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Gardeners and gardens have been battling the elements over the last few weeks: Heavy rain, sizzling sunshine and gusty winds. Hopefully you and your plants are still intact. Here's a list of tasks to attend to in the garden throughout June. Happy gardening!
1. Deadhead spent flower heads on bulbs, and as long as more than 6 weeks have passed since the bulbs flowered, cut back tatty foliage too.
2. Try the ‘Chelsea Chop’ ,( traditionally undertaken in the last week of May or first week of June). Cutting plants back by a third should make them more floriferous, ( as a result of more side shoots), keep plants compact, and delay flowering until later in the summer. A clever compromise for larger swathes of the same plant is to cut back some and not others, hopefully ensuring staggered flowering over a long period.Sedum, Echinacea, Rudbeckia, Helenium and other late flowering perennials are suitable.
3. Feed summer flowering bulbs in containers such as Agapanthus and Lilium with a liquid potash feed. A feed every three weeks during the growing season will promote flowering. Keep a look out for lily beetle . Inspect plants regularly and remove bright red adult beetles by hand.
4. Deadhead roses and perennials, cutting off spent flowerheads. Deadheading enables the plant’s energy to go into producing more flowers later in the summer and even into autumn. Don't just nip off the flowers on roses - cut back to a bud in a leaf axil lower down the stem.
5. Take a good look at garden ponds and remove invasive plants such as blanket weed before they choke other plants.
6. Regularly water any new areas of lawn and ensure that newly laid turf doesn’t dry out as it will shrink.
7. Spring flowering deciduous shrubs such as Weigela and Philadelphus can be pruned now. Congested branches should be hard pruned to ground level.
1. Deadhead spent flower heads on bulbs, and as long as more than 6 weeks have passed since the bulbs flowered, cut back tatty foliage too.
2. Try the ‘Chelsea Chop’ ,( traditionally undertaken in the last week of May or first week of June). Cutting plants back by a third should make them more floriferous, ( as a result of more side shoots), keep plants compact, and delay flowering until later in the summer. A clever compromise for larger swathes of the same plant is to cut back some and not others, hopefully ensuring staggered flowering over a long period.Sedum, Echinacea, Rudbeckia, Helenium and other late flowering perennials are suitable.
3. Feed summer flowering bulbs in containers such as Agapanthus and Lilium with a liquid potash feed. A feed every three weeks during the growing season will promote flowering. Keep a look out for lily beetle . Inspect plants regularly and remove bright red adult beetles by hand.
4. Deadhead roses and perennials, cutting off spent flowerheads. Deadheading enables the plant’s energy to go into producing more flowers later in the summer and even into autumn. Don't just nip off the flowers on roses - cut back to a bud in a leaf axil lower down the stem.
5. Take a good look at garden ponds and remove invasive plants such as blanket weed before they choke other plants.
6. Regularly water any new areas of lawn and ensure that newly laid turf doesn’t dry out as it will shrink.
7. Spring flowering deciduous shrubs such as Weigela and Philadelphus can be pruned now. Congested branches should be hard pruned to ground level.