June is a great time for food growers in the UK. The weather is warm (well, maybe) and the days are long. Lots to do in the food garden in June! Here is a list of things to do and watch out for in our gardens and allotments.
Things to do in the food garden in June:
- Keep on top of your weeds (mulch, hoe, hand fork, strim, or sickle). The long warm days of June will bring up lots of weeds.
- Feed your compost heap with all appropriate waste materials. Aim for an equal mix of nitrogen-rich green materials and carbon-rich brown materials. Turn every one or two weeks.
- Make sure you water your plants if they need it. Newly planted crops especially need to be well watered until they establish and all crops in pots will require more watering than those in the ground. The best times of the day to water are in the early morning or evening.
- Earth up potatoes so that they never form above the surface of the soil.
- Sow lettuce, rocket, mustard, spinach, kale, chard, watercress, swede, turnip, artichoke, radish, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, spring onion, Chinese cabbage, kohlrabi, Brussels sprouts, runner beans, courgette, cucumber, celeriac, sweet corn, basil, chives, parsley, dill, chervil, coriander, fennel, mint, oregano, tarragon, rosemary, thyme, sorrel.
- Pot up or plant up seedlings grown under glass when they develop their true leaves.
- Make succession sowings (different batches of the same crop sown every few weeks to ensure you have crops throughout the season and not just in one glut) of fast growing crops such as carrots, lettuce, French beans, peas, spinach, and rocket.
- Net fruit crops to protect from birds.
- Support broad beans that were sown last autumn to stop them breaking in the wind
- Prune stone fruit trees, such as plums and cherries, if they need it.
- Pick off slugs and snails
- Watch out for aphids (greenfly and blackfly), carrot fly, sawfly, and potato blight.
- Make liquid feeds to add nutrients to your plants and soil. You can use a variety of different materials to make feeds: compost, comfrey, seaweed, grass clippings, nettles.
- Harvest (depending on location) lettuce, mustard, sorrel, rhubarb, turnip tops, chard, spinach, watercress, beetroot, radish, garlic, kohlrabi, Chinese cabbage, cabbage, peas, early potatoes, broad beans, wild strawberry, basil, chives, parsley, chervil, oregano, tarragon, rosemary, thyme, sage.