What To Do in the June Garden

All the hard the hard work is starting to pay off in June. Long evenings enable you to relax after a busy day and listen to friends and neighbors compliment your efforts.

June is the month of roses and strawberries...maybe there should be a second Valentines Day!

Among many perennials blooming in June are the showy delphiniums, peonies, irises, poppies and bellflowers. Shrubs include weigela and beauty bush.

There is still plenty of gardening to do, especially if you have a vegetable garden. There is still time to make your own June to September Hanging Basket of annual flowers to brighten your deck or patio this summer.

Perennials & Tubers

Continue to stake or cage tall perennials such as delphiniums. Pick fresh flowers for indoor bouquets and add faded flowers to compost.

Sow next years perennials such as phlox, yarrow, columbine, lupine, gaillardias, coreopsis, dianthus and delphinium in a seed bed.

Set out tender tubers/corms of dahlias, gladiolas and canna lilies.

As perennials finish their display, cut them back and fertalize for better size and quality next year. If you plan to divide them, do so on a cool and cloudy day.

Perennial Garden Plant Selector Tool

Annuals

Continue to plant out bedding plants

Feed regularily with organic fertalizer and water well.

Watch containers and hanging baskets as they dry out quickly.

Set out tender annuals such as asters, strawflowers, godetia, nemesia, zinnias and cosmos for late August blooms.

Annual - Plant Selector Tool

Vegetables, Fruit & Herbs

You can plant all kinds of vegetables now throughout June.

Keep garden well weeded and watered looking for sign of pests and diseases. Slugs, cutworms & some types of beetles are a problem for tender young plants. Keep tomato leaves off the ground, use collars around plant stems and bark mulch to deter ground pests. I'm even trying crushed egg shells sprinkled around the garden this year to deter slugs.

For small fruit plants such as strawberries, use a 12-16-12 fertalizer to help fruit grow larger.

Bulbs

Tie back fading bulb leaves, or dig up and relocate to an area where they can die back. Continue to fertalize to make sure next years bloom is healthy.

Cut up old plastic food containers to make markers for noting location of existing bulbs to move or where new bulbs are needed.

Trees & Shrubs

If black spot and mildew are a problem on roses, use a baking soda spray and prune to promote air circulation.

Remove aphids with a daily water-hose spray.

Continue to pinch back spent rhododendrum & azalea blossoms and apply a bark or compost mulch to preserve moisture and reduce stress on hot days as they have shallow roots - be sure to keep them well watered.

Lawns

Keep newly turfed or sown lawns well watered.

Continue maintenance on existing lawns

Containers & Hanging Baskets

Try to use containers large enough to hold moisture in summer heat. Small pots can be a maintenance headaches requiring watering 2-3 times a day to keep lush looking plants.

Feed planters & baskets continually to keep them healthy looking. The easiest way is to top dress with a slow release fertalizer such as 14-14-14 and a weekly feeding of a petal power type fertalizer. Always water thoroughly before fertalizing.

Back to Top