Your Garden In June
By Colin Dale, Notcutts Garden Centres
If you are fortunate enough to have a vegetable garden, this is a busy time for you!
Begin lifting early potatoes for immediate use once they are in full flower. The first outdoor sowings of salad crops will also be ready for use. Remember to pinch out the tops of Broad Bean plants when they are in full flower to help prevent Black Fly attacks. Successional sowings of soft herbs, salad leaves and Radish can still be made now. Remember to sow short rows every couple of weeks on a firm seed bed to ensure a continuous supply to the end of the summer.
Tomatoes grown in the green house should be ‘stopped’, by pinching out the tops, once they have set four to six trusses of fruit. Keep an eye on developing side shoots which should be removed so that the plants concentrate on making fruits not leaves! Water regularly and feed once a week with Tomorite or an equivalent liquid feed.
Your local garden centre will have stocks of summer bulbs and corms which can be planted now for late colour in borders or the cutting garden. Beautiful cottage garden plants, Dahlias are of special value if you are a flower arranger and perform from late summer through to the first frosts of the winter, when the tubers can be lifted and stored ready to be planted out again the following year. Another old favourite in flower now are Bearded Iris which will give valuable colour in a sunny, well drained border. They are available in a wide range of colours from pure white through to almost black, many with an evocative scent.
Old clumps should be split once they have finished flowering and some of the new vigorous pieces can be replanted, discarding the woody centres. Trim the sword shaped leaves to half of their height and plant with the rhizomes on top of the soil.
It is still not too late to give your perennials the ‘Chelsea Chop’. Reduce the height of new growth on Asters, Rudbeckia, Solidago and other late flowering subjects by half. This seems brutal, but the plants will produce more side shoots and thus more flowers! Deadhead earlier flowering subjects as the flowers fade and take the shoots back to new growth. Hardy Geraniums (Cranesbill’s) can be hacked right back to the ground after the first flush of flower is over - many will reward with one and even two more crops of flowers this year.
Round up all of your unused containers and visit your local garden centre to choose from the wide range of summer bedding plants available. Remember to mix in some slow release fertiliser which will help feed the plants, cutting back on the amount of liquid feeding required. As well as feeding once a week with a liquid fertilizer such as Miracle Gro, deadhead your containers regularly and check for water each day to ensure maximum flower power!
Top Ten Tips for June
1. Begin lifting early potatoes for immediate use towards the end of the month, once they are in full flower. Apply a biological control of Nemaslug to the ground if slugs are a problem on the tubers.
2. Continue with successional sowings of salad crops and soft herbs, in short rows fortnightly to ensure a supply until the end of the summer.
3. Pinch out the tops of Broad Bean plants when they are in full flower to lessen attacks of Black Fly. Stop tomato plants once they have formed four to six trusses of fruit and keep an eye on developing side shoots which should be removed.
4. Visit your local garden centre and choose from stocks of summer flowering corms and tubers such as Dahlias which can be planted now, providing late colour in borders and as cut flowers for the house.
5. Divide old plants of Flag Iris once they have finished flowering. Discard the old woody centres and replant clumps of the young rhizomes, reducing the leaves by half and planting the rhizomes level with the soil surface.
6. Give your late flowering perennials such as Rudbeckia, Aster and Solidago the ‘Chelsea Chop’! Reduce the height of new growth by half, which will produce bushier plants and more flowers.
7. Round up all of your unused containers and visit your local garden centre to choose from the wide range of summer bedding plants available to give colour until late autumn. Purchase some slow release fertilizer to mix with the compost and a suitable liquid feed such as Miracle Gro or Phostogen.
8. On dry days, hoe off annual weeds in your borders and mulch any gaps using garden compost as it becomes available. Remember to use layers of material and add an activator such as Garotta, which will help speed up the rotting process.
9. Keep an eye on slug and snail control – especially if the weather is wet! Use a biological control of Nemaslug to cut the numbers or slug pellets used sparingly around vulnerable plants.
10. Deadhead your borders by taking the faded flower heads back to new shoots. Roses benefit from deadheading regularly and most will reward you with a succession of sweetly scented flowers throughout the summer.