June is always a great month in the garden for maintenance. We can be blessed with some beautiful, clear, and crisp days, so make the most of them when they are here!
There may not be as many daylight hours, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy being out in the garden when the weather is lovely. Make sure you are protecting any plants that are susceptible to frost, with frost cover and mulch around the roots.
Here are some things you can do in the garden for the month of June
❄️Cover frost-sensitive plants with frost cover to ensure that their leaves don’t get any frost burn.
🍁Why not use all those fallen autumn leaves, and start making your own compost. Mix leaves, plus kitchen scraps together in a compost bin and add an Organic Compost Activator, keep moist and let the beneficial composting microorganisms get to work.
Split up those established daylilies and spread to other parts of the garden.
💦Prolonged wet weather can lead to root rot diseases, particularly in areas with poorly drained soil. If you suffer from such, apply Efekto Virikop to the soil to prevent and control root rot diseases.
🐜Wax scale is making its rounds at this time. These sap-sucking insects form a protective shell over their bodies. If left untreated, they can eventually kill your plants. To treat, spray with plant protector or Oleum. Depending on how bad the infestation is, you may need to reapply a few times to get the pests under control.
FRUIT TREE GARDEN
🍏 Be sure to harvest your yield of apples, pears, lemons, limes, mandarins, oranges, and kumquats.
🍓 Strawberries can be planted now. The delicate flowers can’t handle really frosty conditions, so in frost-prone areas, it is best to protect your plants from the elements or wait a little later to plant.
Be sure to collect and compost any rotting fruit from under fruit trees. This will help prevent the spread of pests and diseases.
Check your harvested fruit to make sure nothing is rotting. Remove fruit as soon as it starts to decay. Rot can spread throughout a whole harvest within a week or two.
🍋 If your citrus trees are still bearing, They will have a great appetite for water and food. Feed them now with protek flower power and gwano pellets.
As winter progresses, you should start treating trees for fruit flies. Spray Margaret Roberts organic insecticide under the lower foliage, or in a band around the trunk, each week until all your fruits have been harvested.
Does it look like plants are wilting? If you notice bumps on the leaves and branches, treat scale insects with protek complete or Oleum.
FOR THE FLOWER GARDEN
🌹 You can still pick your Camellias, winter roses, dianthus, violets, snapdragons, and ornamental kale for flower arrangements.
🌸 June is still a great time to sow, poppies, sweet peas, wildflowers, calendula, violas, and pansies for that splash of winter color.
🚿 With all plants that are going into flower it becomes a very demanding process and by applying Fertiliser to these plants that are in pots and planters, also your garden beds this will help your plants give a bigger show for a longer period of time. Apply any organic feed like Atlantic flower and fruit.
🌹 Be sure to feed your roses with Colourburst Rose Food – a complete plant food that provides flowering plants with the balanced nutrients needed to produce large, abundant blooms and healthy green foliage.
🌼 Now is the time to prune your hydrangeas and take cuttings to grow new plants. Only cut back those stems that flowered last season and feed with Wonder Shake ‘n Grow Pink Hydrangea or Wonder Shake ‘n Grow Blue Hydrangea, depending on which color you prefer.
🌺 As Azalea buds start to show color, begin spraying with Efekto Virikop. This protects against the fungal diseases early and late blight. Be sure to feed your plants with a bag of acid compost Colourburst Azalea around the base of the plant. Be sure not to put soil on the stem as this will cause stem rot.
🌹 Why not plant new roses into the garden? This allows the plant to settle in, so come spring, you will have a thriving bush. Plant with an all-purpose fertiliser and Atlantic root builder. A thick layer of mulch around the base will protect the young stems in cold areas.
🚿 Spray your rose bushes with Rosecare plus or Rose protector to combat common diseases and insects on your roses and flowering plants.
Conifer aphids are still out and about. Keep them in control with Plant Protector or Koinor, as they will yellow the foliage, which later turns brown.
🐛 If you have recently planted young seedlings, protect them against cutworm with Cutworm bait all found at Tuingenoot.
✂️Continue with deadheading of old flowers on your snapdragons, stocks, and pansies to encourage a new flush of flowers.
🌳 If you are in mild areas, you can begin shaping and pruning shrubs and trees, and hold off pruning in cold areas until July or August.
🌸 Lift and divide perennials such as dahlias, wild iris, agapanthus, and delphiniums.
INDOOR PLANTS
If your indoor plants are looking wilted and less happy with life, give them a good drink with Nitrosol every watering or when the soil is dry.
🌿 Perfect time to repot those overcrowded indoor plants into slightly bigger pots using fresh potting mix and Wonder Organic Vita-Boost – this product acts as the perfect foundation for new root growth and nourishes the plant too.
💦 While you are out tackling the garden chores, don’t forget about the great indoors, too! Regular use of Kelp will help indoor plants withstand environmental stress, pests, and disease attacks.
🌸 Orchids that flower during the cooler months will appreciate a feed at this time. After all, it takes a lot of energy to put on a fabulous flower show! Use pokon orchid food to help your plants.
IN THE VEGETABLE GARDEN
🥒 Although June may seem to cold to sow anything it’s is the perfect time to plant Broad beans, beetroot, broccoli, peas, cabbages, cauliflowers, celery, garlic, lettuces, radishes, rocket, onions, spinach, coriander, and parsley.
🚿Be sure to mix a healthy dose of Atlantic all purpose or flower power into your garden beds before planting garlic and onions.
💦 Once your fruit-bearing seedlings are established, feed them each week with fruit & and flower to promote lots of fruit.
🚿 Once your evergreen seedlings are established, encourage lots of healthy growth by feeding each week with Nitrosol.
🐌 Protect your young seedlings from hungry snails and slugs with a light sprinkling of sluggem or sluggit. It should do the trick.
Aphids are a common pest on our beans, tomatoes, and peas. They feast on sugary plant sap and cause leaves to curl and distort. To control aphids, spray plants every ten days with Margaret Roberts Organic Insecticide.
🐛 Young seedlings are extremely vulnerable to cutworm. You can protect them with Cutworm bait.
🥒 The cooler weather is perfect for powdery mildew on pumpkins, cucumbers, and squash at this time. Initial symptoms are small powdery white spots on leaves, which will multiply and lead to leaves yellowing and dying. Control with regular sprays of neem oil.
🐛 Expert tip: Caterpillars can decimate veggies during winter, particularly brassicas like broccoli, cabbage, kale, and cauliflowers. To control caterpillars on veggies, spray the plants every seven to ten days with Margaret Roberts Organic Insecticide.
MAINTAINING HEALTHY WINTER LAWNS
🐜 Harvester termites pose a big problem. They can be aggressive and will decimate a lawn if given the chance. If you have harvester termites, try Kamikaze or Termite stop
💦 Fertilising your lawn over winter keeps it strong and green. In warmer parts of South Africa, lawn grass does not go into full ‘hibernation’ and will continue to grow but at a slower rate. Feed your lawn with fertilawn to keep that green healthy growth.
🚿 Broadleaf lawn weeds can grow at a rapid pace during winter, and weed plants will be maturing and starting to flower and set seed. You can control the most common broadleaf weeds before they take over.