What to do during June in your garden and greenhouse.
Your monthly gardening checklists
Flowers
- Lift and store tulip bulbs after flowering
- Give wisteria its summer prune, cutting all the long sideshoots back to 20cm, to promote flowering next spring
- Plant up a new tropical display with tender exotics, including bananas, ricinus, coleus, cannas and amaranthus
- Support tall-growing perennials, including hollyhocks and delphiniums, with a sturdy cane
- Continue planting summer bedding in pots and borders, and water regularly to help plants establish quickly
- Cut back spring-flowering perennials, such as pulmonaria, to encourage a fresh flush of foliage
- Tie in new stems of climbing and rambling roses horizontally to supports, to encourage more flowers
- Take cuttings from pinks and carnations, selecting non-flowering shoots, which should root readily
- Pinch out the tips of fuchsias and bedding plants to encourage bushier growth
- Give container displays and hanging baskets a liquid feed every few weeks to encourage flowering
- Fill any gaps in borders with pots of tall bulbs, such as fragrant lilies, to add instant colour
- Prune late-spring or early-summer shrubs after flowering, such as weigela and philadelphus, thinning out the older stems
- Add marginal plants, such as arum lilies and marsh marigolds, around the edges of your pond
Greenhouse
- Sow herbs in pots to grow on your kitchen windowsill, such as coriander, parsley and basil
- Plant out tender vegetables raised indoors, including beans, tomatoes, pumpkins, courgettes and sweetcorn
- Pinch out the side shoots of cordon tomatoes regularly
- Harden off hanging baskets and pots of summer bedding that have been growing in the greenhouse
- Sow biennials, including foxgloves, honesty, wallflowers and sweet rocket, in seed trays
- Water plants daily in warm weather, ideally in the evening or early morning, and avoid splashing the foliage
- Introduce biological controls to the greenhouse if you have pests such as whitefly or red spider mite
- Take softwood cuttings from hydrangeas and pelargoniums and stand the pots on a bright windowsill or in a greenhouse
- Increase greenhouse shading and ventilation to keep temperatures down on hot days
- Feed flowering and fruiting plants weekly with tomato feed
- Water greenhouse tomatoes regularly to prevent split fruits and blossom end rot
- Treat pots with vine weevil control if this pest has been a problem in the past, as larvae become active this month
Fruit and veg
- Plant out sweetcorn after hardening off, arranging plants in blocks to aid pollination
- Cover developing and ripening fruits with netting or fleece to protect them from birds
- Enjoy the last harvests of asparagus this month, then leave the ferny top-growth to grow up over the summer
- Spread mulch around thirsty crops such as beans and courgettes to hold in moisture around their roots
- Check for woolly aphids on fruit trees, and treat infestations with soap-based spray
- Water vegetables and fruit in containers regularly, especially during dry sunny weather
- Go on regular snail hunts, especially on damp evenings, to reduce populations
- Tie in new shoots of blackberries, raspberries, loganberries and other cane fruits
- Apply tomato feed regularly to fruiting veg crops, including tomatoes, courgettes, pumpkins and chillies
- Plant up an edible hanging basket with trailing tomatoes and herbs, and keep it well watered all summer
- Rejuvenate chives by cutting the clump down to the base, for a fresh crop of new leaves in just a few weeks
- Water beans and peas as they start to flower
- Pull out any raspberry canes sprouting up out of their dedicated area
- Take softwood cuttings of herbs such as marjoram and sage, plant in gritty compost and place on a sunny windowsill
House plants
- Start feeding houseplants once a week with liquid fertiliser, continuing through to autumn
- Water your house plants more regularly as the temperatures warm and light levels increase, check the soil before watering. Take a look at our guide to watering house plants
- Repot any houseplants that have become top heavy or pot bound into larger containers
- Ensure house plants are not getting scorched by summer sunshine. Either move further from the window or choose house plants that will thrive in a sunny spot
- Some house plants, like snake plants, are particularly prone to collecting dust on their leaves. So be sure to give these a wipe regularly
- Put houseplants outside for the summer in a warm, sheltered spot to enjoy the fresh air and extra light
- Take leaf cuttings from houseplants, including African violets, begonias and Cape primroses
- Check your house plants for pests like aphids, scale insects, thrips and mealybugs
For more house plant advice and inspiration visit our Growing and caring for house plants page
Garden maintenance
- Empty, mix and refill compost bins to speed up decomposition
- Spray roses showing signs of disease, such as black spot, powdery mildew or rust
- Continue watering any new plantings until they're well established
- Water newly laid turf several times a week, for at least the first month
- Trim fast-growing hedges, such as privet, every six weeks over the summer
- Put stakes in to support tall, large-flowered dahlias and tie in stems as they grow
- Prune spring-flowering shrubs, such as kerria, choisya, chaenomeles and ribes, after flowering
- Check hedges and shrubs for nesting birds before you start any trimming or pruning, so you don't disturb them
- Remove any all-green shoots on variegated shrubs, cutting right back to their base
- Treat patio pots with vine weevil control if this pest has been a problem in the past, as larvae become active this month
- Dig out perennial weeds, such as couch grass and bindweed, as soon as you spot them
- Feed lawns with a liquid or granular lawn fertiliser
- Prune evergreen Clematis armandii if it has grown too large
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