The Fruit Gardener's Guide - The month of July in the UK
July is the month to ripen off soft summer fruits, but be aware that garden insects and birds just love them too.
July is the time to:
Prepare:
- Dig up and replant strawberry beds if they have been in use for more than three years
Prune:
- Gooseberry bushes
- Currant bushes
- Trained apple trees
- Plum trees
Harvest (when ripe):
Things to do:
- Net strawberries and raspberries to deter the birds
- Peg down strawberry runners into pots to reproduce new plants
- Remove flower spikes from rhubarb plants
- Thin out fruits on trained fruit trees
- Prune trained apple trees by cutting back side shoots
- Sprinkle rose fertilizer around the base of soft fruit bushes
- Cut out any plum tree branches that have been affected by silver-leaf disease
- Cut foliage of any strawberry plants that have finished fruiting. Remove straw if used
- Prune blackcurrant bushes by cutting out three or four of the oldest branches as soon as the fruit has been harvested
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July Fruit Gardening in the UK... 
