Top tips for gardening in June
It’s a busy month for gardeners as we continue to enjoy the fruits of our labours with gorgeous floral displays. The English Garden at Lynwood is looking particularly lovely at the moment. Fingers crossed we enjoy some more good weather (interspersed with some rain this time, please) to nourish our flowers and plants and edibles. Here are our top tips for gardening in the month of June.
War on weeds
It’s not just flowers, fruit and veg that are growing like the clappers this month – the weeds are doing their best too! Keep on top of weeds with a regular hoe and dig out persistent pests like dandelions before they produce more seed, if you can.
Pruning
Deadhead roses as often as possible now they are flowering. Cut browning heads to the bud or leaf below to encourage more flowers to follow. Cut delphiniums right back now to enjoy a second flush of flowers in August and September. Spring shrubs that have finished flowering can also be pruned now, removing some of the older stems near the ground.
Tidying
Stake and tie taller perennials such as delphiniums, hollyhocks and lupins to stop them being flattened by the wind, and keep ramblers and climbers tidy by tying them in regularly, as close to the horizontal as possible. Staking and tying can also help protect vulnerable plants like peonies.
Watering
It’s vital to keep watering newly planted plants. Save water by watering directly by the plant’s stem rather than the whole of the bare soil. Apply a mulch on moist soil if you didn’t do this in spring to help retain moisture content.
Planting out time!
Cucumbers and tomatoes can come out of the greenhouse / windowsill now and be planted with appropriate supports in place. Pinch out side-shoots on tomatoes when you move them to their new home. You can direct sow brassicas and leeks for winter harvest now, as well as plant out your courgettes, sweetcorn, pumpkins, dwarf-, climbing- and runner beans, making sure to keep them well watered. Protect young plants from cold winds with plastic bottles or fleece if necessary.
Sow again
You can continue with successional sowings of carrots, French beans, Borlotti beans and sugar snap peas. A second sowing of courgettes can be done now too; plant in pairs and remove the weaker seedlings as they come through. If your carrots, beetroots and lettuce seem overcrowded now, pull a few young plants up to allow the others to grow. You can eat the baby veg!