Summer’s here and it’s the best time of year to be out in the garden, with flowers blooming, bees buzzing and long days to enjoy it all! Keep your garden looking fabulous this summer with our top gardening tips for June.
- June is still a great time to plant. The soil is warm and the days are long, freshly planted plants will catch up to May planted rows in no time at all
- Fill pots and hanging baskets with summer bedding plants for fantastic colour that will last for months. Trailing geraniums, petunias and lobelia love sunny spots and impatiens and begonias are great for shady spots. Feed regularly with a high potash feed for maximum flowering.
- Harden off and plant runner beans, French beans, squash, zucchini and tomatoes. The risk of frost is pretty much past, so you won't need to worry about covering or moving these tender vegetables!
- Keep on sowing salad greens, beetroot, and carrots to give you a supply all through summer.
- Feed tomatoes bi-weekly with a high potash feed to encourage fruit development. Container-grown vegetables like dwarf beans and zucchini will also benefit from a bi-weekly high potash feed – tomato feed works for them all!
- First early potatoes should be ready to harvest this month. Dig up one or two first to check how big they are, and if they’re too small, let them grow for a few more weeks.
- Harvest garlic and onion once the leaves turn yellow and start to flop over.
- Net strawberries as they start to ripen so that the birds don’t get to them before you can enjoy them.
- Weeds grow fast in summer, so keep them under control. On dry days, run a Dutch hoe over the soil to cut down annual weeds, then leave the weeds on the soil to wither.
- Deadhead repeat-flowering roses and pick sweet peas regularly so that they will keep on flowering all summer.
- Keep on top of pinching off suckers from tomato plants, that will take energy away from the plant's fruit production.
- Mow the lawn regularly, but in long spells of dry weather, mow less often and on a higher blade setting to reduce stress on the grass. If you have space, leave an area of lawn uncut to provide a home for insects and other garden wildlife.
- Prune summer-flowering shrubs like Lilac, Weigela, and Forsythia once they’ve finished flowering. Cut back the flowered shoots to strong buds lower down and removing one in every 3-4 old stems to encourage new growth.
- Trim evergreen hedges to keep them neat, but always check first to make sure you aren’t disturbing any nesting birds.
- Water in the early mornings or evenings to reduce water loss through evaporation, and install rain barrels to conserve rainwater for use on the garden.
Whether you’re planting, weeding or simply relaxing in a deck chair, you’ll find everything you need in our centre, so pay us a visit soon!
