Gardening in June

Those warm summer days are here, we hope, if you have been extremely organised or have an established garden your summer beds, containers or greenhouse is probably looking in full bloom. However, there is always something to do in the garden at this time of year and the green fingered ones amongst us will be pottering around tending to an array of plants and vegetables as well as keeping those pesky weeds at bay!

We have gathered our top jobs for June, as well as some handy tips from our experts here at Polhill to make sure you have all basis covered and maybe even encourage some new feathered visitors to your garden at the same time.

Top 10 Jobs

1. Watering is essential! The best time to do this is in the early evening when it is cooler and when less evaporation will occur
2. Hoe your borders regularly which will keep weeds to a minimum
3. Position summer hanging baskets and containers outside (there should be no more cold evenings now – but keep an eye on the forecast!)
4. Prune Spring flowering shrubs such as spiraeas and berberis
5. Plant out summer bedding and half-hardy annuals, make a note for mid-month to give them some liquid feed such as Miracle-Gro
6. If growing strawberries, you may be seeing some fruit now. Use straw around the bottom of the plant to ensure they don’t touch the soil
7. Feed roses with a good granular fertiliser such as Toprose and make sure to spray them too to control pests, our Multirose 3-in-1 or Roseclear are good choices
8. Stake any tall or floppy plants
9. If you have a greenhouse, make sure you give some of your delicate plants some shade to prevent scorching. Open the vents too to allow for good ventilation
10. Keep the bird bath topped up, our British garden birds rely heavily on gardens for not only food but water too!

Vegetable Growing

During lockdown the UK has seen an incredible increase in first time gardeners, with novices not only trying their hand at growing flowers and shrubs, but we’ve also seen a rise in vegetable growing too!

There is nothing better than spending time nurturing a plant from seed into a fully formed vegetable which ends up on your dinner plate at the end of the day. There really is no wonder we have seen a boom, so here are our top jobs for vegetable growers in June…

• Remove side shoots from tomatoes, not the bush varieties
• Feed your tomato plants once a week as soon as fruits have formed with Tomorite
• Continue training and feeding cucumbers and melons
• Pick male flowers from cucumbers and pollinate female flowers
• You can start to harvest lettuce, radishes and early potatoes
• Cover any fruit bushes/plants to protect them from the birds
• Water vegetables/fruit if you have them in containers regularly on those hot sunny days
• Cut chives down to the base and you will have a new crop in a few weeks