Summer is progressing....

I have already given you some pointers of what to be doing in your garden in June and how I like to spend my June, but now we are now in full swing of the Summer.

Here are somepointers of how to keep our planters, boarders and hanging baskets looking good and in full bloom, vegetable patches tidy and high yeilding...

In and around the garden

• Take Lavendar cuttings now!  This excits me and helps me reduce the cost of continuing to plant up my Lavender border.

• Check your Clematis for signs of Clematis Wilt.

• Pop your conservatory plants outside now the weather is warm.

• Dead hear bedding plants and repeat flowering perenials to ensure continuous flowering.

• Trim all the shrubs that have flowered and feed, including roses. Remove seed heads from plants this will encourage them to produce more flowers.

• In you want to create some more summer colour why not plant some Acanthus, a variety of Clematis, Delphiniums or even veronica.  Hanging baskets will ideally need watering twice daily.  Take the seeds from Foxgloves and sow.

• This is the best month to trim hawthorn hedges before they get too large to cut.

• Design hanging baskets and display them proudly, be colourful and use plants that attract bees!

In your Greenhouse

• Use soapy water to kill off insects such as Greenfly.

• Dampen the floor in the morning's to cool down your plants!

• Hand sticky yellow tape to help with Whitefly.

• Support tomatoes now they are starting to grow quickly, feeding them once a week.

• Pinch out cucumber side shoots two leaves beyond the female flower.

Fruit

• Cover and soft fruit with netting to prevent those little birdies getting to your crop first.

• Treat apples scab.

• Remove any odd looking apples, pears or plums from fruit trees this will give more energy to the healthy fruit.

Your Lawn

• Give the lawn a feed if it was not done in the the spring.

• Keep mowing regulaly except when the weather is hot and there is a drought.  Don't worry about brown patches on your lawn, the grass will grow back when the weather becomes cooler and showers settle in.

• If a green lawn is completely necessary, water with a sprinkler once a week.  Use an open jam jar for a sufficient time and when you have 13mm depth that is the ideal time to turn off the water as after this point water will run off the grass and be wasted.

• Make sure you look after the newer areas of lawn, ensuring they are watered more so than other areas.

• Isolated weeds can be dug out and spot treated with a paint on weed killer.

Vegetables

• It is still not too late to 'Grow Your Own'; so why not plant a few lettuce, raddish, runner beans, courgettes, herbs.

• Finish planting your vegetables like tomatoes, beans, courgettes and sweetcorn.

• Plant out leeks and other brasicas.

• Mulch around your beans to help keep in moisture.

• Remember to water plants like onions and potatoes; something I always seem to forget and I don't know why.

• Start to think about your winter Vegetables; find some new varieties.