroot, chillis and cucumbers should be ready, and you can continue to harvest peas and beans as they ripen. Onions, including shallots and spring onions, will be at their best so make sure to lift these.
Thinking About Next Month
As the calendars flip over to August, we will continue to harvest vegetables, salads and herbs and our flowers should continue to bloom profusely. We will need to continue to water our plants regularly as August is the peak of our hot weather, likely with little rainfall. Continue to feed your plants in order to extend the harvest and flowering period!