June gardening jobs

Protect the garden during hot weather

Watering is essential as the temperature rises, so make it part of your daily routine. Borders, bedding, pots and containers, hanging baskets and even the lawn need to get a regular drink or they could wilt and die.

And if you have a greenhouse, remember that this too needs to maintain its moisture. So don't just water and feed your plants - regularly damp down your greenhouse by spraying water from your hose or watering can onto the path as well as under your staging.

For more help on caring for your garden when the temperatures soar, check out the advice in our how to guide.

Stake, cut and divide plants

Herbaceous perennials can grow quickly and to a large size, so need staking to provide support and avoid collapsing - this is particularly true of taller plants like delphiniums. Some hardy annuals sown earlier in the year may also need support now as well. Tie plants such as sunflowers to garden canes before they grow too tall and bend or break.

June is the time to start taking softwood cuttings - only using non-flowering shoots. Cut soft shoot tips below a leaf node (where new growth starts from an existing stem) leaving a cutting about 10 to 15 cm long. Dip the base in rooting treatment before putting into a pot.

Finally, divide your lungwort, early primulas, doronicum and any other perennials that have already flowered. This helps ensure they're strong and will produce plenty of flowers the next year. Once you've removed an established clump from the ground (taking care not to damage the roots), place two garden forks back to back into the clump and prise apart, repeating until you have several smaller clumps. Discard the older central part and replant the new sections.

Keep on top of weeding

It’s important to keep on top of weeding during the summer months. Troublesome weeds will be at their strongest during the warmer months, so make sure you continue to remove them, and use a weed killer to prevent them from coming back. Create and commit to a weeding schedule, we suggest pulling out weeds every week or so to keep your garden looking its best. Find out how identify and kill weeds and stop them from coming back with our expert guide.

Harvest and grow vegetables

June’s the time to harvest quite a few of your growing vegetables. Spring onions (pictured), early potatoes, overwintering onions, asparagus, lettuce, rocket, radishes, and peas should be ready for your kitchen table about now.

Once you’ve harvested them, don’t leave the ground empty - clear out the old roots and leaves, sprinkle some fertiliser over the top and work it in, before sowing your next crop. All the usual salad vegetables can still be sown now and remember to water young vegetables and hoe regularly.

Enjoy homegrown fruit

It’s not just vegetables that are ripe for the picking - June is the time to start harvesting your strawberries. Any that have been in your greenhouse or under cover in a cloche should be ready now, with any grown outdoors following in a couple of weeks.

Nip off strawberries complete with a short stalk. This helps the fruit stay fresher for longer in the fridge and prevents harmful grey mould forming on the traces of fruit that get left behind. Rhubarb, redcurrants and gooseberries can also be harvested now. Keep pulling rhubarb sticks off but don’t remove all of them at once, as this will encourage more to develop.

Protect fruit that’s not quite ripe from birds with mesh or netting - or they may get to enjoy it before you do.

Get ready for the end of summer

No one wants to think about the return of cold weather – especially in June, when summer has only just begun. But for your garden to continue to look its best, there a few things you can do now in preparation.

Dig up spring-flowering bulbs such as tulips and hyacinths and store in a cool, airy shed, while daffodils, snowdrops and bluebells can be left in the ground all year round. Don’t leave any bulbs in the ground near plants that will need watering during the summer, as they won’t like the wet and will usually end up rotting. Spring bedding plants such as forget-me-nots and wallflowers (*Erysimum*) will now be finished – remove and add to your compost bin.