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After the heatwave of May, June has started with a few welcome showers and warm days and will help to settle in those freshly planted areas. This is a busy month planting out all the tender crops and bedding plants for the summer ahead.

1. 1. Sweet peas are starting to bloom and the Kings Seed field is looking spectacular this year.  Always pick the stems regularly to prolong the flowering period otherwise they will set seed and stop flowering. The changeable weather and cool nights can cause bud drop this month, don’t worry if this happens, as the plants will soon settle down once the weather becomes more settled and warm.

2. 2. Around the second week of June, I make my last sowing of Runner Beans. For this later sowing I choose a white flowered variety such as White Lady or Moonlight. White flowered varieties are more tolerant to heat and will produce you a bumper harvest, which will often continue well into October, depending on the weather.
   
   
   
3. 3. This month is a busy time if you grow summer bedding, like me. Now’s the time to finish planting your summer bedding plants into borders and containers. Hanging baskets can be hung out. Once completed you can sit back and enjoy your display for many months ahead.

4. 4. This month is the idea time to get all those tender vegetable crops planted out. Sweetcorn, courgettes, squashes, outdoor tomatoes, runner and French beans can all now safely be planted outside.

5. 5. As space comes available on the vegetable plot, or if you have some spare containers fill these areas up with further sowings of summer salads like Rocket, Lettuce, Radish, Beetroot, and mixed salad leaves.

6. 6. I always like to make a sowing of carrot Eskimo this month under Enviromesh and these will be ready to pull as finger Carrots for your Christmas lunch. As Eskimo has good cold tolerance any not eaten at Christmas can remain in the ground all winter and be harvested as required without the need for any extra mulch protection.

7. 7. This month the soft fruit bushes will be producing a bumper crop of fruit, so it is important to erect some protection nets over the bushes, to stop any birds having a feed of your Raspberries, Blackcurrants or Strawberries before you do. During dry weather, make sure to keep your plants well-watered so the fruits swell nicely.

8. 8. Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Peppers growing under glass in grow bags and pots need regular watering. As soon as the first fruits set on tomatoes and peppers, fed once a week with a high potash feed. As soon as fruits start to appear on Cucumbers, start feeding once a week with a teaspoon of dried blood (a high nitrogen feed) sprinkled around the root, but away from the stem and watered in.

9. 9. As gardeners we are always looking ahead, toward the middle of June is the ideal time to sow Wallflowers and Sweet Williams for your autumn bedding display. These can be sown in an area, direct into the vegetable plot and be grown on until large enough to lift and transplant to your flower borders this autumn. Towards the end of June sow pansies and violas under glass and prick out into pots or trays, ready for autumn displays. When sowing pansies and violas at this time of year and if the weather is warm and temperatures are above 20C it can inhibit germination. So a handy tip is to put the seed packets in the fridge the night before sowing them as this will chill the seed down and aid germination. The same trick can be used when sowing Lettuce seeds at this time of year.

10. 10. There is nothing better than harvesting fresh vegetables from the plot and this month is when cropping starts and can be a time-consuming job. This month you should be able to start harvesting, radish, lettuce, spring onions, beetroot for a tasty salad, peas, broad beans, summer cabbage, new potatoes and maybe a few early carrots to enjoy in your main meal.
    
    

Happy harvesting!