June is a bustling month in the garden, full of planting, pruning, and preparing for the warmer days ahead. Here's a comprehensive guide to help you make the most of your garden this month.
Vegetable Garden
- Salad Crops: Harvest and re-sow salad crops every two weeks for a constant supply.
- French Beans and Peas: Make your last sowing of these crops. Opt for a quick-maturing early pea to ensure you can harvest before the cold autumn nights.
- Root Vegetables: Continue sowing carrots, beetroot, swede, and turnip to secure a supply of winter crops.
- Chinese Cabbage and Spinach Beet: June is a great time to sow these vegetables.
- Winter Salads: Start sowing chicory and endive towards the end of June.
- Carrot Care: Thin your carrots and firm the soil around the remaining plants to deter carrot flies. Always remove the thinnings to prevent attracting these pests.
- Potatoes: Continue earthing up potato plants as they grow. For newly planted potatoes in containers, keep the compost moist but avoid overwatering.
- Harvest Early Potatoes: These are usually ready about 10 weeks after planting.
- Planting Out: Plant out tomatoes, aubergines, pumpkins, peppers, runner beans, French beans, and sweetcorn once the frost risk is over. Also, plant winter celery in trenches and expose shallots to ripen.
- Outdoor Tomatoes: Plant when they are 15-23 cm tall with the first flower truss just showing. Place them in the sunniest, most sheltered spot and provide stakes for support. Pinch out side shoots and pot them to create new plants. Start feeding with Ecoworm Soil Extract for Tomatoes & Peppers when the first truss is setting fruit.
- Brassicas: Plant out broccoli, kale, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, and cabbage once the young plants have four or five true leaves.
- Onion and Garlic: Keep an eye on these; they are ready to harvest when the leaves start to yellow.
- Tender Vegetables: Harden off and plant squash, tomatoes, courgettes, and sweetcorn if not done yet.
- Cabbage Root Fly: Use brassica collars when planting out cabbages to keep these pests away.
- Carrot Fly Protection: Cover crops with horticultural fleece to protect from carrot flies.
- Herbs: Start harvesting herbs, picking them for drying before the flowers open, on a dry, sunny day.
- Jerusalem Artichokes: Stake these if they are growing in windy spots.
- Feeding: Use organic Ecoworm Soil Extract to feed your vegetables.
Fruit Garden
- Pruning: Start pruning cherry and plum trees now.
- Thinning Branches: Thin out congested branches to yield larger, better fruits.
- Feeding Container Plants: Feed with Ecoworm Soil Extract, which is high in potassium, to keep them healthy and productive.
- Strawberries: Layer strawberries and remove unwanted runners. Use runners to start new plants for next season but cut off unwanted ones to direct energy to the parent plant.
- Protect Fruits: Use nets to protect developing fruits from squirrels and birds.
- Feeding Dwarf Fruit Trees: Use Ecoworm Soil Extract.
- Summer-Pruning: Begin summer-pruning gooseberries and red currants at the end of the month, shortening side shoot tips to about 7.5 cm from the stems.
- Cane Fruits: Continue tying in young shoots.
- Melons: Train and pollinate melons. Allow four side shoots per plant and pinch out the growing tips after five leaves to encourage sub-laterals and flowers. Hand-pollinate melons grown under frames or cloches.
- Grapevines: Keep training and tying in grapevines.
- Blueberries: Water potted blueberries with rainwater to maintain soil acidity.
Lawns
- Feeding: Use Ecoworm Soil Extract for Lawns to promote healthy green growth.
- Edging: Recut lawn edges.
- Mowing: Raise mower blades if it hasn't rained much to reduce stress on the grass.
- Watering: Water well during hot weather, especially new lawns, to prevent shallow-rooting grass and discourage moss growth.
Trees & Shrubs
- Roses: Dis-bud roses if larger blooms are wanted.
- Hedges: Continue trimming hedges.
- Clematis: Prune early-flowering clematis and wall-grown shrubs that have finished flowering.
- Early Flowering Shrubs: Prune to encourage new shoots for next year's flowers. Avoid hard pruning of shrubs that provide winter berries like Pyracantha.
Flower Garden
- Hanging Baskets: Harden off and move hanging baskets to their final position. Trim plants if they become leggy.
- Bulbs: Lift and divide clumps of snowdrops and bluebells once the leaves yellow. Similarly, lift and divide overcrowded clumps of bulbs but wait for the foliage to die down naturally before cutting back.
- Fuchsias: Pinch out tips to encourage bushiness and more flowers.
- Hardy Annuals: Continue thinning out drifts if overcrowded.
- Roses: Deadhead repeat-flowering types, but leave seed heads on non-repeat types for decoration.
- Evergreen Clematis: Prune overcrowded or dead stems after flowering to maintain shape.
- Lavender: Harvest flower heads for use in baking, crafting, or meal decoration.
- Hardy Geraniums: Cut back after flowering to encourage new foliage and flowers.
June is a busy but rewarding month in the garden. With these tips, you'll ensure your garden thrives throughout the summer and beyond. Happy gardening!