Vegetable garden tips for June

Mon. Jun. 8, 2020

Click below to listen to my 2 min. Garden Bite radio show: Vegetable garden tips for June

June is an exciting month for vegetable gardeners!  We’ve got our warm season plants in the ground and we’ve already been munching on salad greens!

I come home each day for lunch! This photo was last year. This year I had to move my butterfly garden to the area due to road construction
I had to put all those plants in a temporary home… the upper tier of my veg garden…

Although most folks have got their tomatoes, peppers and herbs in the ground, you still have a week, however, it would be best to find tomatoes like ‘Early Girl’, short season growers.

June 2020

You can start successive plantings of beets, peas and shorter season crops.

Detroit dark red beets 

Also fans of broccoli, cauliflower, and brussel sprouts can plant them in June for a Fall harvest.

Broccoli

With rain, comes the weeds and they are plentiful in the veggie garden! I use dried ornamental grasses for mulch (see photo above), you can use any organic matter including grass clippings.

The first few weeks of a vegetable plant’s growth are the “critical period” for weed control, they’ll have the biggest effect on how well the plants grow and produce, so manage them diligently!  In other words, pull them and mulch.

June’s a great time to make trellises for climbing vegetables. Crops like cucumbers, peas, and pole beans love to climb and will produce best when there is something for them to grow up onto. Some types of melons and pumpkins can be trellised, too!  I have an old bed spring for my zucchini.

Zucchini and an old child bedspring (this year is peas)

Trellis and cage tips from the Univ. of MN Ext.

Think about watering!  Most people over-water. Generally speaking plants need just one inch of water (including rain) per week.

The University of Minnesota Extension says, overly-watered soil can foster diseases and insect pests, and impact plant health and productivity.  Decide whether you need to water by feeling the top few inches of the soil. You can see the Dramm Soaker hose I use in the above photo.

Once plants are established and growing rapidly, water if the top 4 inches of the soil are dry.

For newly sewn, shallow seeds like lettuce or carrots, water frequently in order to keep the surface of the soil moist and encourage seeds to germinate.

Share your ideas on my Garden Bite facebook page! I’d love to see them.