WHAT TO DO THIS MONTH?

Summer is finally here (hopefully), with flowers blooming, crops are growing in the vegetable garden and everywhere you look something new is appearing. Here are our tips on what to do this June.

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General Maintenance

1. Mow the lawn weekly, in hot dry weather don’t cut it too short or you may stress it. You can also give it a good feed with a high nitrogen feed.

2. If you are cutting meadow grass areas allow wild flowers to set seed before cutting or you will affect next year’s display.

3. Trim hedges but check for nesting birds first. Leave well alone if they are present and wait until the chicks have flown the nest.

4. Keep on top of weeds, as well as plants bursting into life the weeds are growing too, usually at a faster rate than the flowers!

5. Remember to water container plants regularly. Even when it rains the new leafy growth often stops the rain reaching the compost. Feed fortnightly with a general-purpose feed. To boost flowers, you can feed with a high potassium feed such as Tomorite.

6. Now that the leaves of daffodils, tulips and other spring bulbs are fading it is time to cut them back to ground level.

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Flowers & Shrubs

1. Plant summer bedding in pots, window boxes and hanging baskets to add instant colour to patios and front steps but don’t delay, nursery stocks run out quickly as every gardener is doing the same thing.

2. Prune spring flowering shrubs once they have finished flowering. Weigela and Forsythia will benefit from cutting back the finished flowering shoots to vigorous side shoots and take out one in every four old stems to ground level.

3. Dead head Roses and pick Sweet Pea flowers to keep them flowering for as long as possible through summer.

4. Tender plants can now be moved outside and planted. Biennial flower seeds can be sown directly to where you want them to grow. Summer bedding can be planted out to brighten up the borders.

5. Garden Centres will start to have an increased selection of perennials. The nurseries will have plenty of stock available for you to be able to select your favourites to fill those gaps in your flower beds.

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Fruit & Vegetables

1. Sow fast growing crops like salad leaves and radishes to fill the gaps between slower growing crops.

2. Plant out courgette, tomato, pepper and sweetcorn seedlings. If you started out Runner and French beans indoors last month, plant them out as well.  Plant tomato seedlings deep so that the first set of leaves is just above ground level. This will encourage the plant to produce more roots and give you bigger, more vigorous plants.

3. Pinch out side-shoots on cordon tomatoes to concentrate the plant’s energy on producing plentiful trusses of fruit. There’s no need to pinch out side-shoots on bush tomatoes.

4. Once two trusses of flowers are showing feed pot-grown tomatoes fortnightly with a high potash liquid feed to promote the development of flowers and fruit. For other plants such as Peppers and Courgettes once the flowers are showing feed fortnightly as well.

5. First Early potatoes will soon be flowering. Once the flowers have opened this is a sign that they are ready to harvest but just dig up one or two first to see if they are big enough. If not leave for another week.

6. Don’t forget to protect your crops from predators. You can do this by covering with fine mesh but make sure birds can’t get caught up in the mesh. The finer mesh the better. Keep a look out for greenfly, blackfly, caterpillars etc. Check daily before any infestation can get out of hand and destroy your crop.

  

Whether perennials, vegetable plants, compost, tools or pots you need or whatever you plan to do in your garden this June why not come and see us at Thorp Perrow Garden Centre and see how we can help. We look forward to seeing you.