Summer
Jobs & Growing Guide

Veg:

- Continue sowing salad crops, such as beetroot, lettuce, pak choi and radish. Leafy salad crops may do better when sown in partially shady sites since hot dry weather can lead to bitter tasting leaves.

- Sow French, runner and broad beans, peas, squash, sweetcorn, and outdoor cucumbers directly into prepared beds outside.

- French beans are best sown in rows, 45cm (18in) apart, at 15-22cm (6-9in) spacing.

- Runner beans need well-prepared ground and suitable supports (often a frame or wigwam of bamboo canes tied together with twine) for the shoots to twine around and grow upwards.

- Courgettes, marrows and pumpkins can still be sown outdoors in early June in southern districts.

- Although most winter brassicas need to be sown earlier in the season, calabrese, turnips and kohlrabi can be sown now for an autumn crop.

- Celeriac and celery can be planted out early this month. A well-prepared site with lots of organic matter dug in is essential.

- Outdoor ridge cucumbers can be planted out early this month. They benefit from a site that has been enriched with lots of organic matter to help retain water.

- Plant vegetables sown indoors earlier in the season, including winter brassicas and sweet peppers. - Peppers can only be planted out when all risk of frost has passed, and ideally beneath cloches.

- Gaps between winter brassica plants can be used for quick-maturing catch crops, perhaps radishes or gem lettuces.

- Plant out artichokes that were previously sown under cover. They can be grown as perennials (in which case they need 90cm spacing), or as biennials (45cm spacing is sufficient).

Veg:

- Pinching out the top of broad beans once the lowest flowers have set will help prevent aphid attack.

​

- Look out for flea beetles on brassicas.

​

- Ward off carrot fly by covering plants with a fine woven plastic mesh like Enviromesh.

​

- Slugs pose a threat, especially to newly-planted seedlings and slug controls are necessary now.

​

- Pick yellowing leaves off brassicas promptly to prevent spread of grey mould and brassica downy mildew.

 

- Damping off of seedlings can be a problem both outside and in containers.

 

- Deal with red spider mite, whitefly, codling moth and plum moth and raspberry beetle.

 

- Look out for shothole on tree fruit, especially stone fruit – a sign of possible disease infection.

 

- Start treating potatoes and tomatoes against blight.

Fruit:

- Peg down strawberry runners and remove cloches from outdoor strawberries once cropped.

- Water blueberries, cranberries and lingonberries regularly with rainwater.

- Water and feed indoor melons daily once they are established and plant into growing-bags in a heated greenhouse.

- Avoid using insecticides on crops when they are in flower.

- Make sure fruit isn’t drought stressed, especially in containers, against a wall or newly planted.

- Continue training fan-trained trees. - Pull off suckers appearing around the base of fruit trees.

- Train in new shoots of blackberries and hybrid berries.

- Summer prune red and white currants and gooseberries.

- Shorten newly planted raspberry canes once new shoots are produced.

 

Veg:

- Peas need staking with pea sticks, netting or pruned garden twigs.

- Continue to earth up maincrop potatoes.

- Water tomatoes and peppers regularly to prevent blossom end rot – a symptom of calcium deficiency due to erratic water supply.