In June the frosts have hopefully passed and you will be able to plant out your summer bedding and tender vegetables. Remember if you have forgotten to bring your basket in for a refill, don’t panic as in June we have lovely pre planted hanging baskets ready and full of cheerful colour.

Garden Maintenance

Continue to hoe weeds regularly to avoid going to seed and drastically multiplying.

Round up gel is proving a very popular product, it is great for spot killing weeds amongst your cherished plants.

Put pet and child friendly slug pellets around all fleshy plants to avoid them being eaten alive! A barrier of course grit around hosta plants will help protect them from slugs and snails.

Watch brassica crops for the first sign of caterpillar infestation and treat with a decent pesticide or remove manually by hand as soon as they occur. Use a 10mm netting as a barrier around such plants, any courser netting will allow butterflies through. This can be purchased in 4m widths and sold per metre.

Once bulbs have died down completely remove the foliage but don’t do this too early as you will have ‘blind’ bulbs next year (Meaning no flowers)

Watering

Remember to recycle as much water as possible. By investing in a water butt (of which you can get slim line types for where space is tight) you can save rain water from your garage, house or even greenhouse roof.

Rain water is better for your plants and saves money on your water bill. Sink and bath water can also be reused if not too dirty or soapy.

Once the dry weather arrives you will need to keep on top of watering your baskets and pots, if they dry out it is virtually impossible to get them to retain water as well as they once did.

Add water gel and a slow release feed to all your pots and baskets when planting and liquid feed weekly for the best results.

Pruning and Supporting

Prune Montana clematis hard once it has finished flowering and tie in any other varieties. Continue spraying roses against pests and disease and tie and support any climbing or rambling varieties.

Lightly trim hardy fuchsia and penstemon back to a healthy bud.

Prune spring flowering shrubs such as philadelphus, deutzia and weigelia towards the end of the month. Be brutal by cutting out a third of older wood, next year’s flowers will form on this year’s growth.

Lawns

Mow your lawn as often as practical, a regular trim will thicken the grass and keep it a lush green.

A yellowing lawn could benefit from a liquid lawn feed.

Lawn seed may be sown to patch up areas where moss has been removed.

Fruit and Vegetables

Strawberries should now be fruiting, keep birds away by using a net over the plants and hang old cd’s around the crop to act as a deterrent.

Put straw or mulch mats under the fruit to keep them clean and disease free. Peg down any runners to increase plant numbers for next year.

Many vegetable crops can still be sown, you may be on your second sowing of salad leaf, spring onions, radishes and carrots already, doing so will ensure a succession of vegetables for many weeks.

Plant out runner beans, French beans, squash, courgette, tomatoes and cucumbers, but keep an eye out for any cold nights and protect if need be.

Continue to earth up your main crop potatoes, generally do this three or four times before letting them go to flower. Once the flowers are over the potatoes are ready to harvest,

Tip of the Month

Remember to liquid feed your hanging baskets and containers at least once a week, dead head all spent flowers from the plants too, this will both encourage new flowers to grow and enhance the overall appearance.

Use a compost with slow release feed and water retaining gel when planting baskets and pots, trust me you will notice the difference!

Plant of the Month

Scabiosa Mariposa Blue (Scabious). A very reliable herbaceous perennial, which flowers over several months. The lovely double lavender blue flowers attract both bees and butterflies and the foliage is mildew resistant. It is ideal for full sun and the overall height is approx. 30cm.

Happy Gardening
Craig