June Gardening Advice
June signals the start of summer and it is finally starting to feel that way! It is a time to start enjoying all your toils in the garden.
New potatoes will be nearly ready to harvest. Once they have flowered, they can be dug up as required. You do not have to wait for the foliage to die back to start enjoying first earlies. These varieties tend to not store as well as main crop, so enjoy now with mint that is abundant in the garden.
Summer fruits will be starting to ripen. Make sure you get to the fruit before the birds do! Soft fruits like strawberries, raspberries and tayberries have been held back slightly by the poor weather, but should be ripe soon, along with other fruits. Eat fresh, make jam, summer pudding, pies and tarts, or freeze for later use.
Keep sowing lettuces, radish, and spring onions in succession for summer long salads.
Onions will start to topple over, especially if it gets windy, but do not dig them up yet - wait for the tops to die back before lifting. They will still grow and swell as they are. Garlic and leeks may be showing signs of rust. There is no cure for this, but the veg should still be growing through it. Heavily damaged plants will need removing and destroying (do not compost!), but most plants will survive and be edible.
Continue to feed and maintain hanging baskets and tubs, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Feed weekly, deadhead old flowers to encourage new growth, nip outside shoots on tomatoes, tie up cucumbers. If you have planted corn, feed weekly to ensure a good crop.
Eat courgettes as fast as you can!!
Get out and enjoy our Great British summer in the garden
