Jobs for June

General gardening jobs:

• In the greenhouse: Open the door/ windows on any hot days and spray the floor with water to ensure a damp atmosphere to deter whitefly. Remember to close both at night as is can still be cold! If you haven’t already, it’s time to plant tomatoes and cucumbers and sow some biennials – like Foxglove and Sweet William. It is still worth hardening off any plants in the greenhouse by putting them outside and bringing them back in at night for a week to help acclimatise them. Watch for possible frosts though!

In the Garden

• If you are planting up plants in pots or hanging baskets it is best to mix multi-purpose compost with John Innes no.2 at a ratio of 2:1, This does increase the cost, but modern multi-purpose composts tend to dry out quickly causing plants to die / stop flowering earlier in the current hot spell. Remember to mix both water retaining gel and plant feed with the compost before planting up.

• Dead head bedding plants regularly to keep them flowering.

• It’s time for the ‘Chelsea chop’. Cut Ice plants (Sedums) stems by half their length – it stops the stems flopping over in September. If you have clumps of flowering perennials (Phlox, Michaelmas daisies) you can also cut around 50% of the stems; the stems you’ve cut back will flower later and so, prolong flowering.

• Place pots on saucers to catch any run off and save water.

• Keep on top of the weeding by hoeing/ hand weeding.

• Leave the blades on the mower a little higher during really hot weather. The grass is likely to be under stress and under a lot of feet! Keeping the grass little higher helps the lawn to cope better.

• In hot spells concentrate on watering pots/ hanging basket, veg and anything recently planted in the borders. Water in the morning and at night, so that it does not evaporate in the hot weather. Give anything planted this year a thorough watering once a week rather than daily as it encourages the roots to go deeper into the soil and so cope better with hot conditions.

• Prune any early flowering shrubs (e.g. Weigela, Exophora) and dead head roses by cutting them to the second left below the old flower.

• Cut early flowering perennials (Pulmonaria and Oriental Poppies) to near the ground after flowering.

Vegetable / Fruit growing

• After the start of June plant out French and Runner beans, Tomatoes, Courgettes, Pumpkins etc.

• Water plants as required and feed plants weekly.

• Keep on top of the weeds by hoeing

• Watch for pest damage and make you sure you follow the manufacturer’s instructions if using pesticides.

• Spray at the first signs of mildew (again follow the instructions given).

• Earth up potatoes as they start to make growth.