Vegetables

• Sweetcorn can now be thoroughly hardened off and planted out.
• Outdoor tomatoes can be planted in deep rich soil in as warm and sheltered position.
• Finish harvesting asparagus mid-month, then feed and mulch the plants, water the crown during dry spells.
• Allow autumn planted onions to fall over naturally as they ripen and dry. Once they are fully dry, lift and store somewhere dry and airy.
• Sow maincrop carrots.
• Tip out broad beans, to lessen blackfly attacks.
• Keep sowing successional salad crops in a shady spot, which will reduce bolting.
• Plant out courgettes, marrows, squashes pumpkins etc.
• If not done so already, sow chicory for winter forcing.
• Ensure peas all have sufficient stakes, canes or netting for support.
• Sow swedes and turnips for autumn/early winter use.
• First croppings of early lettuces, radishes, spring onions, bunching shallots, and early carrots can be made, with successional sowings until mid-July at fortnightly intervals.
• First early potatoes, especially those grown in buckets or under protection will be just about ready towards the end of the month.
• Trench celery can have their first collars put on, stops the plant “rosetting”, and starts the blanching process. Plant out self-blanching types in blocks, not rows to allow them to blanch each other.
• Continue sowing dwarf French beans. They take about 8 to10 weeks from sowing to maturity; keep picking to encourage further pods to set.

Fruit

• Top fruit such as apples and pears should start to shed a little excess fruit; this is perfectly natural and is referred to as ‘june drop’.
• Give strawberry beds a tidy over – ensure they are all well mulched down with straw or similar.
• Keep a watchful eye over gooseberries for gooseberry sawfly attacks.

• Ensure greenhouses, polytunnels and cold frames are well ventilated on warm days, as temperatures will soon rise and can damage young plants.
• Floors, staging etc. can be dampened down with the garden hose or watering can; this lessens the chance of red spider mite attacks, which thrive in hot dry conditions.
• Ensure that all greenhouse crops such as tomatoes, cucumbers and melons are kept well-watered, and new growth is tied in regularly.