Things to do this month
- Take things steadily – and make time to enjoy your garden. After all, it is meant to be a relaxing hobby!
- Make the most of any warm days and evenings to enjoy eating outside on the patio.
- Continue to sow seeds of all your favourite annual bedding plants for a summer of wonderful colour.
- If you don’t have much success with seeds, buy plug plants and seedlings for growing on.
- Continue to take stem cuttings of half-hardy perennials and patio plants, such as fuchsias and pelargoniums.
- Make regular, successional sowings of fast-maturing vegetables.
- Sow tomatoes, sweet and chilli peppers, cucumbers and aubergines indoors with warmth.
- Mulch the soil around trees and shrubs with a 5-7.5cm (2-3in) thick mulch.
- Keep removing suckers from plants that are grafted onto a rootstock as soon as you see them.
- This is still a great time to plant new shrubs and herbaceous perennials.
- Buy summer-flowering bulbs, such as begonias, dahlias, gladioli and lilies if you haven’t done it yet.
- Deadhead spring-flowering bulbs when the flowers fade and give them a liquid feed.
- Continue to tie in the shoots of climbers as they grow, spreading them out evenly over their support.
- Make sure you grow plants that are beneficial to butterflies, bees and other garden-friendly insects.
- There’s still time to sow hardy annual seeds outside to produce lots of flowers for the summer.
- Keep adding suitable material to the compost bin to make your own soil improver and mulch.
- Continue to feed garden birds - they need lots of food to feed their young.
- Keep hoe and secateurs blades sharp so they work efficiently.
See the full list of things to do this month at LoveTheGarden