Summer has arrived and there's nowhere better to be than outside among blooming flowers, buzzing bees, and long golden evenings. Here are our 15 top tips to keep your garden thriving all month long.
Colour & Planting
- Brighten up pots and hanging baskets with summer bedding plants for months of colour. Trailing geraniums, petunias and lobelia thrive in sunny spots, while busy lizzies and begonias are perfect for shadier areas. Feed every two weeks with a high-potash fertiliser to keep the flowers coming.
- Plant out your vegetable crops - runner beans, French beans, squash, courgettes and tomatoes can all go outside now.
- Keep sowing salad leaves, beetroot and carrots in succession for a steady harvest right through summer.
Vegetables & Fruit
- Check your first early potatoes - they should be ready this month. Carefully dig up a couple to test the size; if they need more time, simply cover them back up and check again in a few weeks.
- Feed tomatoes every fortnight with a high-potash feed to encourage fruiting. Container-grown vegetables like dwarf beans and courgettes will benefit too - a standard tomato feed works well for all of them.
- Harvest garlic and onions once the leaves turn yellow and begin to fall over naturally.
- Protect your strawberries with netting as they start to ripen - or the birds will get there first!
Flowers & Shrubs
- Deadhead repeat-flowering roses and pick sweet peas regularly to keep both blooming well into summer.
- Cut back hardy geraniums after flowering to encourage a fresh flush of foliage and new blooms.
- Give wisteria its summer prune, trimming this year's long, whippy new growth back to around 20cm.
- Prune summer-flowering shrubs - Philadelphus, Weigela and Forsythia - once the flowers are over. Cut flowered shoots back to a strong bud, and remove one in every three or four older stems to stimulate fresh new growth.
Lawn & Hedges
- Mow regularly, but ease off during dry spells - raise the blade and mow less frequently to avoid stressing the grass. If you can, leave a patch of lawn uncut as a sanctuary for insects and wildlife.
- Trim evergreen hedges to keep them tidy, but always check for nesting birds before you start cutting.
Weeds & Water
- Stay on top of weeds - they love summer as much as we do. On dry days, use a Dutch hoe to slice through annual weeds like chickweed, spurge and hairy bittercress, then leave them on the surface to dry out.
- Water smartly - early morning or evening is best to minimise evaporation. If you haven't already, installing a water butt is a great way to capture rainwater and cut down on tap water use.
Whatever you need for your garden this June, you'll find it in our garden centre in St Albans. Come and see us soon!
