Jobs for June
Hi everyone, Eve here: happy June! This month is the official start of summer which is SO exciting. There’s lots to be getting on with in the garden, from creating your own summer planter to sowing beautiful blooms ready for next spring. Keep reading to find out my top jobs to get stuck into this month!
Create a stunning summer planter
Planting up a summer container is one of my favourite jobs.
It’s a super simple way to bring some instant colour to your patio or decking, and it’s also so much fun getting creative and combining your favourite plants!
One of the best things about this time of year is the amazing variety of plants and flowers available – just pop into your local British Garden Centre to stock up.
As well as annual bedding plants, you can also use tender or hardy perennials - the great thing about these is you can plant them out in the garden or overwinter them after your summer container is done.
I’ve gone for quite a sophisticated red and purple display with this combination of petunias, coleus and begonias, all centred around this gorgeous cherry chocolate cosmos.
But the beauty of making your own planter is you’ve got the freedom to plant up just about anything you want! Even better, if you’ve got the space, go crazy and plant up multiple planters in a range of different colours and styles 🤩
Here’s my super simple guide to planting up your own summer container…
- Fill your container 2/3rds full with good quality, peat-free compost
- Sprinkle in some Westland Boost granules - they'll feed your flowers for up to 6 months!
- Position your plants to see which arrangement looks best
- Take them out their plastic pot, loosen their roots, and pop them into place
- Fill in the gaps between your plants with compost and firm it down
- Give it a really good water
- Regular feeding will make your blooms last as long as possible
Sow biennials for beautiful blooms next Spring
Next spring might seem a long way off, but future you will thank you if you prepare for it now!
June is the perfect time to sow biennials – I’ve just started some lovely foxgloves and honesty which will add lots of colour and height to my garden next spring.
It’s super simple to do…
- Fill a good-sized seed tray with some fine grade compost
- Sprinkle on your chosen biennial seeds
- Top off with vermiculite
- Stand in a tray of water for 10 minutes
- Place somewhere warm and sunny
Stay on top of pests like aphids and slugs
If your garden’s anything like mine, then the last few weeks have been a bit all over the place for pests!
The warm weather we had a few weeks ago brought lots of aphids to my roses and lupins, but now it seems to be the turn of slugs.
Thankfully, there’s some simple, garden-friendly ways you can stop pesky slugs from munching all your plants.
For containers, copper tape is my go-to choice. Simply tape it around the outside of your containers and it will keep slugs away by giving them a mild electric shock!
If you’ve got more of a slug problem in your borders, a slug trap can work really well.
Simply fill it up with water and a few teaspoons of sugar, or you can also use beer as apparently slugs are a fan!
Thanks for reading.
