This Month in the Garden - June 2022

Summer is here. Plants are starting to grow strongly now, and lots can be harvested. There is plenty to be getting on with in the allotment and garden but make sure to take time and enjoy the summer and all your hard work. Sit back, listen to the birds, watch the wildlife and enjoy the sun on your skin.

In the Allotment

• Water vegetables and fruit in containers when required, especially during hot weather.

• Water beans and peas as they start to flower.

• Tie in new shoots of raspberries, blackberries, loganberries, tayberries and other cane fruits.

• Continue to take softwood cuttings of herbs such as marjoram, rosemary and sage.

• Continue to take out weeds from between fruit and vegetable crops.

• Add more mulch on bare ground and around new plants to reduce water loss, suppress weeds and to add more organic matter to the soil.

Sowing Undercover

• Beetroot, leaf beet, chard, lettuce, radishes, spring onions, basil, Florence fennel and carrots can be sown. Carrot flies are still around so cover carrots with a material that the flies cannot get through.

• French and runner beans can still be sown.

• Kale, cabbage for winter, purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflower for both autumn & spring and cucumber can be sown. I don’t grow them as we don’t have enough room with all the tomato plants, celeriac and leeks!

Sowing Outside

• Before mid-June - carrots, cucumber.

• Also, the same as under cover (see above),

• Sow some nasturtiums if you haven’t already – they make great companion plants for beans, squashes and pumpkins plus you get a tasty harvest and they look beautiful too.

Planting

• Early June - Cucumber, courgette, squash and pumpkin can be planted out. Make sure to harden them off first. These are hungry plants producing a lot of growth and so need rich soil and plenty of water. Mulch around plants to provide organic matter and more nutrients to the soil.

• Celeriac and leeks sown earlier can be planted out now.

• Runner beans and tomatoes can be planted out, once hardened off.

Harvesting

Harvest all crops as they mature. There is lots to be harvested at this time of year:

• Vegetables - Peas, broad beans, turnips, radishes, garlic, spring onions, carrots.

• Fruit – Gooseberries, strawberries

• Salads – Spinach, leaves, herbs

In The Garden

• Deadhead spent flowers to encourage more blooms.

• Sow biennials, such as foxgloves, honesty, wallflowers and sweet rocket, in seed trays.

• Spread mulch such as compost or shredded bark around trees, shrubs and roses. Make sure the soil is moist first.

Looking After Wildlife

• Avoid trimming hedges from now until September when birds are nesting. Bird nests and breeding birds are protected by law. If you need to trim hedges and check first for bird nests or signs of breeding birds and use hand tools instead of power tools until the end of the breeding (ideally the end of September).

• Make sure birds have plenty of clean, fresh water too.

• Do not spray insects and ‘pests’. They provide food for the birds. I often watch the birds hopping up and down our tomato and bean plants munching on all of the tasty insects. If there are no insects there will be no birds! If aphids become too much of a problem, they can be sprayed off plants with water.

• Leave some weeds. If you took part in ‘No Mow May’ why not continue and avoid mowing your lawn to provide beneficial plants for pollinating insects. If you cannot bare to leave the whole lawn, leave some longer grass and wildflowers around the edges or in a corner of the garden.

Foraging

• Many plants can be foraged from the garden too, including yarrow leaves, blackthorn leaves, chickweed, ground elder, rose, common mallow and wild strawberries.

• Elderflower, fennel and the young tips of pine and spruce can also be foraged.

• Remember to forage responsibly and safely.