Peter's tips for June

A record-breaking spring

Welcome to another month of lockdown gardening advice.  The spring of 2020 continues to break all records. The weather, with lack of rain and total sunshine, has led to an extraordinary flowering season of everything.  No rain to damage rose flowers, resulting in beautiful blooms for weeks.

Over the last few weeks we have had to do a huge amount of watering to keep new plants alive and trees and shrubs planted within the last two years!  Anything growing in pots or containers, the greenhouse or allotment – all needs watering and feeding.

A good soak every few days is better than watering every day.  Try adding a liquid feed such as Vitax Organic Seaweed as this will really help stressed plants and vegetables.

Vitax Tub & Hanging Basket Feed will help promote healthy growth and more flowers and if you are looking for a general purpose liquid feed, Vitax Q4 All-Purpose Plant Food is ideal.

One of the great things I have seen over the last few weeks is the fun children and adults are having connecting with nature, gardening, their environment, growing plants from seed, watching and finding bugs, birds, tadpoles, newts, butterflies etc.  Using their senses – hearing the birds, watching, tasting, smelling and touching - how wonderful.

I really think this will produce a long-lasting love of gardening, nurturing, growing, and a love for all things natural around us and ultimately, help us conserve our planet.

I also hope that we will have a new influx of gardeners and horticulturalists into this wonderful industry that I work in, which we so badly need - practical, knowledgeable gardeners and growers.  If you are looking for a change in life and direction, then I strongly recommend horticulture.  You could start at a garden centre or nursery and also enrol for qualification, the possibilities are endless.

Back to Gardening for June…..

It is still a busy time in the vegetable garden, with plenty to do!

• Sow salad leaves, annual herbs, basil, dill and coriander every 2-3 weeks.
• Plant out pumpkins, squashes, courgettes, cucumber and sweetcorn.
• Pinch out side shoots on tomato plants on cordon varieties, stake securely and tie-in.
• Harvest radishes, broad beans and the first peas and new potatoes at the end of the month.
• Thin out fruit on plums, apples and pears if they are laden with fruit.  If you don’t, many will rot or won’t make good sized fruits.
• On a dry day, hoe weeds between veg rows.
• Blackfly on broad beans is quite a problem as we have had no rain to wash them off.  Use the hose gun on a strong spray setting or spray with Vitax Py Bug Killer.  You can also pinch out the growing tip of the broad beans where most of the blackfly are.
• Aphids on fruit trees are making the leaves go all curly.  Use Vitax Plant Guard to keep them at bay. This can be used on flowers, fruit and vegetables.
• Slugs & Snails – with some rain forecast at last this will wake up the little beasties.  Please use Vitax Slug Gone to deter them away from your plants.
• Tie-in clematis and roses.
• Dead-head roses to encourage more flowers.
• Keep feeding roses and watering. Vitax Organic Rose Food and Rose Guard Tonic will help keep them in great condition.
• Aphids – greenfly can be treated if really bad with Vitax Rosegarde.
• Dead-head rhododendrons.  Gently snap the old flower spike out of the growing tip.  Liquid feed too with Vitax Seaweed plus Sequestered Iron or Ericaceous Feed.
• Good time to prune camellias, rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias if you want to get them back into shape.
• Cherries, plums, peaches, nectarines and gauges can all be pruned now.  Remove dead-wood too, try and keep tools clean so as not to transfer disease between trees.

Box Plants - hedges and topiary: If you have box blight from the wet winter, feed with Vitax Buxus Feed as this will promote new growth.  A serious problem in the South of England is the Box Tree Caterpillar Moth. These are spreading fast. To monitor the population and control male moths use the Vitax Box Tree Moth Trap. This is a pheromone trap and will tell you if you have Box Tree Caterpillar Moth and help to monitor the situation.

Greenhouse: As the weather heats up, stop plants getting cooked with extreme heat by using Vitax Summer Cloud Greenhouse shading.

Lawns: Due to lockdown, many of you have decided not to cut the grass - ‘No mow for May’.  The results are wildflower meadows and long grass which have been a fabulous success with many butterflies, moths, and other insects attracted to them.  Please leave uncut for the moment until August to allow the caterpillars to develop.  The long grass is also fantastic for frogs, toads, newts etc.  If you are cutting the lawn, keep the grass long – it withstands the high temperatures better.

Baby birds and fledglings: Keep bird baths clean and topped up with water, great antics to watch! Bird feeders with fat balls and sunflower hearts, will keep the birds coming to your garden.

Keep safe, happy gardening and nature-watching. 

Happy Gardening

Peter

About Peter Mills:

Peter has over 35 years experience in horticulture working in garden centres before becoming a radio gardening presenter with BBC Radio Southern Counties. Working as freelance consultant, Peter works with the RHS as an external advisor as well as trouble-shooting many gardening-related problems for a range of clients.