June brings the second half of the garden year into view. Now is the time to sow the first autumn vegetables such as kale, Chinese cabbage, and endive. Do not sow Chinese cabbage too early. Two-year flowers for flowering in the coming spring, such as Bellis, forget-me-nots, and pansies, will also be sown in June. Likewise biennial garden herbs, like caraway seeds.
Summer bulbs
The spring bloomers have now recharged their batteries for the next garden year and created their new flowers. Now you pull in the leaves. Where it has withered and is visually disturbing, you remove it. Now you can pick up the bulbs, clean them if necessary and store them in a dry, dark, and cellar-cool place so that you can replant them in a suitable place from September.
Trim ground cover
Roses: Usually flower beds and hybrid roses are cut back plant after plant after flowering. This is too time-consuming for ground cover roses (which are now called small shrub roses). When they reach the end of their flowering period at the end of June, they simply cut back their bloomed pile across with the hedge trimmer - unless one prefers to have glowing rose hip jewelry on them in autumn.
Cutting topiary trees
Plants that are designed in strict shapes (such as pyramids or spheres) receive a maintenance cut before the end of the month. The young shoot is cut back to the required size of the plant shape.
Spice up garden party
Would you like a rose punch? Take plenty of 70 grams of gently rolled, strongly fragrant rose petals and marinate them in a tightly closed container at room temperature for 24 hours in the juice of two lemons and two tablespoons of brandy. In the meantime stir from time to time so that the petals remain covered in the brew and there is no wilting taste. Then strain the petals and press gently. Sweeten the mixture with +/- 250 grams of white sugar and fill with two liters of chilled liquid while stirring (dissolving sugar). This can be mineral water to stay alcohol-free. Classic, however, is the infusion of punch with sparkling Riesling and / or Riesling sparkling wine. The noblest is bottle-fermented Riesling sparkling wine - soft on the palate, with a fine mousse. Refill if necessary. Anyone who appreciates particularly heavy fragrances and flavors should try the recipe with a strong Gewürztraminer and then if it is too lavishly wrong, dilute the punch a la Schorle to the right taste. Garnish the glasses with sugar rim, (rose) petals, slices of lime.
Image Source: melbflowershow.com.au
Save currants
The currants ripen from the end of June. Last year, the delicious berries were plundered particularly heavily and literally by blackbirds, thrushes, and starlings. Those who want to prevent this from happening are better off integrating the shrubs into bird protection nets. But be careful: the birds often enter the nets from below and then cannot find the exit. Check twice a day during the "hot phase"!
Keep compost weed-free
Lawn material should only be composted if it is free of weed seeds. To ensure that weed flowers have no seeds, close mowing intervals are required.
Prevent mosquitoes
June is the wettest month of the year. Wherever all kinds of vessels are now standing, rainwater can collect in them - ideal terrain for mosquitoes to lay their eggs in. Check your garden for such breeding grounds and empty them in good time. Where mosquito larvae frolic: Your garden pond fish are looking forward to an extra meal!
Cutting cuttings
If you have a green thumb, you can use the tips of the young shoots of numerous ornamental shrubs (e.g. forsythia, hydrangeas, potentilla) around the middle of the month to cut cuttings. The shoot is ripe for cuttings if it hardens at the lower end but is not yet wooded - then it is the easiest to form roots.
Securing water barrels
Summertime - time for children's games. Wherever rain barrels are now connected to downpipes or other ways of producing process water are installed in the garden, care must be taken that they are childproof. Rain barrels, for example, must have a tightly fitting lid so that children cannot accidentally fall into them and drown in them.
