The Vegetable Plot - June

After the frosts…

Didn’t we have some cold weather and late frosts in May? Then wet, wet, wet. Even professional growers had a hard time. If your weather watching tells you it is safe, you can plant out tomatoes, runner and French beans, pepper, aubergine and sweet corn. Outdoor tomatoes should have the first flower truss showing before planting out. 

With all the wet it’s certain there is weeding to be done and a hoe will come in handy for this in the vegetable plot. Soon, you will be picking peas when the pods mature, along with main crop broad beans, earthing up potatoes and planting out winter greens: Brussels sprouts, broccoli, kale and savoy cabbage.

Continue pinching out growing tips of ridge cucumbers and trailing marrow and stake peas if they were grown last month. Salad crops you sowed early should be ready to lift, along with early potatoes and autumn-sown peas and if you didn’t sow your own leeks and brassicas, you should still be able to buy young plants from the garden centre or nursery. 

Continue succession sowing for a continuous supply of salad crops and root vegetables such as carrot, swede, turnip and beetroot. Remember, hot and dry weather calls for plenty of water for thirsty crops such as lettuce, celery, tomatoes and radishes.

• Weed between leeks and onions
• Feed vegetables in full growth with a fertiliser or liquid manure
• Sow endive and chicory towards the end of the month
• Stop picking asparagus and rhubarb to let the plants develop for next year
• Lift autumn sown onions as required
• Stake Jerusalem artichokes