June

Gardening in June

1) Plant now

Bedding plants should now be safe to plant out into your borders or pots with out the risk of frost. Protect from cold early wind with polythene or fleece. Watch out for slugs, snails and pigeons. Plant out any Dahlia tubers you started off in pots inside your greenhouse or conservatory. – Lift overcrowded clumps of bulbs and split them up, dry them off and store in your shed ready for autumn planting. – Dead head rhododendrons and hellebores, and cut back overgrown lilacs.

2) Lawns

Now more regular mowing can de done and a lower cut can be achieved. Don’t forget to feed your lawn with a feed, weed and moss killer to keep it in good condition – use a lawn spreader to apply on larger areas. If your lawn is free from weeds, then just use a lawn feed with a watering can.

3) Watering young plants

Do this in the morning or early evening to avoid scorching of the leaves by the sun. Use rainwater if you can collect from a water butt attached to your drainpipe. Water diverters are easy to fit and your plants will respond well to extra rainwater. – You can add feed to encourage strong growth such as Phostrogen or MiracleGro.

4) Sowing wallflower seeds

This can now be done and planted out in September

5) Houseplants

It’s now a good time to re-pot them into larger pots with new compost. Use a saucer to stop them drying out during the summer months. This is the main growing season for houseplants (June – September)

6) Plants looking good now and are available

Lavenders, santolinas, lupins, fuchias, viburnums (snowball types), tamarix, honeysuckles (early flowering types), bearded iris, weigela, achilleas, astilbe, nepeta (‘catmint’)