How To Keep Your Green Thumb This June!
Some of us may think of gardening only in the spring or fall, but there are many beautiful summer-season vegetables and flowers to plant in June. But you’ll need to bust your hump this month for a beautiful summer garden.
Lay down mulch.
Summer is the time of year when flower beds and gardens need mulch. When spread as a 2-inch-deep layer, mulch can shield the soil from the relentless summer sun. Meaning that less moisture is lost to evaporation and roots stay cool and happy.
Pull weeds.
Unfortunately, summer is weed season. Weeds love the summer heat and tend to increase in the warm season. In addition to being ugly, weeds steal water and nutrients from your landscape and fuel disease spread, so you’ll need to pull them. Always pull weeds when they’re young because it prevents them from seeding (and spreading), plus it’s easier to pull out a baby weed than a gigantic one.
Pinch perennials.
If your yard has fall-blooming perennials, they’ll need to be pinched in June before it’s their turn to bloom. For optimal growth, pinch 1-2 inches off the top of mums, sedums, asters, and other fall-blooming perennials.
Fertilize shrubs and lawns.
After spring-blooming plants such as azaleas, rhododendrons, lilacs, and forsythias bloom, you need to fertilize them. Different plants will require different fertilizers, so you’ll have to research. Also, if your grass is a warm-season variety, it should be fertilized in June.
Plant your veggies.
Not all vegetables love warm summer soil, but quite a few do. Beans, corn, melons, okra, eggplants, tomatoes, and squash thrive in warmed soil. To plant them, find an area of your yard that gets full sun and then plant them about 1/2 inch into the ground if you’re starting with seeds. If you want your harvest sooner, you can buy partially grown vegetable plants at the store to place in your yard.
Clear out the spring bloomers.
Unfortunately, when violas and pansies are at their most beautiful stage, you’ll need to rip them out of the ground. Don’t feel too bad about it because the summer heat would’ve gotten to them anyway. You have to make space for your summer plants.
Bring in summer bloomers.
The month of June is when you should plant all the summer-blooming plants. Replace your spring bloomers with summer annuals like angelonia, lantana, ageratum, coleus, pentas, portulaca, salvia, sweet potato vine, and zinnia. These annuals grow fast and will quickly fill the void left by the spring bloomers.