Gardening Jobs for June

5 jobs for the garden in June

1. Water regularly

Keep those growing plants well hydrated. It’s the bare minimum of garden maintenance. Plants in pots will need more water than those in the ground. If the top inch of compost is dry, it’s a good time to get out the watering can or hose. If you’re off on holiday, it can be a good idea to set up a simple irrigation system that will come on automatically each day to ensure everything’s still alive on your return.

2. Stake gangly plants

Prevent your perennials from lolloping all over the place when their flowers appear by ensuring they have support early on. Plant stakes and grid supports can come in useful here. For lofty specimens like hollyhocks and sunflowers, canes and garden twine will do the trick, and for shorter, top-heavy varieties at the front of borders, you could try using pea sticks to keep them from collapsing.

3. Keep the weeds down

Ensure your plants have room to grow by keeping the most pernicious weeds at bay. But, rather than pulling or hoeing everything out, consider embracing a few of the less invasive varieties, such as the odd dandelion or a foxglove or two. They look super pretty and, if the bees go crazy for them, what’s not to like?

4. Top up the birdbath

Attract feathered friends to your garden by keeping a dish of water topped up so they can enjoy a cool drink and keep themselves clean and healthy enough to steer clear of predators. If you don’t have an actual birdbath, a saucer on a table or wall is just as good. Just make sure it’s off the ground, to make it less of a target for the neighbourhood tom.

5. Start deadheading

As the blooms on flowering plants wither and fade, it’s a good idea to snip or pull them off (aka deadhead them) to keep the plant looking pretty and encourage it to pump out more flowers. Regular deadheading throughout the growing season will keep your garden looking lush for waaay longer.

5 jobs for the allotment in June

1. Pinch out side-shoots

Check your cordon tomato plants (the ones that naturally keep growing upwards rather than bushing out - check the label or do a quick search to check which yours is, if you aren’t sure) and remove any side-shoots, i.e. new growth sprouting between a leaf and the main stem. This will keep more air flowing through the plant, preventing nasty diseases (we see you, blight), and ensuring a fuller plant with more fruit.

2. Harvest early crops

June is when the salad crops start coming in thick and fast. Radishes, baby beets, peashoots and green leaves should be ready from now. And early potatoes should be ready to harvest, steam and enjoy. Add a knob of butter and a sprinkle of salt. Is there anything better?

If you’re growing a one pot herb garden, you can start to harvest sprigs of deliciousness from there too, to up the flavour factor of everyday meals.

3. Cover up that fruit

As fruit starts to form and ripen on your bushes, cover them up with nets. Blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries and other delicious pudding options will need protection to stop the birds from snaffling the lot.

4. Feed regularly

Fast-growing plants need plenty of food. Spring into action and treat tomatoes, squash, chillis, aubergines and courgettes to an organic liquid feed every week. All of the above will be more than happy with a dash of tomato feed. Just splash it into a watering can… job’s a good-un.

5. Go on snail patrol

Grab a torch and head out after dark (especially on damp evenings) to check for any snails who may *dare* to munch on your crops. We’d recommend gathering any usurpers into a container and rehoming them in an opposing corner of the garden or onto the compost heap. Either that, or you could try beer traps. Look, we’re not trying to encourage odd behaviour, but when it comes to our precious plants, let’s just say we’re willing to go to extremes.