Gardening Notes

June

• Regularly dead head to prolong flowering period.
• Continue to cut and edge grass.
• Visit garden centres and nurseries to purchase new plants in flower.
• Check stakes of tall growing perennials like delphiniums.
• Add colour to terrace or patio with miniature or patio roses in pots.
• Introduce additional climbers into the garden.
• Visit gardens open to the public for inspiration.
• Sow herbaceous perennials for next year.
• Take softwood cuttings of shrubs.
• Check roses for pest and diseases. Spray if necessary.
• Prune late spring flowering shrubs like Kerria.
• Tie in the new shoots of climbing and rambling roses .
• Deadhead roses, unless they are being grown for their display of autumn hips.
• Rotate potted or topiary box and yew, so the sun gets to all sides for even, dense growth .
• Mildew on honeysuckle and acanthus mollis usually means they are in too hot a position.  Fungicide will make sport of the honeysuckle, and you can simply cut the acanthus right down to grow again.
• Check strawberries and remove any fruits that are showing signs of mould or pest damage.
• Daffodil leaves are thoroughly dead now and you can mow the grass in which they grow without compromising next year’s flowers. Thick, long grass will strain or clog a domestic mower. Better to strim it down first, gradually, and rake off the “hay”; then you can run the mower over the stubble. If the soil is moist, the grass will green up again in two or three weeks.