Your Garden This Month
YOUR GARDEN THIS MONTH Plus gardens and shows to visit
The last time we suffered a severe frost during June was over 20 years ago so it should be quite safe now to plant out the most tender of plants. Bedding plants such as geraniums and begonias can be used in planting schemes as well as hanging baskets, tubs and containers.
As we cannot use hosepipes this year, use a watering can to water in newly-planted bedding and then only water when conditions make it absolutely necessary. Mix a little SwellGel with composts used in containers and baskets to retain moisture and use organic mulches throughout the garden to stop the soil from drying out, especially when planting roses, shrubs and perennial plants.
It is too late to sow most of the annuals but time to sow perennials such as aquilegia, campanula, Canterbury Bells, coreopsis, forget-me-nots, hollyhock, lavender, lupins, pansies, polyanthus, pyrethrums, Sweet Williams and wallflowers.
Roses will need to be sprayed regularly now to prevent blackspot and mildew from setting in. Prune back spring-flowering shrubs and climbers such as Clematis Montana. Keep up with weeding and hoeing, feeding and dead-heading, and make sure that the taller perennials are staked and tied.
In the vegetable garden, beans can still be sown and so, too, can broccoli, cabbage, kohl rabi, winter cabbage, herbs and salads. Now is the time to plant out the outdoor tomato plants, runner beans, courgettes, marrows, ridge cucumbers and sweet corn. It is quite important to water vegetables regularly but the best time to do this is either early morning or late in the evening.
Lawns will need to be mown regularly but try not to cut the grass too short. Established lawns should not be watered, even in very dry spells, but newly-turfed areas will need watering for the first few weeks.
Find time now to visit the garden centre to see plants which flower at this time of the year. These include shrubs such as cistus, potentilla, clematis, and herbaceous plants such as astilbes, dianthus, hardy geraniums, geums, lupins, peonies and penstemmons.
The annual BBC Gardeners' World Live event takes place at the NEC Birmingham from June 14-18 and tickets can be obtained by calling 0870 380 4488. The Hampton Court Palace Flower Show is from July 4-9, and Chipperfield's Summer Flower Show in on June 24. Some very fine local gardens are open for charity and these include Serge Hill, Bedmond, on June 18, Ashridge, near Berkhamsted, on June 18, and Ragged Hall, Gaddesden Row, on June 25. On June 25, a number of gardens in Weston Turville will be open and the Hatfield House Flower Festival is on June 11 and 12.
Terry Simmonds