Now that June is here and you have spent your entire Spring getting your garden into tip top shape, it may be tempting to simply sit back and enjoy your garden, but now is the time to turn to the true aspects of gardening – tending to your plants and reaping the rewards. Get excited because now is when your garden should be blooming with fresh fruits and vegetables! You’re doing great, so keep up the good work!
General garden care
Weed all beds.
Check your mulch and re-apply on bare spots, before the weeds move in
Continue searching for insect pests. Most can be hand picked and dropped into soapy water.
Make sure the birds have fresh water in birdbaths or shallow dishes in the garden.
Turn the compost in your compost bins every month to keep it well aerated.
Some potted plants may need daily watering. Small pots, hanging baskets and window boxes in sunny locations may even need to be watered twice a day. If the top few inches of the soil are dry or the stems are wilting, it’s time to water.
Continue watering new seedlings and plants as required. Most established plants require 1” of water per week.
Fertilize annuals and container plants every two weeks.
Add fish and pond plants, both hardy and tropical, to your garden pond.
Adult Japanese beetles begin their flights later this month and cause feeding damage. Set traps and spray as required every 10 to 14 days to keep damage to a minimum.
Add a mosquito dunks to your pond or water feature monthly.
Put down slug control.
Check your supports for taller perennials.
Ornamentals
Keep up on deadheading, for long season bloom.
Pinch back tall growing fall bloomers like asters, monarda and helianthus, to make them stockier and full of flower buds, and so they don’t bloom too early.
Spray for lacebugs on azaleas, pieris, laurels and rhododendron. Apply in early morning or evening when no rain is in the forcast. Repeat sprayings in late July and early September.
Continue summer rose-care with monthly applications of rose fertilizer and spray for insects and disease every 10-14 days.
Edibles
Stop harvesting asparagus and rhubarb. Let them build up reserves for next season.
Get any remaining warm season vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant…) in the ground.
Pinch out any side shoots from your tomato plants and feed once the first truss is setting fruit. You can pot up the side-shoots to create new tomato plants.
Although fruit trees will naturally shed some fruit (called the ‘June drop’), aim to thin out congested branches further for bigger and better fruits.
Mulch vegetables to control moisture loss and weeds with salt hay or chopped and shredded hay and straw.
Place netting over ripening berries and grapes to protect them from birds.
Plant collards, cabbage family plants and celery for a fall harvest. Also, plant more beans, winter squash and gourds.
Start cutting and drying herbs (thyme, oregano and mint, for example). Also, start snipping ends off basil on a regular basis to keep plants full and protect them from bolting.
Replace any bolting lettuce with corn, malabar spinach, beans, okra or a late crop of summer squash.
Plant a few more cucumbers, more radishes, melons, carrots and beets.
Do not water garlic any more until harvest.
Inventory your seeds for fall planting, especially cover crop seeds. Many are sold out before late summer when you need them.
Harvest peas daily as they come in.
Thin your peaches this month. Leave at least 6-8” between each peach.
Lawn care
Warm weather encourages rapid weed growth – apply specific lawn weed killer to tackle this problem.
Chemical control for broad leaf weeds goes down this month.
Spray yellow nutsedge and thistle this month if required.
Put down a second application of pre-emergent goosegrass control and control of crabgrass the rest of the year.
Check your lawn for chinch bug and sod web-worm damage and treat as required. Bring in a one foot square sample of your lawn if you’re unsure of what their damage looks like.