Gardening tips for June

The RHS top 10 jobs for this month

1. Hoe borders regularly to keep down weeds
2. Be water-wise, especially in drought-affected areas
3. Pinch out sideshoots on tomatoes
4. Harvest lettuce, radish, other salads and early potatoes
5. Position summer hanging baskets and containers outside
6. Cut lawns at least once a week
7. Plant out summer bedding
8. Stake tall or floppy plants
9. Prune many spring-flowering shrubs
10. Shade greenhouses to keep them cool and prevent scorch

Week 1

- Cut back the spent flower spikes of euphorbia wulfenii. Wear gloves as the milky sap can cause skin irritations
- Fertilise weak-growing lawns.
- Shear back aubrieta so that the clumps stay tight for next year.
- Check borders and remove any self-sown seedlings of sycamore trees
- Sow pak choi seeds in the vegetable garden
- Green houses will need shading in hot sunny weather
- Seeds such as cyclamen and various rock plants can be sown for later planting outdoors
- Take the seed heads off your least-favourite aquilegias and allow the favourite colours to self-sow
- Protect the developing fruits of redcurrants, whitecurrants and strawberries from birds
- Propagate clematis by layering the stems.

Week 2

- Once deutzias finish flowering, prune back the spent stems
- Dead-head roses and cut out at the base the flowered stems of bearded irises
- It’s time to take cuttings from garden pinks
- Potatoes may still need earthing up, but it's really the month to start gathering the crop
- Nip out the tips of the longer shoots on cistus and halimiums to make them branch and stop them becoming straggly quite so quickly
- Container-grown citrus plants can be placed outdoors for the summer months
- Tie in the new shoots of climbing and rambling roses
- Lettuces will start to make leaf and should be given water to prevent them running to seed
- Bulbs that are not to be lifted should be left the die down and the tops removed later in the month

Week 3

- Cut back oriental poppies when they finish flowering. Deadhead the spent flowers of young lilac bushes
- Plants purchased from the nursery or raised in a frame or greenhouse should be planted out
- Lots of dead-heading to do: cut out spent peony heads; cut the first crop of dead heads off osteospermums to keep them flowering well
- Leeks, ridge cucumbers and savoy cabbage for October should be planted out
- Perennial plants, such as lupins and delphiniums, where the seeds are not being left for decoration or seeds for the birds, should be cut down and tidied up as the flowers fade
- Check strawberries and remove any fruits that are showing signs of mould or pest damage
- Red chicory can be sown outside for an autumn crop. Start to complete the harvesting of asparagus spears.

Week 4

- Start harvesting the tubers of early potatoes
- Daffodil leaves are thoroughly dead now and you can mow the grass in which they grow without compromising next year’s flowers
- Remove any faded flower spikes of delphiniums
- Newly planted trees may need some help so spray the foliage with water, especially evergreens, in very hot or dry weather
- Mulch from the compost heap should be put round the plants and shrubs that need to be kept moist
- Protect young brassicas from pigeons
- Sow the seeds of hardy biennials, such as foxgloves – they will flower next year
- Prune back the spent stems of Kolkwitzia amabilis.

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