The Gardener's Journal is a free monthly gardening guide delivered direct to your inbox.

Each month, receive tips on the top jobs needed in your garden as well as a wealth of information on a range of gardening topics. From sowing seeds to picking fruit, each month get access to information on the care and maintenance of your flowerbeds, vegetable plot and lawn. As with your own gardening diary, the journal is split into separate sections, each covering a different area of garden care.

Monday 11 June 2018

This Month in Your Garden – June

It was June and the world smelled of roses – Maud Hart Lovelace


It’s fair to say with June 21st being the longest day of the year that summer arrives this month. We had that wonderful taste of summer in May, then the rain.

Sprinkle with light and more warmth and the roses burst forth to join the fragrant chorus of the June garden. And joining as well in this lustrous impact of scent and colour come the weeds. Well, you didn’t honestly think it would be all romance and no work, did you?

The Lawn Care Guide – June

The grass isn’t always greener on the other side – Ricky Gervais


You have been following a regime of scarifying, aerating, fertilising and removing moss and weed from the lawn through the spring. The weather has warmed up and the rains come and go. The grass has grown and you have gradually lowered the cutting height on the mower or garden tractor deck. The lawn has greened up and is beginning to look more lush than it has for a long time. But it’s still not looking as good as you want it.

Lawn Care: Questions and Answers

Q. Our lawn has developed a series of mounds on the surface along the mowing lines. What’s causing this?

The Vegetable Plot – June

When is a cucumber like a strawberry? When one is in a pickle and the other is in a jam!


Time to earth up potatoes, blanch leeks and remove runners from strawberries. It’s also time to continue successional sowings of lettuce, endive, mustard and cress and turnips. Thin out seedlings from April and May sowings.

Don’t stop there. If you have the space you’ll be planting out the winter greens you’ve grown – broccoli, Brussels sprouts. Along with runner beans, celery, tomatoes, sweet corn, marrow, ridge cucumbers, aubergines and capsicums. I hope you can eat all this.

The Big Glut Recipe – June

Roasted asparagus wrapped in Parma ham (side dish)


The English asparagus season is over on the longest day, 21st June. This recipe from Delicious magazine is just a simple side, but check out all the other ways you can make asparagus into tasty
mains.

Ingredients

  • 2 bunches of asparagus (about 24 spears), woody ends removed
  • Small handful fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • Grated zest of ½ lemon
  • 8 slices Parma ham