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Gardening jobs in June: what to plant and tidy in your garden this month

sweetpeas
sweetpeas

We have reached midsummer, the roses are blooming and borders are at their peak, fresh and floriferous. Days are light and warm and dusk is long and beautiful, crying out for us to be in the garden late into the evening. It is a time for pottering and for beginning to enjoy the fruits of our labours.

The main sowing and planting season is behind us and the tasks of the moment are watering, tying in, nipping out, tasks that can mostly be done with a chilled glass of wine in one hand.

It is time to think ahead to later in the season though, and a little extra sowing now will prove useful in keeping vegetable gardens going into the late summer and autumn, while planting now for late summer flowers will help to prolong the season for the bees and for us.

Gardening jobs to do in June

Shrubs

Spring shrubs have finished flowering now, so this is a good time to prune them back if they are starting to take up too much space or if you have noticed flowering declining, as there is still plenty of time for them to put on the new growth that will produce next spring’s blooms. Forsythia, spirea, lilac, flowering currant, philadelphus and weigela can all have their flowered shoots cut back to a strong, young shoot lower down the branch. You can also remove about 20 per cent of their oldest stems completely. This will help to rejuvenate the plant and keep it flowering well in future years.

gardening in June uk 2022 what to plant tidy sow grow garden this month summer
gardening in June uk 2022 what to plant tidy sow grow garden this month summer

The flower garden

If you sowed sweet pea seeds last autumn you should be getting the first of your flowers now, and if not, then hopefully they will be along very soon. Tie them in to a support as they grow, water them when it is dry and give them a weekly high potash fertiliser to get the most flowers out of them. And as soon as they begin flowering you must pick and pick: if any flowers are left on the plants they will start to turn to seeds, and this will send a signal to the plant that flowering time is over. You will keep them producing by picking every few days and filling your home with vases of spicily scented sweet peas.

Houseplants

Move your houseplants outside now for their summer spell of fresh air and light: they will put on more growth than they do in the whole of the rest of the year. Most are well-adapted to shade, which is how they are successful houseplants, so don’t put them into direct sunlight or you will burn their leaves. Place them in a shady and sheltered corner at least at first, where they can acclimatise. Give them a shower of water to clean off the dust and soak them through, and then feed them regularly. They can be out as long as you like as long as they return in later summer before the weather turns cold.

Seed sowing

Seeds can now be sown direct into the warm soil, which makes for a much easier task than it was earlier in the season. Courgettes, cucumbers, French and runner beans, carrots, beetroot, peas and all of the annual herbs can be sown now to keep the harvest going into autumn. Oriental leaves and coriander will always do better from sowings made around or after midsummer, as the plants try to run to seed and flower as days lengthen, but bulk up and grow more leafy as days get shorter. Protect all from slugs.

gardening in June uk 2022 what to plant tidy sow grow garden this month summer
gardening in June uk 2022 what to plant tidy sow grow garden this month summer

The cut flower garden

It is time to sow biennials, plants that will grow this year and flower next. These include some of the best plants for cut flowers, including night-scented stock, wallflowers, sweet William, blue alkanet, sweet rocket, honesty and Iceland poppy. Most can be sown direct where they are to flower, or into a nursery bed that you have worked over thoroughly and cleared of all weeds. Then you can thin them out once they have germinated, giving each plant plenty of space to grow, and transplant them to their final positions in September. Iceland poppies and sweet Williams are a little more temperamental and should be sown in pots under cover where you can keep a close eye on them and plant them out in late August.

The vegetable garden

The asparagus season ends on midsummer’s day. Pick one final meal’s worth to enjoy on the longest day and then stop cutting your asparagus and leave the spears to grow tall and ferny, which allows the clumps to photosynthesise and build up strength for next spring’s season, and to recover from all of that harvesting. Before you let them grow, weed them over carefully and water in a balanced fertiliser. You can do this regularly until late summer when they start to yellow.

The fruit garden

Strawberries may have got their name from the straw mulch put underneath them close to harvest time and this is a sensible practice, lifting them from the ground and stopping them from rotting from contact with the soil while they ripen. Strawberries are ripening now, and there is a lot of flavour to be gained by leaving them in place a little longer than you think you need to, and then a little longer again. Every extra day after they are fully red increases the sugars and brings you more of that homegrown flavour that makes it worth the trouble of growing your own over buying from the shops.

gardening in June uk 2022 what to plant tidy sow grow garden this month summer
gardening in June uk 2022 what to plant tidy sow grow garden this month summer

Patio pots

Hanging baskets and pots of bedding plants sustain large numbers of plants in a small area and so need a huge amount of watering. Water thoroughly every day, ideally in the morning or the evening, and feed once a week with a high potash fertiliser such as tomato feed. To save water, try popping a handful of ice cubes onto the surface of the soil. They will melt slowly enough for the moisture to be taken up by the roots, rather than running out of the bottom. If pots and hanging baskets do dry out they can be very hard to re-wet, but you can do so by submerging them overnight in a bucket or a bath of cold water.

This article is kept updated with the latest information.