Master My Garden Podcast
Master My Garden Podcast
-EP280 What To Sow In June, Laois Garden Festival Recap & Other Gardening Jobs: Maximizing June: Seeds to Sow Now
Ever wondered what to plant in June when your garden beds already seem packed to capacity? This episode answers that crucial question, revealing why continuous sowing through early summer is the secret to garden abundance all year round.
The truth is, June represents a pivotal transition in the vegetable garden. While your growing spaces might appear fully occupied now, within weeks early crops will be harvested, creating valuable real estate for new plantings. The gardeners who stop sowing in June create unnecessary gaps in their harvest calendar later in the year.
We explore the complete June sowing guide, from quick-maturing succession crops like spinach, radish and lettuce, to the longer-term investments of purple sprouting broccoli and winter cabbages. Learn why certain vegetables justify their extended growing period by providing rare flavors during the hunger gap. I share specific variety recommendations for root vegetables, brassicas, and warm-weather crops that need sowing this month for autumn and winter harvests.
Beyond sowing, we address critical June garden tasks like earthing up potatoes, managing increasing weed pressure, and protecting tomatoes from blight risk. I explain how dramatic temperature fluctuations (sometimes swinging from 3°C to 38°C in a single day) can temporarily stunt plant growth, helping you diagnose unexplained growth plateaus.
The episode opens with reflections from the Buds and Blossoms Festival, where I had the pleasure of meeting many podcast listeners in person. I also share a fascinating discovery about William Robinson's true origins near my home in County Laois, settling a long-standing debate from our previous episode.
Ready to maximize your growing season? This episode provides the roadmap for turning June plantings into winter feasts. Your future self will thank you for the planning!
If there is any topic you would like covered in future episodes, please let me know.
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Until next week
Happy gardening
John
how's it going, everybody, and welcome to episode 280 of master, my garden podcasts. Now, this week's episode we're looking at what to sow in the month of june and typically we do this episode on the first friday of the month, but last week I had Coward on and needed to get that episode out before the Buds and Blossoms Festival last weekend, and so it's pushed out, pushed out a little bit. It's normally the first Friday of the month, as I say, and it serves normally serves as a kind of a useful reminder to people as to what to sow in the month ahead. But yeah, it's been a great week. So just to sort of recap on, I suppose, last week's episode to a certain extent, and then last weekend as well. So last week's episode with Tom, we spoke about William Robinson and how he's kind of a little bit forgotten in terms of, you know, in terms of gardening and but that overall, his, his methods and his teachings and some of his books have been and are still the kind of cornerstone of a lot of garden design. You know, things that we come accustomed to, like the perennial borders and wild gardens and so on, and those, you know, that type of style was originally you know, originally developed by by him. And you might remember back to the episode.
Speaker 1:There's a bit of debate, or there was a bit of debate around where actually William Robinson is from. Because you know, as Tom mentioned, leash had some sort of a claim on him, so too did Carlo some, so too did Down, potentially Donegal and Dublin, and a lot of people you know seem to kind of have a claim on it. And it was. You know, it was a great weekend in that Tom was being collected from the airport on Saturday to come down to Buds and Blossoms and on the way down they rang me. But because I live in a place called Doonan, cretiard County, leash, and there was some evidence that suggests that William Robinson was in the area as a very, very young child and we actually got proof then that he was christened in a church quite close by, within kind of two miles of where I am. So it kind of put it to bed categorically that he is from Leash and it was really interesting. We're kind of delving a little bit further into that now as to you know, his kind of early days. But it was really interesting, we're kind of delving a little bit further into that now as to, you know, his kind of early days, but it was really interesting and you know, we met some interesting people and went on a bit of a journey on Saturday.
