Kitchen Garden Magazine

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Jobs for June

June is such a super month in the garden; crops will be growing fast, early harvests will be under way and, with a bit of luck, the sun will be on your back as you tend to your plants. Head gardener at Normanby Hall, Sue Hoy, takes us through the essential tasks for the month

Frost watch

The frosts should be over in most areas of the country, allowing those tomatoes and other tender crops to be planted out with little fear of losing them to a cold snap. Still... it’s a foolish gardener who doesn’t keep a piece of fleece handy, even now!

KG top tips

• Stop cutting asparagus after the third week of June. Even if you’ve still got spears appearing, allow them to grow on and make fern to build-up next year’s crop.

• When planting outdoor tomatoes, find them a sunny sheltered spot. They should be planted 45-60cm (18-24in) apart to allow for good air circulation – important in avoiding tomato blight.

• This is the peak month for planting. Raking in a good general fertiliser a day or two before planting will boost all crops and help them to grow away well.

• Pinch out the tops of broad beans early this month to avoid infestation by blackfly. They tend to attack only the soft tender growth at the tip of the shoots, so removing this should prevent any problems. These young shoots needn’t be wasted, as they’re delicious steamed and eaten with butter.

• If temperatures are high, wait until they drop for a day or two before sowing lettuce. Lettuce is one of a small number of species – pansies are another – whose germination is inhibited by hot conditions. Sowing in the late evening and placing the pots in the shade may also help.

KG QUICKIES

• Carefully thin out young seedlings of root crops like carrots, beetroot and parsnips to allow them to develop to a decent size. The smaller the seedlings are, the less disturbance there’ll be to plants remaining in the ground. Because carrot fly is attracted by the smell of the disturbed foliage, crush a few cloves of garlic in water, leave to stand for a few hours and use it to water the row of carrots immediately after thinning. The garlicky smell should confuse the fly, and prevent it attacking the carrots. The thinnings are a real gourmet treat eaten raw in salads.

• Make second sowings of peas and carrots for a late summer crop. Again, I prefer to sow the peas in individual modules, but the carrots should be direct-sown in the ground. In dry weather, it helps to water the drill before sowing thinly, so that the seedlings have some available moisture to root into. Germination should be rapid in the warmer temperatures and good light levels we have now. An advantage to sowing carrots at this time of year is that they are less likely to suffer from the attentions of carrot fly.

• Plant runner beans early in the month once all danger of frost is past. At Normanby, we sow individual seed in modules in mid-April to have good strong plants for putting out now. If you missed that sowing, do it now and you should have reasonable plants in two to three weeks, which will soon catch up. Runner beans do best in a soil which doesn’t dry out, so soak the plants by dunking them in a bucket of water for a few minutes, then water them well after planting. Give them a little help to start climbing by winding the stems around the supports – they twine clockwise.

• Grass clippings can be a problem in compost heaps because of their sheer volume, but they can be useful in other ways. An inch deep layer spread between the rows on the veg patch will help keep down weeds and conserve moisture in the soil. It will also help to prevent soil compaction caused by the constant foot traffic along the rows at this time of year. The clippings will gradually be absorbed into the soil, bulking it up and improving its moisture-holding capacity.

 

FRUIT IN BRIEF

Water fruit trees and bushes in dry spells. Fruit will fail to develop properly, or be of poor flavour if plants are allowed to dry out.
Put straw around strawberry plants to keep them clean, or use black polythene or special strawberry mats.
Prune out the tips of gooseberry shoots badly affected by mildew; they become weak and distorted and are better out of the way. Also, cut out any weak shoots and prune all laterals (sideshoots) of the current season’s growth back to five leaves.

For lots more advice, see this month's issue, available to buy online!

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