June’s gardening guide has been put together by the experts at Mantis to help you get your summer garden get off to a great start. Check out the guides for May and April if you’d like to catch up with our helpful tips and tricks. The following guide covers lawns, gardens, fruit and veg and other gardening activities – letting you know how you could or should be tending to your garden in June.
Lawn Care in June
Rake the lawn – do this prior to mowing to ensure that clover runners cannot take hold.
Keep lawns mowed – you will probably need to mow the law at least once a week now as it will be growing furiously in the warmer weather. However, don’t cut it less than 3” as you want it to retain as much moisture at root level as possible. This is especially important during a drought.
Keep lawns watered – this is very important at this time of year, so you should be watering the lawn at least once a day, ensuring you give it a good soaking so that the water reaches the soil level. If you experience a hosepipe ban, don’t despair, grass is tough stuff and will withstand a few weeks of no water, but ensure you keep it a little longer so that moisture can be retained as mentioned above. Once the ban has been lifted, you may need to aerate the lawn using the Lawn Aerator Tine attachment for your Mantis tiller, to ensure that the water penetrates the hard ground.
Apply weed killer – this is the last month that you can apply lawn sand and weed killer that targets broad leafed weeds. You can still pull them out by hand, however.
Edge the lawn – keeping the edge of your lawn defined keeps it looking good. The Lawn/Border Edger attachment for your Mantis Tiller is perfect for this task.
Garden Care in June
Containers and hanging baskets can now be put out – the frosts should be behind us now so it is safe to put tender plants outside.
Remember to water containers and hanging baskets – even when there has been rainfall. Containers and baskets usually need to be watered at least once a day.
Feed Container plants – this should be done weekly with a pot fertilizer but you can buy slow-release pellets from the garden centre which, if pushed into the compost, will work their magic for around six months.
Continue to add mixed waste material to your compost – as you are mowing the lawn more frequently now, you will have plenty of material to convert to compost, so keep topping it up. The Mantis ComposTumbler is ideal for keeping a constant supply of compost coming.
Deadhead roses – keep this up as it encourages lots of new blooms and will keep the flowers coming for longer. Pinch them off just below the flower head as this encourages new flowers to appear quicker than taking them off just above the above the leaf.
Thin out fruit on fruit trees – the fruitlets will form into clumps and if not thinned out will impinge the harvest in the summer months, or break branches due to the weight. You need to remove all but one fruitlet per 4” of space, leaving the healthiest on the tree.
Take cuttings for replanting – now is a good time to take cuttings from shrubs, woody herbs and hardy perennials. Take a 4” cutting from a non-flowering part of the plant, just before the leaf bud, dip the end into rooting powder and push into a pot containing compost. Cover the plant with plastic and ensure it is watered regularly.
Cut back spring flowers – as the flowers die off, cut back shrubs such as weigela and deutzia, which will result in good new growth and lots of flowers for the next spring.
Fruit & Veg in June
Harvest your strawberries – the first crop should now be ready to pick. Remember to cover the plants with netting to prevent birds from feasting on the succulent fruit.
Time to harvest vegetables – you can now start to harvest your early potatoes as well as asparagus, salad leaves, carrots, tomatoes, salad onions, beetroot and the first pea pods.
Still time to sow – you can still add winter cauliflower, carrots, runner beans, French beans, swedes and more beetroot to be ready for winter as well as stepping other veg so you have a summer long supply.
Prune soft fruits – such as currants and gooseberries. Regular pruning with ensure that the bush keeps producing fruit. Cover with netting during the summer to prevent birds from pinching the berries.
Pollenate tomatoes – do this by holding the flowers between two fingers and gently tapping them to release the pollen. This will help to pollenate and improve the yield. This should be done every day.
Keep tomatoes watered – misting the plants, particularly in a greenhouse will keep humidity up and help the fruit to set. It also helps to reduce the risk of attacks from pests.
Thin out crops – to ensure a good crop, thinning out the plants is necessary so that they have room to spread out and mature. Choose the healthier plants to leave in and take out smaller or diseased plants.
Plant out seedlings – seeds that you sowed in the early to late spring such as leeks, french beans, squashes, tomatoes, sweetcorn and peppers, can now be planted out into their final position.
Other Gardening Activities in June
Vent the greenhouse – as the weather heats up, open up the vents in your greenhouse and use blinds to shade plants from direct sunlight, which will scorch them. Spraying into the air and onto the floor will also assist in cooling things down on particularly hot days.
Keep your eye on pests – caterpillars will start to emerge now so keep an eye out for them on your cabbages. The larva for the cabbage white butterfly love to nibble on the leaves, so you need to remove them by hand and destroy them. Aphids will also make an appearance now, so keep checking your garden for signs of them and if you do find some, you can either get a suitable pesticide from the garden centre (always follow manufacturer instructions) or you can try spraying plants with a simple soap and water solution if you prefer an more organic approach. For such small creatures, it is amazing how much damage they can do to your crops.
Don’t forget slugs and snails – you can still plant nematodes or lay down pellets but why not consider attracting natural predators for these creatures such as hedgehogs by building a home for them in a sheltered corner of your garden, or leaving a corner a little messy with logs and leaf cover, which they love and will build their own nest in.
Keep on top of weeds – regular hoeing and removal of weeds will keep them in check and will keep your beds and vegetable garden looking good and will also enable the water to penetrate deeper on watering.
The June gap – this time of year there is a lot of growing going on but not much colour, you can fill the gap by including such plants as allium, London pride, viola conuta and hardy geraniums, which will keep the garden colourful until the summer blooms are out.
That’s all of our advice for June. Please ensure that you keep an eye on our garden care page for more helpful advice. Also feel free to get in touch if you have any June gardening advice you’d like us to include.
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