Speaker 1:Sunday then was obviously Buds and Blossoms itself and it's, you know, for me that's the second time I've spoken at it. It's lovely to speak at those events, really enjoy it and what, but what I really liked afterwards was there was several of you to come up to me who listen to the podcast on a weekly basis and, as I've said multiple times before, the amount of time that you know, you're behind the microphone here I'm recording, but I don't know who's on the other side, who's listening and and who's, you know, tuning in on a weekly basis, getting benefit from the podcast, maybe learning from the podcast, maybe enjoying the podcast. I don't always know, in fact, I rarely know who they, you, who you are, and it's so nice, then, to kind of make connections. Make connections that way. I know I've kind of you know mentioned it before but please do, if you're listening, do connect with me, say hello, instagram or email or whatever the case may be. It's really nice to create, you know, a connection between myself and yourselves, the listeners. I'm sure, you know, a lot of people said they're listening, they listen on a weekly basis, and you know some of them loved certain types of topics and it was so good to hear that because it's kind of feedback and you know. You know, then, that what you're doing is, you know, is helping people.
Speaker 1:The only other couple of weeks ago when I was driving into bloom was really nice as well. I was in traffic just as we entered the car parks and you know there was a couple of people walked by with a good few children and somebody shouted in oh hi, john, I love your podcast, and I just kept walking. But I have no idea who that person was. But it was nice that you know somebody again was listening to the podcast and then said hello, um, yeah, so if you are, if you are listening, just do, do give a shout. The talk itself went really well. Um, you know, got good feedback afterwards and, yeah, really enjoyed it myself. It's you know something, I, something I don't do a lot of, but yeah, really, really enjoyed the talk and I think it went down very well. The following talks Colin Jones' one on Salter Bridge Garden creating a cut flower garden from scratch was superb.
Speaker 1:The whole journey from start to finish was brilliant and you know the outcome at the end. And to see the garden at the end and to see the whole thought process that went into it, you know, in terms of layout, in terms of design, in terms of soil preparation, soil health, and then execution at the end, where you know bouquets are available and cut flowers are available for a big event that was held down there. So that was a lovely story. And then, obviously, to hear Tom talking about William Robinson initially, and then moving on to Gravetide Manor and to see some pictures from there, to see the gardens from there. It's definitely somewhere I'm going to visit over the coming year for sure.
Speaker 1:At the end of his presentation there was a number of slides which were food slides Gravetide Manor is a hotel and has a Michelin star restaurant as well and to see you know Tom is over a vegetable garden and a big orchard there. And to see the, the plates that the chefs were producing from the produce it was. They just looked so special, like really, really, they look really phenomenal and uh, delicious. And at that time of the day on, when we were looking at the slides, you would be just really wishing you were sitting there in front of, in front of those plates of food. They look brilliant. The story the garden was brilliant. The story william robinson was brilliant. It was nice to be able to, you know, sort of prove or Tom was able to prove during his talk that you know he was in fact from Leish, and that was a kind of a nice touch. So, yeah, it was a superb weekend and thanks to everybody who said hello. And you know, as I say, keep keep contacting, keep messaging. It's lovely to hear from you all anyway.
Speaker 1:So to get back to this week's episode, as I say, slightly later than normal, I like to do this at the start of the month because it does give people, you know, kind of time to organize themselves over the course of the month. But it's an episode that every month proves really, really popular. And what to sew on the month of June? It's definitely, you know the list is is reducing slightly and June is a. It's a funny kind of a month from from the point of view of sewing and it's one where you can easily sort of back away from sewing because when you're looking around your beds, typically at this stage you have very, very little space left and the inclination at that stage is oh, that's it, there's nowhere else to put stuff and I stop sowing and then that means there's nothing coming. But even at this stage, you'll be starting to get some harvests. Certainly by the end of the month. You'll be a lot closer to having harvests and you know, without a doubt you'll be, you'll be finding space again in a couple of weeks time, which is when these seedlings or these plugs are going to be ready, available again. So don't stop sowing, even though your beds might be full, and sort of plan the next phase, because the sowing over this month, next month and into August, they're going to be the sowings that are going to guarantee supply right through the back end of the year and even up through Christmas and into next year, and those are the sowings that typically we leave behind and we forget about. And I think it's kind of important, you know, to utilize the spaces that we have and to continue to sow at this stage. So what can we sow? As I said, the list is getting less than the month of May, but we can definitely sow the successional crops again. So we're continuing with spring onion. It's going to be a constant throughout all our sowing months.
