Martin Shares his Tips for the Kitchen Garden for June
“June has finally arrived and let’s hope we are finally going to have some better weather: the combination of very wet weather and low light levels seems to have caused a lot of issues with poor seed germination and growth rates (I’m hearing this a lot from experienced growers). Lots of us have then had problems with damage to new plants from slugs and snails as they thrived in the relatively mild winter.
The best time to water your plants, if you can, is early in the morning from 7am – 9am as the temperature will be lower leading to less evaporation, and the water on the plants leaves will have dried off before the evening which will help reduce fungal problems. Morning watering also means that the ground around the plants will be drier making it harder for slugs and snails to travel to reach your plants.
If your plants do get eaten, and there is not enough time to re-sow seed, we aim to stock as good a range of replacements as possible throughout the growing season. I’d just like to remind people that the new slug pellets that we stock are not harmful to other wildlife: other options which help repel them are copper tape on pots, Strulch and wool pellets as they don’t like crossing over them.
All danger of frost should have gone so it will be safe to plant out tender vegetables which have been grown indoors such as squashes, peppers and tomatoes.”
Some Jobs for June:
> Keep sowing salad crops such as beetroot, lettuce and radish. Direct sowing of French and runner beans, squash, sweetcorn can be made into prepared beds. They will grow quickly now the soil is finally warmer.
> Keep on earthing up your potatoes: some first earlies might be ready for harvesting which will leave space for other vegetables to be planted.
> Sweetcorn works best when planted in blocks rather than rows to help with pollination. It’s best to grow just one variety as some odd effects can occur if two varieties cross-pollinate. They are wind pollinated so if there are still days give them a tap to encourage the pollen to move around.
> To make watering of squashes easier plant them with a moat around them to help retain water, and consider sinking a large pot into he ground next to the plant to encourage water down to the roots rather than evaporating. They do need a lot of water and feeding too. Consider using SB Plant Invigorator as a general tonic and powdery mildew control. It worked well for me last year.
> Tomatoes need watering regularly to prevent blossom end rot where the flower end of the fruit gets a black, corky appearance. If using growbags consider using a growbag tray as an extra water reservoir, or the Hozelock watering system, which will help greatly. If growing them outside the sunken watering pot method will help. Peppers will also suffer from blossom end rot if their watering is uneven.
> Hoe between rows on a hot, sunny day to kill off the weeds. This can be much quicker than hand-weeding. Weeds will take water, light and nutrients from your crops so will affect the yields.
> Fruit: netting fruit bushes and trees against birds is essential otherwise they will eat the lot.
> Keep up with watering and feeding: Tomorite will work well. Potted fruit can dry out very quickly on sunny windy day – perhaps try a saucer underneath them?
> Summer pruning of gooseberries and red and white currants should be carried out.
> Thin top fruit such as apples, pears and plums etc. This will give better sized fruit reduce disease problems by giving better air flow around them.
> New shoots of blackberries and hybrid berries such as Tayberries should be tied in ready for cropping next year.
> Watch out for pests and diseases: we can help with advice if you need it, bring along a photo or sample of the problem helps us greatly.
Martin Day – Plant Area Supervisor