July on the plot: the jobs worth doing (and the ones to skip)

July is the month the plot pays you back. Everything's swelling, ripening and demanding attention at once, and it's easy to burn an afternoon on jobs that don't move the needle. So here's an honest list: the handful of things genuinely worth doing this month, and the fussy bits you can happily ignore. No guilt either way.

01If you change one thing, change how you water

Not how often. How deeply. The single most useful watering habit in July is to soak the root zone thoroughly and less often, rather than splashing the top centimetre every evening. Light, frequent watering just wets the surface and encourages shallow roots. Check the soil at spade depth; if it's dry down there, water properly, aiming at the base rather than the leaves. Then mulch. A 5–7.5cm layer of organic matter after watering locks moisture in, keeps weeds down and improves the soil while it's at it. It's the closest thing to a free win on the whole plot.

02Keep picking, and they'll keep giving

Courgettes and beans reward greed. Pick courgettes small, at around 10–12.5cm, and pick them often: regular harvesting while the fruits are little is what keeps a plant cropping for weeks instead of downing tools. Miss a few and you get marrows and a sulking plant. Runner and French beans are the same: keep the pods coming off and the plant keeps setting more. This isn't folklore; it's just how the plants are wired.

03Tomatoes: side-shoots and a fortnightly feed

If you're growing cordon (indeterminate) tomatoes — the tall, single-stemmed kind — pinch out the side-shoots that appear where each leaf meets the main stem. It keeps the plant's energy in the fruit. Do it while you're watering, so it never becomes a "job".

Two honest caveats. First, bush (determinate) tomatoes should be left alone — pinching their side-shoots out actively reduces your crop. Know which type you've got before you start snipping. Second, feeding: a high-potassium liquid feed every 10–14 days is worth it, but only once the first fruits start to swell. Before that, you're feeding leaves you don't want.

While you're there, pinch the growing tip out above the fourth truss outdoors (or the seventh under glass) so the fruit you've already got actually ripens before autumn.

04Sow now for autumn and winter

July isn't the end of sowing — it's the start of the next round. There's still time for spring cabbage, turnips, pak choi, mizuna, chard and autumn salad leaves direct into the ground. It's also your last realistic window for French and runner beans to crop before autumn, and only really in the south. A ten-minute sowing now is a harvest in October.

05Weeds: hoe, don't agonise

Run a hoe through the beds on a dry day and leave the weeds on the surface to shrivel in the sun. Five minutes weekly beats an hour of hand-weeding once they've seeded. That's the whole strategy.

Save your money

Here's where we save you some cash and effort:

Skip calcium products for blossom end rot. Those sunken brown patches on tomato bottoms almost never mean your soil lacks calcium — it very rarely does. It's irregular watering interrupting how the plant moves calcium around. Calcium sprays aren't effective; the fix is free and it's consistent moisture. Don't buy the bottle.

Don't feed tomatoes in decent garden soil as a reflex. Plants in reasonable ground often don't need feeding at all — it's container and grow-bag plants that rely on you. Feeding hungry soil is money down the drain.

Don't side-shoot bush tomatoes (see above). It's unpaid work that costs you fruit.

You don't need premium "specialist" feeds. A standard high-potash tomato feed does the same job on courgettes and other fruiting crops. The label is the expensive part.

That's July. Water deeply, keep picking, feed only what needs it, and let the rest go. The plot doesn't need you fussing — it needs you consistent.

How we checked this

Every care and safety claim on this page is verified against horticultural and veterinary sources.

Sources: RHS — Grow Your Own: July jobs · RHS — How to grow tomatoes · RHS — How to grow courgettes · RHS — Watering vegetables and fruit · RHS — Blossom end rot

Checked 19 July 2026. If our advice ever conflicts with the RHS, believe them and tell us.