Speaker 1:Spinach is another one. At this time of the year you will find that spinach runs the seed quite quickly and because of that then we're looking at a really regular sowing of that. For me, when the spinach runs the seed, as soon as it starts to run the seed it just gets pulled out, thrown into the hens and there is another sowing then coming behind it all the time. Don't need to sow a lot, but just sow it regularly. Radish is another one. I dip in and out of that, but it's one that can be sowed again on a monthly basis. It is going to run to seed quite quickly at this time of the year, but if you do small amounts of sowings and keep sowing, then you're going to have kind of fresh, constant supply of radish.
Speaker 1:Lettuce, again, is another one, and any of you that were at the talk last Sunday you'll know that I talked about smart harvesting, where you can potentially get away without doing some of these sowings by allowing the lettuce to grow tall and keep just harvesting the outer leaves. But none, whichever way you're doing it, just continue to sow some lettuce all the time, small few to create seedlings you can direct. So even at this time of year. It makes it a lot easier and you can use, you know, things like mixed salad leaves at this time of the year and you can start to transition just towards the end of the month. You can start to transition into more autumn varieties and start to bring in, you know, like some mizuna and things like that. We'll fully transition over the coming months to really hardier winter winter ones. But at this stage you can do summer and kind of autumn stroke, early winter winter type sowings.
Speaker 1:Just watch out for lettuce. It's not really a problem at the minute. But lettuce, if we've got really really warm temperatures, lettuce just doesn't germinate at really high temperatures. Just watch out for that. But at the moment it's nothing to worry about. Certainly for the next looking ahead, for the next kind of week or so we're looking at getting I think it's thursday um, which will be the day after or the the day before this episode releases. There's talk of a yellow rain warning. So yeah, we're certainly not going to be um in any kind of a heat wave, you know, in the very near future. So that's kind of your, your successional crops.
Speaker 1:Then there's going to be seeds that you can sow this month, but you may not need it because you already have enough. For example, for me chard can be sowed this month, but I don't need to sow chard, I already have it sowed for the year. So you know, a few, a few plants of chard is kind of enough, so that's already done. So there's no need necessarily to sow this month. But packed choy can also be sowed and I kind of group them together, packed choy and charred, then leeks can continue to be sowed. This is kind of you know, kind of the last opportunity to do that, maybe a little bit next month, but more or less that's the last opportunity. And what we are looking at now is we're looking at autumn or winter varieties of leeks, because we're going to be harvesting them right deep into the into the winter and you know that's where you're going to need to have, I suppose, a later variety, one that's going to stand up to the cold, not necessarily at this stage, but obviously when it's getting into that winter time, november, december and so on.
Speaker 1:Then you can also sow quite a few of the herbs at this stage of the year. Again, coriander, I should have really included it with the successional stuff because it will run to seed very, very quickly at this time of the year. That can be sowed Both. Your parsley is the flat leaf and the curly leaf. Again, I'll be sowing some of those. I've some some sown already, but it will be sown another little bit because the first batch little bit mixed germination, so I don't have quite as much as I would have liked there. So I'll sow both of those over the coming weeks as well. Dill can also be sown. Chervil Basil I have a nice bit of Basil on the go already, but I will do another sowing of that just to try and get a little bit more longevity out of it.
Speaker 1:At the opposite end, at the far end of the harvesting, then we're looking at, you know, some of um, any of you that were at the talk last weekend I was kind of picking on cauliflower a little bit and but yeah, you can saw cauliflower this month. It's one that I saw a bit, but I don't, I think. I think it takes up a lot of space for the amount of produce you get from it. So I'm a little bit. Yeah, it's, it's okay, but it's um, it's, it's only one that, if you really have the space, I wouldn't be, you know, if you were stuck for space I certainly wouldn't include cauliflower in your sewing, but you can. So again, you're looking to switch to autumn, winter varieties at this stage.
Speaker 1:Same for calabrese, again a little bit like the cauliflower, not, you know, not the most productive purple sprout, and broccoli, on the other hand, again, that'll sit in the ground for a long, long time. But the difference for me with purple sprout and broccoli is that it's a. It's a. It's a, I suppose, a harvest of tender greens at a time of the year where there's very, very little else that tastes like it. And for that reason I think it's, it's kind of a must have in any vegetable garden. Granted, it does take up a lot of space and it does take a long time, but that little pop of purple tender sprouts at that time of the year, again it's. It's a seasonal thing, it'll only be for a few weeks, but at that stage of the year that will be so welcome, and that's why it's so worthwhile sowing purple sprout and broccoli at this time of the year, and cabbages as well. Same thing.
