The Garden In June
Written by adrian on 7th June 2011At the time of writing, we have had a remarkably dry spell of weather for most of the last three months, although we have had some heavy showers in the last few days. Many signs of summer are now with us, and certainly by the time you read this, swallows and house-martins will have been here for a while but I haven’t heard the Cuckoo yet this year. In the past I have heard it as early as April 9th. Whatever the weather and the arrival of migrants, the days will continue to lengthen for the next few weeks so we need to get on with the garden work.
At the moment we are discovering the real toll of the extremely low temperatures we endured last winter and many plants that should have recovered by now have not done so. Although it is usually best to start again, occasionally, woody subjects that have apparently been killed can recover up to twelve months later, so if you have some particularly prized rare plants it may be worth judiciously pruning it and giving it longer to recover.
June is traditionally the month of the Rose and there is probably no flower about which so many books and poems have been written. If you want to choose roses for your garden, make sure you select those that suit the soils and climate in the area in which you live. Roses like firm moisture-retentive soils so those of you who have the heavier soils have a distinct advantage over those on lighter ones; both soils, for different reasons, can benefit from the incorporation of composted bark or mushroom compost. Both materials will improve soil structure and on light soils, improve the retention of moisture. If asked which to use on which soil, I would suggest composted bark on heavier soils and mushroom compost on the lighter ones. If you have a soil that is inclined to dry out easily, heavy surface mulches of either material, or of horse-manure compost, over the beds and around the bushes can be very beneficial; do this as early as possible, to avoid damaging new shoots and don’t dig it in. Feed the roses regularly and try to keep them clear of pests and diseases. Black spot and aphids are already becoming prevalent.
If you grow softy fruit in the garden, gooseberries and currants will be cropping soon. Look out for saw-fly larvae on gooseberry bushes (my grandmother always told me that I was found under a gooseberry bush, so be careful what you may discover there) these are small black caterpillar-like creatures that can strip the foliage off the bushes in a very short time; many contact insecticides will kill them, but the only organic method I know of, is to pick them off manually and squash them.
We have a big old, Blenheim Orange apple tree in the garden and this year it was laden with blossom and the weather was warm at the time so there could be a very heavy fruit set on it and apples in general this year. You will notice if you have apple trees, that many of the small fruits that have set will fall off in June; this is quite natural and known as June-drop; if you plan to thin the fruit anyway, it is best to wait until this natural thinning is over.
Asparagus should not be cut after the end of June; allow the fronds to develop and put some goodness back into the plants for next year. Look out for asparagus beetle larvae as these can devastate the foliage.
Outdoor tomatoes should be quite safe outside now; if the weather is humid and warm, look out for potato-blight, to which they are susceptible,; it manifests itself as brown patches on the foliage and fruits and cannot be controlled by anything other than chemical means (or isolation). Even organic growers are permitted to use chemicals for control of blight.
Lawns need cutting regularly now and will benefit from summer fertilizer; this will of course make them grow more vigorously, but the intention is to produce a tight-knit turf that will resist the ingress of moss and weeds. In the area i9n which I live, it is noticeable that many of our lawns are infested with weeds of agricultural grassland, particularly those that have wind-borne seeds, such as dandelions and ragwort; the latter is a scheduled weed and you are obliged to remove it if you have it on your land (whether anyone enforces this law these days is questionable); if you handle any quantity of ragwort, it is best to wear gloves, as the toxins it contains can be absorbed through the skin.
Life in the garden is much as it is everywhere else, a balance of one thing against another. A few pests are inevitable but if you are really concerned about what is creeping about on your plants, make sure you can tell friend from foe; if you are uncertain leave them alone. If you are certain they are not beneficial but do not like insecticides, a blast of water will often knock them off and hopefully a lot of them will not bother to climb back up again. Don’t make the mistake of bumping off some innocent creature just because of mistaken identity.
