GARDEN JOBS FOR JUNE

Lottie Newitt © 2022

 Hello gardening lovelies!

Welcome to my gardening To-Do's Monthly Blog

J U N E

8 Gardening Jobs to do through June Plus my Fav's & harvests for the month!

The Flower Garden

Tie back or stake long-stemmed perennials & annuals. We tend to be in a little windy spot where we are and our plants do take a battering, especially our white flowering border at the front of our house. My Delphinium suddenly seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, becoming super leggy & towering over everything before I knew it! Which means I really need to keep an eye out to ensure I tie them in as quickly as possible before the wind bashes them (I've learnt the hard way!). You can use fabricated plant supports or I use 2-3 canes with 2 levels of garden twine twisted and tied securely, gently but firmly holding the tall flower stems in place.

Lottie Newitt © 2022  Delphinium White Flowering

Start feeding your baskets & pots every 2 weeks- once a week if we hit a heat wave. Keeping the root system of your plant happy is key to optimal plant health which in turn helps provide you with the best floral display possible. A general purpose plant food like good old Miracle Grow is fine however I tend to use a potassium rich feed (tomato feed) from June onwards to really get those blooms performing their very best.

Lottie Newitt © 2022  Summer Flowering Trug Planted by Lottie 

There's still time to sow summer annuals... I like to sow Nigella, Cornflower and Zinnia in June-late June to keep a nice fresh & continual flow of blooms in the garden that'll last into mid-late autumn.

For something fun, I sow my Cornflowers in tin cans which look lovely once they weather and rust showing off the colour pop pom pom-like blooms they produce (I use Cornflower 'Polka Dot' mix which has some really pretty colours). For more details on how I do this take a look at my YouTube Video 'Lottie's Garden Recycle' link at the end of this blog post.

Lottie Newitt © 2022 Cornflower tins Sown by Lottie

Lottie Newitt © 2022 Zinnia Seedlings from Lottie's Greenhouse

Keep your early perennials fresh & fabulous, in my last Garden Jobs Blog and YouTube Vlog I suggested giving them all a good chop if flowers were spent or growth had died off... now they've settled down since doing this last month, give them a little booster feed- seaweed feed or an all rounder feed will do fine. This should bolster the plants growth back up and get the roots under ground freshening themselves up a little in readiness for hot weather through the summer and also, with some perennial varieties feeding now can get them in the mood to bloom again later in the season. 

Blooms to keep deadheading & cutting in June

Sweet Peas- a classic and a job that you might see everywhere in terms of June gardening 'to do's'- but I have to include it because the results are real... the more you dead head or cut the blooms for arrangements the more they really will flower for longer.

Scabiosa- all varieties benefit from a good, regular dead head from June onwards. The blooms have lovely seed heads, however if left on too early in the season you won't get the florific flower displays they are well known for in doing so. Dead head, cut them for vases... however you do it, keep at it to let your Scabiosa bloom to it's hearts content throughout the summer and into the autumn.

Bedding Geraniums- If you planted out early your first flush of flowers should have just finished, make sure you dead head your Geraniums as soon as their petals have fallen to keep their flowering momentum up through the summer. This is a good weekly job to do through the season.

Lottie Newitt © 2022 Scabiosa Planter Made by Lottie- Dead heading info

Blooms I'm Enjoying This June

Hemerocallis- I bought the beauty shown in the photo at the start of this blog during my visit to Westonbury Water Mill Gardens H. 'Longfield's Glory' a stunning peach-coral bloom with a subtle scent.

The first of my summer flowering Clematis has come out, this is a rogue that self 'planted' itself over an old wooden post mixed in with Ivy.

Lottie Newitt © 2022 Clematis in Lottie's Garden

Geum 'Mai Tai'- with it's sunset style flowers, full of blooms and buds in June and a low growing perennial plant that packs a punch in ground cover colour right now.

Delphiniums (Photo at the start of this blog) I have 3 large clumps of white flowering Delph's in my front garden which I planted last autumn and they are absolutely thriving this year, so much so that they needed staking as mentioned above! 

Lottie Newitt © 2022 Geum 'Mai Tai' from Lottie's Garden

Verbena bonariensis is one of my garden fav's for the summer, our old plants flowered earlier in May but their seedlings have just started to ping into bud and bloom and they are looking so vibrant and fresh. Just love how Verbena moves in the breeze with its swishy yet architectural stems. Pollinators of all kinds love it too, a really good one to get summer-time wildlife in your garden.

Lottie Newitt © 2022 Verbena Seedlings Flowering in Lottie's Garden

The Veg- Garden

Tomatoes- be sure to keep pinching out side shoots, encouraging new growth upwards and to focus energy into the plant producing flowering shoots (which ensures more chance of fruit!). It's also time to give your tomato plants a little booster in the form of feed, seaweed is fine however for more flowers and therefore fruit, load your babies up with a potassium rich feed to get those trusses off and running! 

Lottie Newitt © 2022 Tomato Side Shoots

Leaves- keep on picking spinach, rocket and mixed lettuce leaves to ensure your crops keep fresh and that new growth is encouraged to come through. This will prevent the plants from bolting or becoming sour to the taste. For sweet, crisp leaves keep picking to eat and make sure you pick out any dead, damaged or diseased leaves too, to prevent poor plant health issues which could effect your harvests.

Lottie Newitt © 2022 Freshly Picked Spinach Leaves from Lottie's Garden

Plant out late-sown vegetable plants such as marrow, pumpkins,  runner beans and late sown tomato plants. June is warming up beautifully and ideal for planting out to the next stage or later sown veggies into your garden with no risk of frosts. As an example, I like to sow my Tomatoes later than many other people, sowing in April-May because I save on fuel by not heating the greenhouse, less risk of seedling rot as the weather warms up and by the time they are ready to plant out there is little or no chance of frost at all along with warmer weather to get them going quickly. I've found this to save me time and hassle early on in the season but with no compromise on crop. Just a little tip there from my own experience ;) 

Lottie Newitt © 2022 Pumpkins planted out in Lottie's Garden

Veggie's I'm harvesting through June

Rainbow Chard- mine took ages to get going this year so I'm only just about to start harvesting. The stems are looking fab now, pinks & yellow just popping through.

Broad Beans- the last of my first batch, I like to pick them fairly young as we prefer the sweet delicate bean inside with less thick green/grey coating. Next batch coming on nicely so I hope to get another picking in early July at a push!

Spinach- this is coming on thick & fast and we are grateful for it at the moment with the amount of stir-fry's and salads we're enjoying right now as we head into summer.

Radish- my second sowing is now ready to harvest, this variety is 'Ping Pong' which I love! so clean and fresh to look at and the taste is a little more peppery than the red types.

Lottie Newitt © 2022 Radish 'Ping Pong' from Lottie's Garden

Lottie Newitt © 2022 Lottie's Harvest 


And that concludes my Jobs for June Gardening Blog, I hope this is helpful to those looking for gardening task inspiration or even if you just want to know what I'm getting up to in the garden this month.
Thank you so much for reading through my monthly blog, be sure to subscribe for more monthly blogs along with other gardening bits and bobs! :) 

Happy Gardening

Lottie 
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