Speaker 1:Certain times of the year cabbage I love, other times I couldn't. You know, I don't care whether I have it or not, but in that winter period, red cabbage, which can be sowed this month, savoy cabbage, all of those are beautiful. So again, a great month July is a great month to get those sowed. And again we're looking at harvests, you know, deep into the winter and early next spring, and so we are kind of planning down the line here. And then we look at kind of some of the root vegetables and there's still a few of these that we can sow.
Speaker 1:Beetroot for me, the last sowing of those, I'll do the last sowing of those this month and that's going to be a kind of a winter variety. So you know, early in the time I'll be sowing bolt hardy and then later on I'll be switching varieties and I'll be going for a winter variety. Swedes again, I saw some of those and you're looking at kind of autumn winter harvest here. Little turnips, milan purple tops, they're going to be a lot quicker. So you're sowing now but you'll be harvesting, you know, relatively quickly over the period of next kind of two months or so.
Speaker 1:Um, the small sowings of those. You don't need a big sowing and you will get to catch another sowing of those later as well. Carrots again, you're switching to an autumn variety or an autumn winter variety at this stage. And parsnips this is kind of the last chance this month to sow those. I don't sow. I have my parsnips sown more or less so I don't need to do another sowing. There's one little patch of both the parsnips sewn, more or less, so I don't need to do another sewing. There's one little patch of both the parsnips and carrots where the germination was a little bit patchy and I might just do a little bit of a spot sewing in there. But it's more to replace a batch that just didn't take for whatever reason I think it was. So they were sewn and then, during that really dry period I think they just might have got dried out at one stage or other, and but that's the only little sown that I'll do is just to patch up a bit of a drill. That's that's there I'm not doing.
Speaker 1:There's not a huge amount in it, and so that's kind of your root vegetables parsnip, carrot, turnip, swede and beetroot, and they can all be soed this month. Then there's a few of the what we call the warm, the ones that need warmth to germinate, and it's kind of the last chance with some of these as well. Cucumber is one, courgette is another, sweetcorn is another. I've sweetcorn gone already. I've courgette in, I've cucumber in, pumpkin I've sowed Again. That's more for you, you know, just for a little lady here, for for Halloween than anything else.
Speaker 1:It's not really, you know, as a as a crop as such. But if you are growing for, for a crop, now is the time to get it in. You really will need, you know it'll need to be done this month because you'll need that time frame to, you know, to get them to mature and so on. Squash as well, kind of the last chance for so on those.
Speaker 1:I do find that a lot of the squash varieties, huge amount of the squash varieties, get it really really hard to, I suppose, reach full maturity. I just don't think that we're getting the high enough temperatures for a consistent length of time, especially in my tunnel with the open sides. If you have a closed in tunnel you might actually be able to, you know, keep a lot of warmth in there over a long period of time. I just find that they're just not getting enough heat to fully develop out and you know the way that they would, that you would see them out in spain and portugal and all these places, and I think it's down to the you you know. Just there's especially in my tunnel. There isn't that consistent heat for a long enough period. I've grown them successfully in the past, but they're not successful every year. So, yeah, but this month is really the last kind of chance you'll get at that.
Speaker 1:You can still continue to sow French bean, either the wharf varieties or climate varieties, and they'll be really successful really quick. Peas as well, they can be sown, and celery can be sown. That's kind of can be sown all the time there. But just be careful again, don't cover celery seed when you're sowing it. So it needs to be open, be open. And yeah, that's kind of.
Speaker 1:The list probably missed one or two there, I think, maybe. But yeah, just to run over them again, your kind of successional things like spinach, spring onion, radish, lettuce, summer leaves I'll throw coriander in there with them as the you know, the sort of successional things. Then you can sow pak choy and chard if you haven't done a sowing already. Then leeks, you're switching to autumn, winter varieties. The rest of the herbs parsley, dill, chervil, flat leaf parsley, curly parsley, basil and then some of your brassica family. So cabbages your purple sprout and broccoli, your savoy cabbage, purple cabbage, calabrese, cauliflower you know all of those and again, where possible, switching to autumn stroke, winter varieties, your root vegetables parsnip last chance this month carrots, turnips, swede and beetroot Again last chance to sow those. A couple of the you know the warm varieties you're looking at cucumber, courgettes, sweet corn, pumpkin, squash, french beans and peas and celery, and that kind of concludes the list that you can sow this month.
