June In The Garden

Diary
June

There’s always something to get on with in the garden, whether it’s pruning, tidying or sowing, so here are our top gardening tasks for June. It’s getting warmer and everything seems to be putting a spurt on, so now is the time to fill in those final gaps for high-season and full production. Among others you should be harvesting the first lettuces, new potatoes and the first peas.

Flower Garden

Flower Garden

  • Continue planting out bedding plants
  • Continue sowing biennials
  • Sow perennials
  • Lift and divide bearded irises and primulas after flowering
  • Continue training sweet peas
  • Move chrysanthemums outside
  • Stake tall growing flowers
  • Take cuttings from pinks
  • Cut back or deadhead spent flowers
  • Keep baskets and patio pots watered
  • Spray roses to protect them from pests and diseases
  • Cut the foliage of daffodils and tulips down to the ground
  • Trim box topiary and formal edging to keep it neat and tidy
  • Take cuttings of non-flowering new shoots from shrubs and pot them up in gritty compost
  • Rub greenfly off rose buds, or apply a soap-based spray
  • Lightly trim broom and genista after flowering to keep plants in shape

 

  • Water newly planted trees and shrubs if conditions turn hot and dry
  • Tidy up rock gardens, trimming off faded blooms, digging out weeds and replenishing mulches of grit
  • Keep a few bedding plants in reserve to plug gaps where disasters strike

~ How To Sow And Grow Sweet Peas ~

 

Greenhouse

In the greenhouse

  • Tie greenhouse tomatoes to their supports as they grow
  • Feed plants with full-strength fertiliser solution once a week, or apply a more diluted feed every few days
  • Apply shading paint or put up shade netting or blinds
  • Open doors and vents daily, and damp down the floor every morning
  • Be on the lookout for pests, including whitefly and red spider mite, and treat at once with a suitable spray or biological control
  • Pot up rooted cuttings
  • Pinch out the tips of cucumber side-shoots two leaves beyond a female flower
  • Check potted plants every day, watering if required
  • Pinch out side-shoots of tomato plants

Veggie Garden

 

Veggie Garden

  • Plant out curcubits (Pumpkins, Courgettes, Squash, Gherkins etc)
  • Plant out Sweetcorn
  • Start feeding Tomatoes with high potash feed once the first truss of flowers has set
  • Snap off Onion flowers if they appear
  • Pinch out the growing tips of Broad beans once the pods start to form to discourage blackfly
  • Sow more Lettuce, Radish, Spring onion, Salad leaves and Coriander
    Water Peas and Potatoes
  • Stake cutting flowers that will need support (such as Gladioli)
  • Tie in Runner Beans as they grow
  • Sow Fennel in situ

General advice

  • Add lawn cuttings to the compost heap, or use them to mulch around fruit trees
  • Mow and edge your lawn
  • Tie stems of tall perennials to supports
  • Feed houseplants every week with a liquid fertiliser
  • Clean out filters of pond pumps to get rid of any debris
  • Run a ‘seeping hose’ – a hose with holes in – through dry shaded borders or along the base of hedges so they can be watered weekly in dry weather
  • Treat lawn weeds and moss if necessary