Down to earth: The June Garden
Pruning in June
Wow, what crazy weather we’ve been having: warm, beautiful autumnal days followed by full-on wind and weeks of on-and-off rain. Still, overall it’s been clement weather to be out in the garden tidying up any loose ends before winter kicks in.
I’m completing my compost that’s situated on a bed in the middle of the vegetable patch so it captures nutrients. Green crops are growing nicely (I used an oats/vetch mix that handles cooler temperatures), as are winter brassicas, leeks and silverbeet. I still have some carrots, beetroot, parsnip, potatoes, and Jerusalem artichokes in the ground especially for winter roasting. I’m eating salads of miner’s lettuce, corn salad, lettuce, red dandelion, and endive that have self-seeded, which makes getting winter greens easy. Pumpkins and squash are stored in a cool, dry place, but I keep an eye on them for rot and rodent damage (so does Bilou the cat!).
I recently sowed peas and broad beans for spring harvest. All the beds not in green crops are mulched with seagrass, which protects the soil from heavy rain/leaching, frost, and provides added nutrition.
In the orchard it’s a good time for winter pruning. Remove the inner branches of vase-shaped or open-trained fruits like plums, peaches and some apples. Replace old spurs, especially those underneath branches that get little light. Shorten really long, low-hanging branches too. Use a similar process for the centre leader system, but maintain tiers (bottom, middle and top), remove crossing branches, shorten over-long leaders and replace spurs. Pruning is all about creating space for the branches to grow and sustain loads of fruit, with good airflow for disease prevention and access so beneficials can gobble pests.
I’m emptying the chook run of woody shreddings full of manure now and spreading it around fruits, especially citrus and other subtropicals. Shelter belts or ornamental trees and shrubs pruned now are ideally shredded and mulched throughout the ornamental and fruit gardens to feed the beneficial fungi.
Fruit care
Plant fruit trees when available. Create swales or terraces if your garden slopes.
Harvest late apples, feijoas, tamarillos, persimmons, pepinos and kiwifruit. Store fruit in boxes in a cool, rodent-free place. Check often and discard rotten fruit.
Feed orchard with dolomite lime, rock phosphate, manure and woody compost.
Prepare strawberry beds and plant runners to replace old plants.
Prune berryfruits. Cut back red and whitecurrants by a third. Remove all blackcurrant wood that has fruited, leaving only young shoots. Prune gooseberries into a vase shape. Remove old raspberry canes. Tie up any new canes.
Spray all fruits with diluted seaweed. Now that leaves have fallen, spray copper oxychloride or lime sulphur (but not both together) on fruits susceptible to black spot, brown rot, leaf curl or canker, etc. Remember to use protective clothing and shower afterwards. It’s best to spray in a slight breeze so you know where the spray goes, rather than on a still day where it can settle on you!
Spray citrus with all-purpose oil for scale insect, or neem for aphids.
Herb care
Transplant rooted cuttings like pineapple sage.
Plant herbs, eg parsley, or transplant self-seeded perennials like chives.
Trim, weed and mulch to keep healthy.
Vegetable care
Keep cloches on young plants.
Plant garlic, shallots and onions. Add lots of compost, or well-rotted manure, lime, rock phosphate and wood ash.
Prepare ground for peas and broad beans with lime and a little compost, and sow.
Process saved seed: dry, clean and freeze seed for a week, then store.
Liquid feed weekly, especially young seedlings of spinach, brassicas and leeks, using diluted urine or manure brews.
Plant new asparagus for cropping in spring 2012. Existing asparagus: cut ferns off and tend beds with lime, lots of compost and straw/seagrass.
Mulch any vacant beds with manure, seagrass, seaweed, grass clippings or straw.
Hothouse: Make a compost heap to aid warming. Plant salads. Clean plastic or glass for better winter light.
For transplanting: All seeds 14 June. Spring onions and leafy greens (spinach, spinach beet, lettuce, endive, Japanese greens, Chinese cabbage, spring cabbages) (also 6 June). Flowers, eg pansy (also 13 June).
Sow direct: All seeds 14 June. Mesclun salad, spring onions (also 6 June). Peas and broad beans (7–8 June). Flowers, eg alyssum.
Plant: Best 15–29 June. Onions, garlic, shallots, salad greens, spinach, cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower. Flowers.
General garden care
Turn compost heaps.
Check out seed catalogues to get inspired for spring. See Kings Seeds Ltd, Koanga Gardens, Eco Seeds.
Lime existing lawns.
Prune trees, hedges and shrubs after flowering, including roses.
Clean and fix garden tools. Make a tub with used cooking oil and sand/sawdust mix to dip tools in after use.
Sol Morgan, GroWise Consultancy