Speaker 1:As I said, this month has kind of changed a bit. Last month is definitely the busiest in terms of sowing and it's the biggest kind of list that you can sow. The list has reduced slightly this year with, or this month with, certain things coming off it, but there's a kind of a change now. So your beds are full. Typically, the crops are expanding, they're getting bigger. Some will be ready for harvest, but you're maybe not quite there yet. That's typically what you see in the month of june.
Speaker 1:Continue to sow, though, because by the time those crops are ready, you'll need something to get into that space in order to give you continuity of crop. So keep, keep sowing. That's the big, that's the big thing. Space can definitely be tight at this stage if you do have the opportunity, you know, with things like radish or spring onions. So little catch crops doesn't have to be a big amount. Little catch crops. In between any gaps that you might have, you know they will. You know, even if rows of carrots, for example, sow, instance, some spring onions, they'll do really well and they'll be harvested. They'll be out of there long before the, the carrots are anywhere near mature or anywhere that that the you know the leaves or the canopy of the carrots are going to cover over. It'll also help from the point of view of repelling any maybe carrot root fly and so on. That's kind of an idea of catching these crops. Make sure you're utilizing every bit of space because, as I say, space will be tight in the month of June.
Speaker 1:Potatoes continue to art them up. Some of them probably will be getting to the point where they're flowering now and that's a good sign. But continue to art them up as much as possible. If you're growing them in containers particularly, keep an eye out that you know you're keeping enough water on them, even if it is raining sometimes in containers that get get dried out, and so just make sure that there's enough moisture in in those containers, because they're going to need that moisture to drive all that top growth and to push moisture into the tubers to create the, the potatoes that will fill out and get bigger over the over the coming months, you should potentially in certain areas not not here just yet, but in certain areas be getting close to a first harvest on your early potatoes, you know, your first earlies and maybe some of your salad potatoes and so on. Definitely, as I say, not here, just as I say, colder all the time, but they'll be coming and they're growing really, really well. So, yeah, they're on the horizon.
Speaker 1:The other things to watch out for is weeds. Definitely at this stage, wheat growth really increases in the month of june you typically end up with, you know quite a bit of so the seedlings start to germinate, typically through april and by may time they're starting to come, but they're not that strong. But in June you will notice quite a big burst of wheat growth. The easiest way to keep on top of it is to keep tipping at that all the time, especially if you're operating in no-dig beds. Just pass through the beds on a regular basis once a week, pulling out any little seedlings, and then it doesn't allow anything to sort of take hold or, you know establish itself in the bed. So just keep on top of it, nice and simple, regular, regular rather than, you know, allowing a problem to develop and then trying to combat it from there on your tomatoes. Keep them fed, you know, watered, keep driving them on, keep tying them up as they're going. Ensure as much as possible.
Speaker 1:We've a kind of a blight warning over the last week and you know, I don't know how long that's going to continue, but you're going to look to keep the ventilation for your tomatoes as much as possible, keep the vents open where possible, keep the doors open where possible, and all of the tips that I gave a few weeks ago watering the ground, not the plant, keeping the leaves dry, doing any pruning in the morning time to allow the the any wounds that you create while you're pruning to dry up ahead of the night time, and the more of those sort of husbandry things that you can do, the less likelihood you're going to have of developing any kind of blight on your tomatoes. So watch out for that. Outdoors then for blight for potatoes. That's where the big warning has been over the last week. We're looking at warm temperatures, a good bit of moisture, and they're ideal conditions for blight.
