June doesn’t have to be a dull or depressing gardening month – we’ve got lots of work to do!

Plant and sow:

• Plant cool season bedding plants: alyssum, calendula, dianthus, lobelia, nemesia, pansies, sweet peas and violas.
• Plant in dappled shade: liliums, azaleas and camellias
• Sow these winter veggies: Brussels sprouts, ornamental kale, radish, leek, onion, spinach and turnips and members of the cabbage family: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower.

Feed:

• Feed lemon trees with 3:1:5 or 8:1:5.
• Correct yellowing leaves with a micro element mixture like Trelmix.

• Feed bulbs (bulb food) and winter and spring-flowering seedlings (3:1:5) once every two weeks. Water weekly.
• Check the edges of your sweet peas – if they look brown and papery, feed them with 3:1:5.

Prune

• Autumn flowering shrubs like Pride of India, ribbon bush and barleria.
• Sweet peas: remove side shoots to encourage strong upward growth.
• Spray with lime sulphur after pruning.
• Prepare roses for moving and dig holes for new roses.
• Deciduous fruit trees like peach, plum and apricot trees. They lose their leaves in winter so it’s easier to see which branches are diseased, old or weak.
• Hydrangeas: Notoriously tricky, hydrangeas do well with a bi-annual pruning with the winter pruning session happening in June.

Pests

• Look out for leaf miner on your cinerarias. Spray with organic Bioneem if required.
• Insecticide granules can also be watered in at the base of the tree.
• Watch out for snails on your clivias, daffodils and young seedlings. Try organic snail bait like McGregor’s Slug and Snail, or surround precious seedlings with crushed eggs shells, sawdust or coffee grounds.