June sweet June, summer is here...or is it...?  What is the weather like for you?  June should mean a Eaton Mess, light, warm evening, al fresco dinning and of course amazing displays of flowers, vegetables, trees and insects in the garden.  What does June mean to you?  I asked the creator behind My Tiny Plot; she said Strawberries and Rose wine, what an excellent response hey!

Here are a list of jobs you can be getting on with in between showers!

1 Take lavender cuttings

2 Plants leeks and other brassicas, it is not too late to order our vegetable packs!

3 Spread mulch around beans to help conserve moisture

4 Keep the children entertained and make some bird scarers for your vegetable plot, you can use Cd's, bottles, be creative with paints and recycle your house hold waste.

5 Water beans and sweet peas as they start to flower

6 Feed tomatoes and take off side shoots to help keep nutrients and energy focused on producing fruits

7 Collect and sow seeds from fox gloves

8 Spray roses

9 Lift early spuds - because your spuds will be coming up and going from ground to pan in a matter of minutes, I thought I would let you have a simple summer recipe for the good old faithful British potato!

Summery New Potato Salad With Mustard Dressing

500g New Potatoes, scrubbed and halved

1 tablespoon of wholegrain mustard

4 spring onions, finely sliced

1 tbsp clear honey

2 tbsp good olive oil

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tbsp low fat mayo

Preparation

Add the potatoes to a pan of boiling water, lightly salt the water. Cover and simmer until the potatoes are tender and cooked.  Drain and return the potatoes to the pan.  Mix the rest of the ingredients together in a small jug or something similar, add to the potatoes, season to taste and allow to cool then serve into a pretty dish and enjoy with a simple salad, fish, chicken or to compliment a summer al fresco barbecue.

10 Take any odd apples off apples trees so to keep the energy for the good apples

11 You can be planting out lettuce, rocket, spinach, beet, french dwarf beans, radish, carrots, endive, kohlrabi, suede, turnips

12 Plant out tender crops like courgettes, beans, pumkins etc

13 Give birds water

14 Design and plant summer hanging baskets

15 Sow or plant out salad in guttering, pots and generally everywhere!!

16 Tie new sprouts up on fruit plants, feed and mulch.

17 Look out for green fly; I use my Grandmother's recipe of water and washing up liquid as a great green fly killer and repellant!

MAY

Hail, sweet month of May!

Hail bright month of May!

Bring sunshine with thee,

Chasing clouds away.

March has left us sighing

In cold and chilly blast,

April's tears have fallen

May has come at last!!

1 Keep weeding!  Yes it's that time of year when the hoe loses it's winter rust.

2 Plant Salad Leaves.

3 You can now be planting Chicory, kale, endive, beetroot, french beans, radish, beans, spring onions

4 Plant Courgette's, squashes and marrows in pots in the green house.

5 Late frosts watch out!  Make sure you are able to dash out at the last minute to cover any seedlings, cuttings, young plants etc up.

6 Re vamp damage or bald areas of your lawn by laying turf to get your garden looking it's best for the summer parties and barbecue's you are going to have.  Also, mow lawns weekly to keep your lawn looking fresh, green and better than your neighbours. But try and increase your blade depths to 45-50mm to help prevent the grass needing too much water with the current hose pipe ban.

7 Time to deploy the pea sticks it pea planting time!  Plating peas is really easy..Dig a trench 2 inches deep and 25 cm wide.  Plant peas 2 inches part in a zig zag fashion along the trench.  I like to plant peas in May as by now the soil is warmer; you could always try covering the soil to increase the temperature.  Your peas will come through; I like to cover the young plants with sticks and thin branches preferably spikey ones to stop birds and my dogs from treading on the soil.

8 We should think about planting runner beans; it is normally warm enough this time of year however I have seen some very late frosts! Although I still grow mine in pots indoors.  Growing runner beans brings back so many happy childhood memories for me so they are a must grow most years in my garden.  I just find the beans themselves so magical.  They are so easy to grow, and now I pop any left over plants in borders or against fences for those few extra beans and a little more greenery. Place 1 bean per plant pot 1.5 inches deep. After around 3 weeks they will be ready to plant out after popping them in a cold frame or porch for a few days to get them acustomed to outdoor temperatures.

9 Feed young plants.

10 Thin out vegetable seedlings.  By now you should all sorts of vegetable seedlings peering from the soil, so make sure you thin out to get maximum growth from each plant. Or out plant vegetable plugs.

Growing potatoes is so easy and why not try doing what the title of my blog says, transform a weedy patch or create a raised bed containing topsoil and turn an idle spot into a useful and productive growing bed for your potatoes.

Potatoes are a dependable bulk crop which can be stored over winter, they are so cheap to grow, the biggest most awesome reason for growing the acclaimed and noble British spud is that there is no better feeling of satisfaction when you dig the earth to uncover these little beauties!

Potatoes break up new ground and helps improve the soil condition.

Your soil should be fairly sandy and slightly acidic (if you are really conscious it should be a around pH 5.5) but really just plant and grow!

Enjoy your crop!

It's almost April, fantastic isn't it.  Wondering around the garden last night as the sun was setting, looking out onto the field with a large wood beyond at the back of the QGS cottage, I remembered that I had been meaning to research my Walnut tree.  I found a great site www.walnuttrees.co.uk who do everything from sell nuts, timber, trees, oils, biscuits and gifts, they give advice and have walks and all sorts of different events all on the topic of this wonderful nut!

