What to do in the garden this June

What to do in the garden this June

With warmer temperatures and extra sunlight this month, there's plenty to be doing in the garden, from mowing the lawn to trimming topiary and filling in your borders with herbaceous or bedding plants.

Check out our June gardening tips below, put together by Chairman and horticulturist John Richardson.

1)Continue mowing established lawns frequently. Raise the blades a little in parched weather. Treat with weed killer if necessary. Remember to water new lawns in parched weather. Consider laying paving as stepping-stones in areas of high wear.

2)  Dead-head roses and other plants with a succession of flowers to ensure large blooms and a constant display through the summer. Cut rose stems back to an actively growing bud. Seversuckers from the rootstock by tearing them off, or if too large, cut with a very sharp knife as close to the stem as possible.

3) Complete the planting of hardy annuals, ensure they are well watered in and kept watered for the first month.  Ensure that slugs and snails do not cause too much damage by removing them by hand or treating them with appropriate slug and snail killer.

4)   Lightly clip box edging and topiary to remove wandering shoots. Remember to provide feed and water, particularly if they are growing in containers. Trim back the flowering growth of Erica carnea varieties and top dress with peat.

5)  Check the borders for unexpected gaps and fill them with bedding plants or herbaceous plants, remembering to water them in the coming weeks!

6)  Plant out young dahlias now the potential for frost is past. Keep well-watered and control greenfly. Apply a mulch to conserve moisture and reduce weeds.

7)  Water containers whenever the surface feels dry to the touch. Add a liquid feed to the water unless you have incorporated a long-release fertilizer earlier in the season.

8)  Bright red lily beetles are already on the rampage again. Look for them on the upper surface of lily and Fritillaria leaves, where they take notches out of the leaves. They appear to move back down to soil level in the evening but need catching in daylight. They don’t fly, but any disturbance sends them falling back to ground level, where they remain with their black underside upwards.  Eggs are laid on the underside of the leaves, and larvae live within a mound of their own frass.

9)  Remove self-sown seedlings of ash and sycamore before they become too established.

10)  Take softwood or semi-ripe cuttings of cotoneasters, deutzias, fuchsias and philadelphus—root in a glasshouse or cold frame.

11)  Reduce the number of floating plant leaves in the pond to allow light into the lower regions.

12)  Tie in the soft young growth of raspberries, be careful not to break them off!.

13)  Pinch out the growing tips of annual plants to encourage bushiness.

14)  Sow winter pansies, primulas, violas and Brompton stocks under glass. Foxgloves and wallflowers can be sown outside in a weed-free area of the border to flower next year.

15)  Earth-up main-crop potatoes and lift early potatoes when they have reached the size of a hen’s egg.

16)  When watering greenhouse plants, spray a mist over benches, paths, and windows, and open doors and windows on hot days to help reduce the incidence of red spider.

17)  Keep tying in the long shoots of climbing plants. Tie stronger stems to trellis or posts.

Posted 1st Jun 1:44pm