GARDENING
Cultivating with Clive
June 2025
Summer officially starts on Saturday the 21st of June according to the astronomical calendar. This is the longest day of the year called the Summer Solstice. So, daylight will last approximately 16.5 hours on this day.
So, things in the garden are now growing vigorously and you will need to get watering if we get a dry spell. You will also have to keep on top of weeding as the weeds will be competing for moisture with your plants. This is also the time of year when pests are at their height. PLEASE DON’T USE PESTICIDES as sprays don’t just kill the greenfly, blackfly and other pests, they will also kill the friendly insects like butterflies, moths, bees, and ladybirds.
You can mix a small amount of washing up liquid with water and spray on affected plants. However, what I do is to mix my own organic insecticide.
HOMEMADE ORGANIC PESTICIDE
Spray on the affected plants or veg, then keep the unused solution for future use. If it becomes lumpy and congealed pop the mixture in the microwave for a couple of minutes to heat up before putting through a sieve again.
Feeding your plants and produce is important at this time of the year. You can buy fertilisers like tomato feed which is high in potassium which helps the flower and fruit development. Seaweed fertilisers provide a broad range of nutrients and trace elements acting as a general soil improver and promotes plant vigour. I use both, but at the allotment we have comfrey growing. I cut this at the bottom of the stems and place the plants in my water butts. After a couple of weeks, I have free fertiliser.
I sow my sweet corn in blocks not in rows as sweet corn is pollinated by the wind so planting your plants this way will increase your crop.
As soon as your perennials – lupins, delphiniums and ornamental poppies have finished flowering – cut them back to their base and hopefully a new flush of flowers will appear later in the season.
THINGS TO DO THIS MONTH
- Keep deadheading and feeding to encourage growth and new flowers.
- Stake floppy flowers so they don’t fall over and snap in the wind.
- Keep mulching to keep the moisture in the soil.
- Water well in dry spells.
- Raise the lawnmower blades in drought to help keep the lawn moist.
- Shade your greenhouse with netting or fleece.
- Don’t cut hedges or bushes as the birds are still nesting.
- Sow or plant courgettes, pumpkins, marrows and sweetcorn.
- Keep sowing small amounts of salad for a continued supply over the summer.
- Harvest first early potatoes.
Happy Gardening!
May 2025
May is my favourite month, not only is it my birthday month but the flower shows open all over the country. The garden is really waking up now, the soil is getting warmer and the days are getting longer, so there is plenty to do this month.
I buy my bedding plants around the middle of May. I also make up my hanging baskets. I buy a good peat free compost from a reputable garden centre. My favourite is John Innes Multi-Purpose Compost.
I mix this with some water saving crystals which when watered turn into a gel. Don’t use to much as it does expand quite a lot. One year I made this mistake and when I watered the finished baskets all the plants fell out of the top as the gel expanded. I also add Osmocote slow release feed pellets, one to each basket.
I will clear all the remaining spring bedding and put on the compost heap. Also dead-head all the spring bulbs once they have finished flowering, as you want all the energy from the foliage to go back into the bulb for next year’s display.
I will plant out my tomato seedlings at the end of the month. I tend to plant them quite deep as I cut off the first set of leaves on the stem and use that as my depth guide. This will create a better root system and ensure the plants fruit prolifically.
Now is a good time to empty your compost bin and spread it over your garden or veg patch. This helps retain moisture in the soil throughout the summer months. It will also enrich the soil over time when the worms do their job of dragging down the compost into the soil.
I will be sowing my sweetcorn, courgettes and squash in the greenhouse this month. However if you don’t have a greenhouse or cold frame you could use a window sill. I use coir based pots which make it easier to transplant as you just pop the plant and pot into the ground without damaging the root system. Keep your greenhouse or cold frame well ventilated but close it in the evening as it can still get quite chilly at night this time of year.
I will plant my main crop potatoes now by digging a trench and keep them well watered and harden off all seedlings ready to plant them out by the end of the month. I will also net my strawberry plants to stop the birds from eating the fruits.
THINGS TO DO THIS MONTH
- Lower blades on your lawn mower to summer levels.
- Treat and feed the lawn.
- Sow tender veg.
- Harvest asparagus when the spears are at a good height, cutting them just below the surface of the soil.
- Keep on top of weeds and pests – please DON’T use pesticides. I make my own organic mix using garlic and black pepper boiled, liquidised then sieved. I then spray it on my plants and veg.
- Plant bedding plants and hanging baskets towards the end of the month.
- Keep cold frames and greenhouses well ventilated.
Happy Gardening!
April 2025
If we get a frost the leaves on the plant or shrub will eventually turn brown so just cut off the offending damaged part of the shrub and it will recover in no time. I still try to keep a fleece on my tender plants until May just to be sure they don’t get frosted.
I always feed my spring bulbs with a tomato feed once they have finished flowering as this will help fertilise the bulb for next year’s display. Don’t forget to nip off the spent flowering heads – if you don’t this will encourage the bulb to make seeds and not concentrate in building up energy for next year.
It is also a good time to get out and prune Winter flowering heathers, forsythia, hardy fuchsias and evergreen hedges. However I tend to leave my hedges until June/July when I know all the birds have finished nesting.
If you have young children why not make a bug hotel with them? You can use some old tin cans tied together or cram them in a box, then just fill them with old sticks of bamboo for the insects to make their home for the summer.
Or just make a pile of old logs and wood somewhere out of the way and keep an eye on what happens through the rest of the year.
THINGS TO DO THIS MONTH
- Prune early flowering shrubs.
- Repot house plants that have become pot bound.
- Keep on top of the dead heading of bulbs.
- Start to feed plants – I use a home grown comfrey mix – more next month on this.
- Sow hardy veg outdoors.
- Sow under cover or indoors courgette, tomatoes and squash.