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
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
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
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
- Maximise the amount of light your house plants receive by moving to brighter spots, or choose house plants that will grow in shadier spots
- 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
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
£35
£42
NEW! 2024 catalogue now available
Small and compact, fitting neatly onto a windowsill, this propagator offers the perfect solution for starting off your seeds - keeping them at the ideal temperature.
Use code: GWPROP
Offer Ends:
Premium
As a special promotion for our October issue, save extra at DT Brown, Farmer Gracy, Gardening Direct, Harkness Roses, Hayloft, J Parkers, Marshalls Garden, Mr Fothergill's, Sarah Raven, Woolmans and You Garden.
Offer Ends:
£17.49
£34.99
55 bulb pack
A mix of nine sensational alliums for planting in the autumn provide glorious lollipops with pompom flower heads on tall stems
Use code: GWSEPT23
Ends in: