June Hints & Tips

Dear Diamond Club
Gardeners,

 

With the danger of late frosts now gone you can complete the planting of your summer baskets, tubs and troughs. It's a good idea to incorporate some Miracle Gro All Purpose Continuous Release Plant food into the compost as this really helps prolong the flowering display well into the autumn with good-sized strongly coloured blooms.

• After you have done your main plantings, look out for some less usual plants that you can plant into a new pot perhaps. Something like the night scented Phlox, with white very fragrant flowers in the evenings that you can position near your outdoor entertaining area to enjoy in the lovely warm evenings to come. Or maybe the Chocolate Cosmos - enjoy their dramatic deep brown flowers and that delicious chocolate scent without risking any calories!
• The sun is now strong and will rapidly dry out new plantings. There is a fine array of watering equipment to help you here, starting with something as simple as the Miracle Gro hose end feeder, enabling you to either feed, or just water, your plants without the need to lug watering cans around. Look out too for our Hozelock micro irrigation systems, complete with a timer that will automatically deliver water right into every pot or basket you have. 
• Make sure you are pruning all early flowering shrubs such as Forsythia, Berberis Darwinii and flowering currants immediately after they have flowered. It is also a good time to give them a feed with Vitax Q4.
• June is Rose month, as they all start flowering now with wonderful first flushes of blooms. It's also a good time to mulch them well with a thick layer of Farm Yard Manure around the base of the plants. This retains moisture, suppresses weeds and gradually improves the quality of the soil promoting better health for the roses. Keep up a regular spraying routine with Roseclear Ultra to keep fungal diseases and greenfly at bay.
• To keep your lawn looking at its best, cut the grass every week - even if it hasn't grown a great deal. It is still fine to apply a feed and weed such as Evergreen 4in1 if you haven't already done so.
• This is also the month to keep a close eye out for caterpillars munching on your plants. Gooseberries, cabbages, lilies and Solomons seal are particularly well loved by certain caterpillars. If you are very vigilant you can just pick them off by hand but if they have got out of control they can be easily controlled using Provado Ultimate Bug Killer.
• Your vegetables should now be growing strongly so encourage good crops on your tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers by feeding weekly with a high potash feed such as Blue Diamond Tomato Fertiliser. It is also important to water regularly, little and often being ideal, so that they never dry out too much which will check their cropping.

If you have any gardening questions, click here to submit your query!

Until next month, happy gardening!

The Diamond Garden Doctor