Back on my laptop, I finally found out that the type of Walnut tree I have is the Ronde de Montignac.  It's an old french variety, which is an excellent polinator producing a high quality nut.  With the amount of shells still on the floor around the tree I can't wait to see the fruits of this trees labour.

10 Jobs for April

1 Lay turf.  Now is a great time to revamp those parts of your lawn that look tired, are bald or have a large amount of weed.  Doing it now means you will have it looking great for the summer season.

2 Continue to plant garlic and onions.  My garlic is coming through nicely now.

3 Sow seeds like beetroot, peas, broad beans, radish, rockets, spinach, cabbage and kohl rabi.

4 Prick out seedlings and plant up into bigger pots.

5 Order your veg plus now!  We have a fantastic new range at Quality Garden Supplies.

Simply choose which garden plug set you would love to grow, order, plant out, nurture and watch your vegetables grow! For more information (this is truly a wonderful product!) call the QGS Team.

6  Divide Snowdrops.  Now Snowdrops have flowered it's a great time to divide them and plant out in other areas of the garden.  Just carefully dig around the foliage and lift.  Split the bulbs and then plant out in selected areas, plant to a depth of 5".  Larger spring bulbs plant to a depth of 8".

7 Start weeding!  Yes I know the dreaded word, but you know as well as I do that along with the spring and summer comes the weeding!! So make an early start and start pulling now!!

8 Prepare your potato beds. I always use my Grandmother's theory in digging a spud bed. Dig rows the depth of your spade down, the bed should be a spades width wide, plant your potatoes 35cm apart, then cover them back over with soil, place on a spades height worth of soil on top of that creating a row with a mound on the top which you should be able to see in the image.  I hope this makes sense.

9 De slug your garden; we throw ours to the chickens!

10  I have been planting out the herb cuttings which I tool last year which have now rooted and established well.  I planted some in borders like mint and rosemary to bulk them out but also I have planted some in decorative pots.

March

March already!  Suddenly I am in a state of panic about all the jobs I need to be doing, feeling like I don't have enough time to get all of my jobs done before the Summer comes! Plus all the exciting things I want to start, building a bench, raised veg patches, design my front boarder, build a birds table, sort the bould patches of my garden.

I have just planted out some garlic in the dark!  This is how panicked I am!  However; I calm myself down after writing a list of all March's jobs.  Panic disappears with every sip of tea I take and realise actually things are not actually that urgent!

I thought I would let you know my list of jobs for March which you too may want to consider...

1  Start a compost heap; it's always a great time of year this to be inspired to create things, with the shine pearing through a little more and the light nights setting in a little sooner.

2  Plant garlic and onion sets

3  Trim back any Ivy or other climbers on walls or fences

4  Chit potatoes

5  Tidy your strawberry plants, removing any dead stems and cover with a cloch

6  Top dress your platers and pots

7  Dig in compost or well rotted manure or garden waste

8  Pre warm your veg plot, covering with cardboard or tarporlin (whatever you have spare in your garden shed)

9  Sow broad beans or broad bean plants...I bought some plants from a small local supplies. Sow other seeds like parsnips and carrots, rocket and spinach.

10  I also love this time of year for a good clean out of my gardening equiptment, potting sheds and greenhouses.

Helen

Now growing vegetables to me is something I have always just been able to do, putting the main elements together to be able to produce fruit or veg to take back into my kitchen and cook. Simple!

For some people however, taking on the task of building a vegetable plot and growing their own food is something they have never done before.  So this blog is to help those people gain a little understanding of those key elements to then go onto to produce home grown food for themselves and their family.  Growing at home or an allotment is so popular at the moment, especially with the price of produce at supermarkets which is incredibly tasteless, grown out of season and mostly outside of Great Britain.

So here are the factors you need to think about when starting your fruit and vegetable patch.

Choosing the right spot

Your plot needs to be light and airy with plenty of sun light throughout the day.

It should be south facing. Avoid areas with trees and large fences which will potentially shelter the area.

If the plot is open and exposed you will need to consider some kind of wind break position to block the wind, maybe a small fence, hedge or wall.

Access and Water

Your plot should have good access so that not only is it not too far away from your home, but you can easily reach it and get a wheel barrow to it.  If you are buying in things like soil improver or topsoil you will need to think about vehicle access too!

Also water, is there water near to the plot or will you have to take water to it, if so how will you do it and can you easily do it.

Soil

If you are mainly growing in pots then you wont need to worry about this section too much.  Just ensure you are using the best compost you can buy that has been specifically designed for fruit and veg and contains the correct balance of nutrients and the best structure to help promote healthy growth.

Soil is the anchor for your plants, it holds water, air and nutrients to make plants grow.

From clay to sand all soil types will be suitable to grow some fruit and veg successfully and others not so!

Clay holds nutrients well but is heavy slow to warm up, it also holds the water.  Sandy soils are lighter and easily eroded, the lack of substance means its ability to hold nutrients is poor.

Sadly you can't choose which your soil type is but you can improve it's nutrient content and improve the quality.  You can use things such as kitchen waste like vegetable peelings or well rotted manure.  Also a great idea is to buy soil improver's or compost which you mix into the soil plant beds from around February.

Helen