Our June Gardening Guide: Top gardening tips for the summer

Guest post by Erin aka @hortihunny

June is one of my favourite months in the garden, read on for my June Gardening Guide! There is so much change and everything looks lush and green. I love watching everything grow and bloom as the temperature creeps up. I enjoy spending more time outdoors and particularly like admiring the summer sunsets and birdsong as we reach the longest day. But it’s not all ice lollies and sitting enjoying the sun, as always, there are plenty of jobs to be done:

1. Bedding Plants

Bedding plants are a quick and easy way to add lots of colour to your garden. They are fantastic for borders, containers and hanging baskets. If you’ve been hanging back with planting them, now is the perfect time as we should be past the risk of frost. Violas, pansies, petunias, impatiens and lobelia are some of the most common bedding plants. For me, it’s all about bold colours and patterns and I particularly like the spotty and stripy varieties of petunias!

2. Plant out remaining  fruit and veg

Now that the soil is warmer, you can plant out a variety of vegetables including pumpkins, courgettes, sweetcorn, brassica. Once planted, you can protect the plants from high winds and birds using netting or fleece. This is also helpful for keeping the white cabbage fly off your brassicas to prevent the invasion of caterpillars in your crop!

3. Tomatoes

I truly believe the tomato plants get bigger every time I look at them! Tying your plants to supports prevents them from flopping to the ground, especially when they get heavier with fruits. You can use steaks or string attached to a piece of wood above. Pinch-out side shoots from your tomato plants, make sure you don’t pinch out the ‘trusses’ with yellow flowers as the flowers will turn into your tomatoes! Pinching out prevents energy being wasted and encourages more fruit.

4. Flower Beds

Daffodils foliage should be ready to cut back (remember you should leave it for about 6 weeks after they have gone over). You could plant some annual flowers to fill the gaps in your border. My favourite annuals are cosmos, cornflowers and nigella and hopefully they’ll fill the space with beautiful blooms later in the summer. Remember to provide supports for your taller plants. Stakes can help support them in high winds and prevent snapped stems!

5. Harvest Early Crops

Enjoy harvesting your early summer crops. Salads and early potatoes should be ready to go any time now. I always think homegrown tastes much better and it cuts down on any plastic/packaging from ones bought in the supermarket.

6. Weeding

Hoe or hand-weed borders and beds regularly. Weeds like warm soil and will grow rapidly, taking moisture from the soil so it’s best to do this regularly to keep on top of them.

7. Lawn Care

Mow your lawn regularly although you might be deciding to mow less regularly. I’ll be giving mine the first full cut after ‘No Mow May’ and will be removing some of the weeds that have gone to seed as the bees can’t benefit from them. I quite like the clover on my lawn as it really attracts the bees so over summer I’m aiming to cut some parts less regularly for the wildlife. Remember in dry spells you can water your lawn to stop it drying out and apply some lawn feed.

8. Watering

Remember to water your plants regularly at this time of the year. Early morning and evening are the best time to water – try to avoid doing it in the hottest part of the day as you might scorch the plants and they don’t use the water as efficiently. Using a mulch such as our decorative bark can help with water retention.

Let us know in the comments if there is anything you would add to our June Gardening Guide.