June is here, and that means long days and gardens filled with sunshine and flowers. Whether you’re sowing, planting or harvesting, keep your garden looking its best with our top 15 garden tips for June.
Top 15 gardening tips for June
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Sow basil seeds in pots this month for a supply of leaves all through summer. Sow lettuce, radish and beetroot seeds in the vegetable garden.
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Sow nasturtiums and Poached Eggplant (Limnathes douglasii) in flower beds and vegetable gardens to attract pollinators. Nasturtiums also make a good sacrificial crop, luring aphids away from other plants.
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Plant out courgette, tomato, pepper and sweetcorn seedlings, as well as runner- and French beans. Don’t forget to provide supports for your beans to climb up or grow dwarf varieties in pots if you’re short on space.
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Stake cordon tomatoes and pinch out side shoots. Feed tomato plants fortnightly with a high-potash feed once the flowers appear.
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Fill pots and hanging baskets with geraniums, petunias, begonias and other bedding plants for long-lasting summer colour.
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First, early potatoes should be ready to harvest once the flowers have opened, but dig up one or two first and check whether they are big enough. If not, leave them for a few weeks to grow bigger.
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Harvest garlic and onions once their leaves turn yellow.
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Net strawberry plants to protect the ripening berries from birds.
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Prune spring-flowering shrubs like Weigela, Forsythia, flowering currant (Ribes) and Philadelphus. Remove any dead, damaged or spindly growth, then cut back flowered shoots to vigorous side shoots. To rejuvenate congested plants, cut back one in every three or four old stems to ground level.
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Clip evergreen hedges to keep them neat, but check first to be sure you aren’t disturbing any nesting birds.
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Deadhead roses regularly and pick sweet peas to keep flowers coming all through summer.
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Keep on top of the weeding. Run a Dutch hoe over beds on a dry day to cut down annual weeds and leave them on the ground to shrivel up.
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Be water-wise. Water in the mornings or evenings to reduce water loss through evaporation, and install a water butt to collect rainwater.
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Open greenhouse vents on hot days to stop the temperature from shooting up. It’s a good idea to install shade blinds or add shade paint to greenhouses to protect plants in hot weather.
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Mow lawns once a week to keep them neat. If you have space, consider leaving an area of lawn un-mown in summer to provide a habitat for insects and other wildlife.
If your garden needs a boost this summer, why not visit our centre where you’ll find a fantastic range of flowering plants, vegetable seedlings and everything else you need. Our friendly staff will be happy to help with all your gardening queries!