Speaker 1:There is a couple of, you know if you, particularly if you have main crop potatoes, there's a couple of you know if you, particularly if you have main crop potatoes there's a couple of different sprays that you can put on that you can use them, but you do need to use them on a regular basis. The other thing that you can do, which I do here, is seaweed spray. Seaweed on them on a weekly basis really does strengthen the plants, and I am using the pro biocarbon liquid formulation, which isn't strictly speaking for blight, but I am seeing that it's strengthening. And I am using the pro-biocarbon liquid formulation, which isn't strictly speaking for blight, but I am seeing that it's strengthening the plant, along with the seaweed. It's strengthening the plant really, really well and, fingers crossed, it's going to continue to resist against any blight that might be coming over the coming weeks. So, yeah, that's kind of the jobs for the month.
Speaker 1:It changes, you know. Know, year to year, the list is the same in terms of what you can sow, but the conditions that we're finding at the various times are changing, and while a few weeks ago we were talking about, you know, really warm, sunny, dry conditions, certainly over the last week there has been last two, two weeks, maybe even heading for three at this stage. There's been a severe lack of light and, you know, not really getting sunny days. We're getting these overcast days. Temperatures are up and down.
Speaker 1:I saw somebody last week posted a photograph and it was really interesting. They had a max min thermometer in their greenhouse and if any of you are seeing sporadic or stunted growth in greenhouses, this is definitely why they had a maximum thermometer and the maximum temperature in a 24-hour period was 38 degrees celsius and the lowest temperature in the same 24-hour period was three degrees. So when you have that much of a variance now maybe the, maybe the doors or the vents were open, I don't know but to have a variance like that in growth, what happens is the plants, no matter what plants we're talking about those plants will get a kind of a mini shock because to be at a temperature of, you know, 30s degrees now those can be reading slightly high depending on where the position in the house, but let's say it's 30 degrees in the greenhouse and you're getting that, the plants are getting that, there's a lot of transpiration, they're, they're really warm, the, the soil is warm and all of that you know, and then that night, you know, within a short period of time, there's temperatures of four degrees, three degrees, four degrees. That is a massive, massive drop and that's going to give the plants little shocks.
Speaker 1:And what happens when a plant gets a shock of any type, whether they dry out or whether they get these big fluctuations in in temperature, they actually kind of stagnate a little bit. And you will notice that and I've certainly noticed it myself where there's certain certain things were growing really well and for the last kind of week or 10 days it looks like they're just sitting there. Now all of a sudden they will kick off again, but they do kind of go into a little state of mini shock. And if you're, if you're wondering what's happening in your tunnel, that's potentially what it is or even outside in your beds, because you know the same thing is going to be replicated where this week we've had morning time temperatures really really cold when I say really cold, you know kind of six degrees, seven degrees, eight degrees into in the early mornings and then by mid-afternoon you're up to kind of 20 degrees, 22 degrees, and again that's a big variance, you know, outside, and it is those variances that are going to cause little kind of checks and little kind of holes within the plant, but they will grow out of it and it's.
Speaker 1:It's no different. You know, we get this kind of every year but it presents itself in different ways. But yeah, that's um, that's the kind of interesting weather and it just goes to show that every year, when you cover this month by month sowing guide, it's very rare that one year to the next, the month of June or the month of May or the month of April is the same, and that's certainly true to form again this year. But there's loads to be sown. But that's the main takeaway point is to continue to sow, because during the month of June, as I say, your beds will be full. There's not going to be much space in your mind to say where am I going to put these vegetables when they're ready? But definitely over the coming weeks you're going to start to have harvest and as soon as you have harvest, it's really nice to have new plants, new sowings to go in there and that will mean that you're going to be able to create some longevity into your harvest and utilize your space to the max. So that's the takeaway from today's episode is to continue to sow.
Speaker 1:We'll be back next month with the sowing month for the what? The sowing month of july. That will actually be quite quickly now, because this one has gone a little bit later than than normal. So, as I say, it's normally the first friday of the month, but yeah, that's that's. Sometimes these things happen, but hopefully you're all gonna hear it in time to get, as I said, to get some benefit from it again. Thanks to everybody to come up and say hello on the weekend and really nice to meet, to meet new people, met some people that you know listen to the podcast, but I had met them last year as well and lovely to meet them again. But to the new people who, who I haven't spoke to before, that was really nice to to see on the weekend and yeah, that's been this week's episode. Thanks for listening and I'll tell you next time. Happy gardening.