Gardening tips for June

One of the most exciting things about having a garden is planting and growing gorgeous flowers or tasty fruit and veg. For some it’s simply building your new bistro set and lighting up the first BBQ of the summer. However, basic garden maintenance tasks are essential in creating a beautiful space where you can fully enjoy your garden and all your efforts.

The extra light and warmth of summer means weeds may sprout up more often and be at their strongest in the heat. Weeds don’t just spoil the look of your garden but can harbour pests and diseases too. Keep on top of them by hoeing weeds regularly during dry weather before they get the chance to establish. Or use a weed killer such as Resolva ready-to-use 24-hour weedkiller from Westland where you can commit to weeding your garden at least once a week to keep your garden in top condition. Applying a thick layer of mulch (a loose covering of protective organic material) over the soil surface helps prevent any further weeds from growing too.

In case we’re lucky enough to have a sunny start to summer, you’ll also want to protect your plants and garden from hot weather. Make watering your plants part of your daily routine when the weather is dry and warm. Mulching your plants with organic matter locks in moisture and, over time, helps to improve your soil whilst also giving your plants a well-needed boost.

Don’t forget to water your pots and containers too. Every few weeks, you can give your container plants and hanging baskets with a liquid feed. Westland Boost all-purpose liquid plant feed is an excellent choice for vegetables, fruit and flowers alike, helping produce top quality crops and 4 times more blooms.

In June, the flowers in your garden should now be full of exuberant growth and colour. If not, then it’s the perfect month to fill your borders, patio containers, hanging baskets and window boxes with instant summer colour you can admire all season long.

Our plant of the month for June is the wonderful rose. The rose’s season is just beginning, so it's the perfect time to choose new varieties to add to your planters and borders to maximise your summer displays. Available in a variety of shapes, colours and scents, roses are an essential plant for any garden. David Austin roses are some of our favourites. They’re constantly growing new varieties with unique smells, colours and forms, giving you new options to grow each summer to keep your garden displays fresh and interesting!

Maintaining roses is relatively easy. Make sure to dead-head them as soon as possible to ensure they continue flowering. Feed them with rose fertiliser and add a layer of mulch to support strong growth and more blooms.

Here are more fabulous flowers you can grow in your garden this month:

In beds & borders  

• Fill any gaps in your beds and borders with fast growing, high summer bedding plants such as dahlia, cosmos and nicotiana – check out our guide on the best plants to use to create a colourful garden.

• Elegant fuchsias bloom from summer to the early frosts, making them the ideal plant to find space for in your garden this month. They’re great for containers as well as borders, providing many shades of colours in their many varieties. You can also choose marigolds, nasturtiums or begonias for a pop of colour.

• Hardy geraniums are long-lasting and easy to grow. They’ll often put on a second, late season flower display if you mulch and feed them for an extra boost. They look great planted under rose bushes and other shrubs.

• Bedding plants raised from seed or at the young plant stage should all be planted out now.

• To add volume and impact to your borders, plant shrubs like lavender, rhododendron or even long-lasting hebes, which come in a range of colours.

• More exotic plants such as canna, bananas, palms and cordylines make great additions to pots and borders if you’re looking to create a more tropical look.

In pots & containers

• Hanging baskets are the stars of the show come summer. They’re quick and easy to plant up, bringing versatile colour to your walls, doorways or fences. Begonias, busy lizzies, petunias and dianthus are all excellent choices.

• If you want to plant a more permanent container, consider planting Japanese acers in all their beautiful foliage colours for an oriental look. Hydrangeas offer large flower heads which can last well into the autumn, or cordyline with its bold architectural form and eye-catching foliage.

For a perfectly manicured lawn, regular mowing at least once a week is best if the weather is dry and not too hot. Reduce the cutting height of your mower now that the grass is growing more strongly. For a more wildlife friendly lawn, let your grass grow and the wildflowers will bloom to support pollinating insects.

It’s best not to mow your lawn during heatwaves as your grass will already be suffering in the hot, dry weather. Mowing will put your grass under even more stress. If the weather is warm and you have to mow the lawn, raise the height of your mower blades and water your grass after mowing. Try to mow early in the morning or late evening when it’s slightly cooler.

If there’s enough rain, you can continue using a summer lawn feed like Evergreen Complete 4 in 1. This will give your lawn an extra boost, allowing it to look lush and green in the summer sun.

The garden furniture is hopefully out by now, ready for relaxing, barbecuing and garden parties. Make sure the rest of your garden is looking top-notch to match. If you’ve not already done so, June is an ideal month to refresh your shed or fence panels with a new lick of paint. Start painting in the morning and it will be dry by night – even sooner if it’s a warm day!

Overgrown, unruly plants can make your garden look untidy and, let’s be honest, not very nice to look at! Prune any spring flowering shrubs as soon as the flowers have faded. Remove spent branches with secateurs or loppers to allow new growth to develop. Early season herbaceous plants, such as hardy geranium and oriental poppies, can be cut back after flowering to encourage the re-growth of tidy, fresh new foliage. If you’re trimming bushes, remember to check for nesting birds first. If necessary, wait for late fledglings to fly.

Make sure to tie in new growth of summer flowering clematis and honeysuckle onto supports with garden twine, along with your sweet peas, which should be growing strongly now.

Protect the susceptible lush foliage of prized herbaceous plants, such as delphinium and hosta, from slug damage using pest control repellents. Don’t forget to protect your strawberry plants from hungry blackbirds too!