Blog

June has arrived and hopefully warmer days will be with us soon, although it has started cool with a mixture of sunshine and showers. This is a busy month planting out for the summer ahead and the risk of frost should now be long gone.
 
1.    This month's Sweet Peas are starting to bloom, pick the stems regularly to prolong the flowering period otherwise they will set seed and stop flowering.  The changeable weather and cool nights can cause bud drop this month, don’t worry if this happens, as the plants will soon settle down once the weather becomes more settled and warm.
 
2.    Around the second week of June, I make my last sowing of Runner Beans. For this later sowing I choose a white flowered variety such as White Lady or Moonlight. White flowered varieties are more tolerant to heat and will produce you a bumper harvest, which will often continue well into October, depending on the weather.
 
3.    This month you can finish planting your Summer Bedding plants into borders and containers. Hanging baskets can be hung out. Once completed you can sit back and enjoy your display for many months ahead. One word of caution due to the wet spring this year there is a high population of slugs and snails out there waiting to feed on your plants so some form of slug control may be beneficial to use around your plants.
 
4.    As June has arrived all those tender Vegetable crops can be planted out. Sweetcorn, Courgettes, squashes, Runner and French Beans and outdoor tomatoes can all be planted outside on your plot.
 
5.    As space comes available on the vegetable plot, or if you have some spare containers fill these areas up with further sowings of summer salads like Rocket, Lettuce, Radish, Beetroot, and mixed salad leaves.
 
6.    Make a sowing of Carrot Eskimo this month under Enviromesh and these will be ready to pull as finger carrots for your Christmas lunch.
 
7.    This month the soft fruit bushes will be producing a bumper crop of fruit, so it is important to erect some protection nets over the bushes, to stop any birds having a feed of your Raspberries, Blackcurrants or Strawberries before you do.
 
8.  Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Peppers growing under glass in grow bags and pots need regular watering.  As soon as the first fruits set on Tomatoes and Peppers these can be fed once a week with a high potash feed. As soon as fruits start to appear on Cucumbers, start feeding once a week with a teaspoon of dried blood (a high nitrogen feed) sprinkled around the root, but away from the stem and watered in. 
 
9.    As gardeners we are always looking ahead, and June is the ideal time to sow Wallflowers and Sweet Williams for your autumn bedding display. These can be sown in an area, direct into the vegetable plot and be  grown on until large enough to lift and transplant to your flower borders this autumn. Toward the end of June sow pansies and violas under glass and prick out into pots or trays, ready for autumn displays. When sowing pansies and violas at this time of year and if the weather is warm and temperatures are above 20C it can inhibit germination. So a handy tip is to put the seed packets in the fridge the night before sowing them as this will chill the seed down and aid germination. The same trick can be used when sowing Lettuce seeds at this time of year.
 
10.    Keep a close watch out for black fly on broad beans, which if seen can have the tops removed as long as beans have already set, or the plants can be treated with a suitable insecticide. Also, keep a close eye on bedding Dahlias, Nasturtiums and Salvias as black fly also love to take up residence on these plants as well. It is always best to keep a close watch over your plants and if these pests are seen, they should be dealt with as soon as possible, otherwise, they can quickly take over and make your plants a mess and reduce their performance.