Once again, the old gardening definition of the month carries a warning - it's not summer until the end of the month. Unpredictable weather defines what you are able to do - you may have to start watering crops, or you may be in the shed sheltering from the rain. Time to keep a sharp look out for any pest or disease - "get" them early.
With any luck, it is also the month for first real harvests - the "hungry season" is over! Time to clear out the freezer - make lots of space available for the gluts of the next couple of months. Prepare your stored jam and pickle jars - and make sure you have jam pot covers and pickle jar seals.
General Tasks
» Continue successional sowings from May.
» Weeding.
» Watering if weather is dry..
» Watch for early signs of any pests/diseases.
» Sow short summer green manures.
Potato/Tomato family (Solanums)
» Water Potatoes.
» Tomatoes should be hardened off and planted out.
» Harvesting - lift a few First Earlies?
Bean/Pea family (Legumes)
» Pinch top shoots of Broad Beans.
» Continue sowing French Beans.
» If first crop of peas is ready, pick regularaly to encourage other pods.
» Water regularly as legumes come into flower and pods fill.
» Harvesting - autumn-sown Broad Beans and Peas.
Brassica family
» Transplant any brassica seedlings ready this month.
» Harvesting - Radishes, Rocket, and Turnips.
Root vegetables
» Do not allow carrots to dry out.
» Harvesting - Carrots.
Onion family (Alliums)
» Transplant Leek seedlings - either to beds vacated by brassicas of last year, or by new potatoes this year.
» Pull soil off onions to let sun ripen them.
» Harvesting - Spring Onions, Japanese/over-wintered Onions.
Other vegetable families
» Pinch cucumber and marrow tips; keep soil moist and mulch; feed.
» Not too late to sow the squash family direct in your beds.
» Harvesting - Asparagus (until mid-month), Beetroot, Lettuce, Spinach; last year's chard may still give you a picking, before it is completely exhausted.
Herbs
» Sow parsley for next spring.
» Remove flower heads from mints and lemon balm.
Fruit
» Protect strawberries with mulch of straw, and netting.
» Protect your fruit bushes from birds.
» Harvesting - Rhubarb, gooseberries, strawberries; pick fruit as it comes ready.