So busy in June’s garden!
Hello everyone. Hope you’re all keeping well and enjoying being out in the garden.
Although the weather is still a little unsettled, we have had some dry, sunny days which have meant we can get out and enjoy the garden. Our vegetable garden is ahead of where it would normally be at this time of the year, due to the lack of frosts. In early May I planted out some courgettes (I needed the space in the greenhouse!) and protected them with cloches and lo and behold, we picked our first courgette on the last day of May. Normally I’d only be planting out by then!
Breaking news – the builders have finished all their work in the house and this part of the refurbishment is done! Jill is busy decorating and carpets will be fitted in a few weeks. The final stage of the work will be in autumn when we replace the kitchen, although by then I’m sure we’ll have found something else that needs doing!
We’re also getting on with the garden and the big change since the last newsletter is that the patio is being laid. I’ve had some help with this from a friend who is making a brilliant job and by this weekend it will be complete, along with paving around the greenhouse.
I’m also busy lifting turf and moving soil around to create new borders that will, fingers crossed, be planted within the next few weeks. The borders that were planted last year and earlier this spring are looking good and starting to fill out. When planting I don’t make a plan, I simply buy plants that we like and then arrange them around the garden. In most places I’m happy with the results but come autumn I will probably swap a few plants around.
Don’t forget, if you’re at the Lincolnshire Show on 19th & 20th June or at the Gardening Weekend at RHS Harlow Carr on 21st-23rd June, Jill and I will be there with the Potting Shed stage so come and say hello.
Jobs for June
Hanging baskets and summer containers need to be watered to keep the compost moist and fed on a regular basis with a high potash fertiliser to keep them flowering.
Box shapes can be given a trim to maintain their shape. Where blight is a problem, I find it helps to not trim as tight and don’t over feed to encourage soft new growth which is more susceptible to the disease. In fact, a high potash feed will help to ripen the wood and induce disease resistance.
Stake tall growing perennials in borders with twiggy sticks or by using wire or plastic plant supports pushed into the soil around the plants.
Keep deadheading roses to encourage more flower buds to develop.
The grass is growing like mad now and can soon get out of hand, so, if possible, try to mow little and often to keep the lawn in trim. This approach also helps to build up a thick lawn, making it more difficult for weeds to establish.
Now is the perfect time to take softwood cuttings from penstemons to produce new plants.
Make sure that potatoes growing in the garden are ‘earthed-up’ to form ridges of soil around the plants. Use a spade or hoe to draw soil up around the stems to encourage more tubers to develop from side shoots in the ridges.
Keep sowing vegetables such as lettuce, carrots, beetroot, spinach and spring onions directly into the garden in shallow drills.
Now is a good time to buy a few herb plants and pot into larger pots to stand by your back door so that you can enjoy them over summer.
Tomatoes need side shooting regularly to remove the shoots that grow in the leaf joints and once the first fruits have set, feed weekly with a high potash liquid fertiliser.
Protect newly planted cabbages and all members of the brassica family with fleece or fine netting to keep off pigeons that peck away at the young leaves and to help protect against cabbage white butterflies.
Remember as a follower of our newsletter & Pots & Trowels videos and podcasts you can take advantage of a 10% discount from Kings Seeds. Simply go to www.kingsseeds.com and quote PT2024 to get 10% off seeds. (valid to 31-12-2024 T&C’s apply)
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Happy gardening