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Gardening Jobs for June |
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Cut back perennials and alpines as they finish flowering. We always recommend feeding with Miracle-Gro immediately after trimming back—it replenishes vital nutrients used in flowering, and kick-starts new, strong, healthy growth in the plant (and, in some varieties, feeding after flowering and trimming can bring on repeat-flowering as well!) |
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June |
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If you didn’t feed your lawn last month, it would be worth doing so now, to strengthen it and help it cope with the stresses of the heat and dry weather to come. If you’re not sure which product to use, check back to last month’s calendar, which discussed the options. Bare patches can then be treated with grass seed. Miracle-Gro Patch Magic was a new grass seed product last year, and has proven to be amazingly successful. As you may have seen on TV, the product is a mixture of not just grass seed, but also a variety of things that grass seed needs to grow. Add a little water, and you should find that the grass will grow more or less anywhere, including difficult areas such as underneath hungry trees. Do remember that new seed will continue to need watering very regularly, and, if you want your lawn to stay lush and green for those Summer barbeques, you will probably need to use a sprinkler during warm dry spells as well. |
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Veggie Growers! This month you can harvest: lettuce, rocket, spring onions, gooseberries, early potatoes, and overwintering onions. It’s your last chance to harvest asparagus! This month you can sow: lettuce, rocket, spring onions, radishes, Oriental leaves (eg Pak Choi), carrots, peas, sweetcorn, French and runner beans, courgettes, squashes and pumpkins. Patio Vegetable Gardens: If you’re growing in patio containers, plant out the following this month: peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, melons and aubergines. Remember to keep all your vegetables well watered throughout the growing period—it’s essential for good harvests! |
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Look after your bedding plants! If you haven’t planted out your Summer bedding into hanging baskets, tubs and flower-beds yet, do so as quickly as possible. As the month goes on, choice will become more limited, and, more importantly, the quicker you get your bedding planted, the more time they have to grow and flourish! Then, try to remember to liquid-feed your bedding with Miracle-Gro at least once a fortnight to help them grow quickly and strongly, and feed with a tomato food such as Levington Tomorite fortnightly as well to encourage prolific flowering. Remember to water regularly—at least once a day in hot, dry and windy spells (never rely on rainfall to water for you), and dead-head as often as possible to encourage further flowering. It might sound like hard work, but it’s always enjoyable being outside at this time of year; with recent research suggesting the therapeutic effects of gardening have multiple benefits, including helping those with depression, stress and grief. Remember, investing a little time in your bedding plants yields fabulous rewards—your garden will look stunning in time for the Summer so you can sit back and proudly enjoy the results of all your hard work in the hot Summer months!
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Remember to water regularly! As the weather warms up your garden will dry out quickly, so remember to water your plants often. As a guide, containers and hanging baskets require the most water—at least once a day during very hot, windy or dry spells. Newly planted plants in the ground should be watered regularly for the first year or two after planting, again, every day during hot, dry or windy spells. Never rely on rain to water your plants for you, particularly those in containers and hanging baskets, as rainwater tends to run off the foliage and fall to the ground, providing very little water to the plant at soil level. At Chigwell Nursery we sell lots of watering cans, from large, functional plastic cans, to pretty metal cans and small, brightly coloured watering-can for when the kids join in! We also sell a comprehensive range of Hozelock watering products, including hoses, attachments and fittings, and automatic watering systems. This year we have Hozelock’s fantastic retractable hose, which makes putting the hose away after watering quick and effortless. Look out for more information, and an exclusive Garden Club discount on this product in June! |
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Look after your fruit! In hot, dry spells, it’s essential to keep fruit well watered, to prevent premature fruit drop and also to ensure your fruit is as sweet and juicy as possible. Protect developing fruit with netting this month as it starts it ripen; if you wait until your fruit is ripe you may just find the birds get there first! Strawberries are usually ready to harvest this month, with the first ones started off under glass usually ready for Wimbledon week. Thanks to the early heat you may find your strawberries are ready slightly earlier than usual. When they are ready to pick, make sure you take a short stalk with each strawberry as you remove it from the plant—this ensures no traces of the fruit are left behind to attract grey mould to the rest of the plant. If you do notice mould appearing (the chances of mould increase if it’s rainy around picking-time) remove affected fruit as soon as possible to prevent it spreading to other plants. Rhubarb can also be harvested this month. |
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Don’t prune your Wisteria! As the flowering period of Wisterias comes to an end it can be tempting to tidy them up a bit by trimming off the long shoots, but it’s vital you leave them alone! In order to keep your Wisteria flowering to its full potential, you shouldn’t prune until July, so check back next month when we’ll include full instructions for correct pruning. |