June growing guide
🔆 High 17° | 🌙 Low 9.3° | 🌧️ 8.8 rainy days
With the cooler weather setting in, now’s a perfect time to establish new plants and fill in any gaps in your garden.
Veggies
Plant Rhubarb crowns in well-rotted, manure enriched soil. **Beware: Rhubarb leaves are poisonous, so only use the stems if cooking.
Plant Artichoke, Jerusalem artichoke and asparagus in a sunny, well-drained spot. Asparagus can produce for 20 years or more so be careful to pick the right spot.
Time to get minty fresh! Rejuvenate all kinds of mints. Lift out congested clumps, then split or cut off the individual healthy, leafy sections. Re-pot in fresh potting mix and water well.
Harvest ginger and galangal.
We all know onions have layers, but what about their ideal growing conditions? Weed around your onions as they hate competition, but don’t mulch them as this can cause disease around their delicate leaves.
What to plant in the veggie patch
Asparagus, silverbeet, broad beans, cabbage, carrots, Asian greens, cress, English spinach, Jerusalem artichoke, lettuce, mustard, onions, celery, peas, rhubarb and shallots.
Fruit
Most backyard citrus trees have strong fruiting branches grafted onto a strong root stock. However, if branches start to grow from below the grafting line, move these suckers to stop them from competing with the main plant.
June is a great time to plant and care for your deciduous trees while they’re dormant and bare. Prune and remove any dead wood with a clean, sharp blade.
To plant bare-rooted specimens such as deciduous fruit trees, soak roots in liquid seaweed mixture then plant in soil that has been enriched with compost.
Fertilise paw paws with a trace elements mixture.
Plant berries such as raspberry and currants in a sunny spot with well-drained soil and plenty of compost.
Natives
Looking for an easy-going plant made for these conditions? Continue to plant natives where winters are mild as they will settle quickly with little fuss and minimal watering.
Prune late-autumn flowering Banksias by cutting off the old flowers back to a node. This encourages the plant to bush out, but also remain compact. I like to leave about a third of the flowers on the plant to develop the classic woody fruit that banksias are known for. Now is also a good time to feed them with a low phosphorus fertiliser.
Rainforest raspberries begin to fruit this month but get in early before the birds get them!
Flowers
Plant the last of your spring-flowering seedlings and bulbs early this month to ensure you have a beautiful showing in a few months’ time.
There’s still time to plant quick-growing annuals such as alyssum, calendula, cosmos, nasturtium, nemesia and statice for an inexpensive mass of colour in spring.
Watering
Hopefully, there will be plenty of water falling from the sky this month, but winter winds can quickly dry out your soil. Check it regularly and make sure any water is getting to the plant’s roots by checking under your mulch for dampness. In most areas, decrease the amount and regularity of hand-watering to no more than twice a week.
Shrubs and trees that were planted in autumn will still need a deep soaking once a week during dry periods.
Despite the cool, make sure citrus and other fruiting trees get a deep, regular drink to ensure their produce remains sweet and juicy.
Pest watch
Brassicas such as broccoli and cauliflowers are now in full swing, but so is the cabbage white butterfly. Pick off any green caterpillars you can find or spray your veggies with Dipel, which is an organic product that spells bad news for the larvae.
Remove fallen fruit and leaves from under fruit trees and clean off any rough bark that might offer hiding spots for pests. Spray with a strong mix of lime sulphur now, and again in late July.
Check citrus such as lemons and oranges for the first signs of stink bug (bronze orange bug). The early, nymphal stages of green and orange are easier to kill with an application of White Oil or Pyrethrum. **Always wear gloves and protective glasses when dealing with stink bug as they can spray citric acid.
Tools
If it is too cold or raining too heavily to spend quality time in your garden, use the down time to service your tools. Take apart, clean, oil and sharpen your loppers, secateurs and shears.