Rounding up the garden maintenance jobs for July you need to look after your lawns. They will need some water if it is very dry and a final feed when the ground is damp after a shower. If it is very dry then don’t forget to set your lawn mower blades a little higher so you don’t scalp your lawn.

On the subject of water – this is the time of year to really monitor your water features, especially if you have fish or wildlife in and round them. Duckweed and suchlike need to be regularly removed and any floating dead foliage should be swept off the top of the water. Aquatic plants need to be kept pruned and tidied to keep them healthy. I have to clean out my pond this year and pass some of my much loved fish onto a friend with a bigger pond – they have grown too large for mine. I shall miss them.

When you do any work on your ponds and water features do make sure that frogs and toads can easily get in and out – they are among your best friends when it comes to slug control. Be careful if you must spray with chemicals that there is no drift onto your pond and that you take care of the bees and other helpful insects like ladybirds

Garden Water features are so much a part of what we expect to find in our gardens that they are almost one of the first things that goes into your garden plan. However in these days of climate change we do have to consider carefully the use of that precious resource – water.

I live in an agricultural area that is prone to flooding so it may seem a little ironic for me to talking about preserving water but, along with the floods, we get some baking hot weather that has the clay soil in my garden drying out and cracking like craters on the moon. We lurch from one extreme to the other and I think we have to accept that this is the way life is going to be from now on and take adequate steps to ensure the well being of our gardens, especially if you depend on them for your food.

The first water feature that has to be considered in my opinion is a water butt or some form of storing rain water – as much as you can. You can use ‘grey water’ from baths, showers and so on but you shouldn’t really store it for more than 24 hours for garden use. If you run out and it’s dry that is when you turn to your water butts. They are relatively inexpensive and it is worth investing in a good quality one with a tap at the bottom, and a stand so you can draw off the water easily. Simple to fit on your downpipes they can soon repay the investment by reducing your water charges. The amount of rain that runs off any roof is enormous and if you can harness that you will be helping your pocket as well as the environment.