What to Do in the Garden In June

Vegetable plants, flowers, and landscape plants are all in full-out growth this month. Wondering what you need to focus on in June? Don’t worry; we’ve got your June gardening tasks covered.

Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance

Now that your bulbs have emerged, buds have opened and your plants are in the ground, you’ll need to make sure that they’re growing well. Putting plants into the ground is only the first step towards taking care of your garden and landscape. If you live in a warmer zone, your days are starting to warm up. You may need to water more often to keep the ground moist, especially in the vegetable garden. By the end of the month, you might need to consider putting shade cloth over your plants to reduce some of the intense afternoon sun (this is especially important in areas where the afternoon sun is rather intense, like Arizona or Texas).

At the beginning of the season, pests likely weren’t much of an issue. This month, they’ll be out in full force. Staying on top of pests is going to be one of your hardest gardening tasks. If you can catch pests early on, it will be much easier to manage them. Let them get ahead of you for a few days and the problem quickly snowballs into a serious issue.

Check your plants daily for pests. When looking at your plants, check both the tops and bottoms of the leaves. During the day, many pests will hide from the sun on the underside of leaves. You might also notice pests on stems, or droppings on the ground from caterpillars or hornworms. Check for eggs on your plants. If you notice clumps of eggs on your plants, they are likely eggs from a pest.

The best way to deal with pests is to use a method called integrated pest management, or IPM for short. This means using the least environmentally impactful methods first, and gradually becoming more aggressive with your pest control methods as needed. The first step to IPM is physical removal. This includes removing pests by hand as you find them. Drop them into a bucket of insecticidal soap or use duct tape to remove pest eggs. If that doesn’t work, you can then use natural pest repellents, like hot pepper spray, neem oil, or other organic treatment methods. The last resort should be synthetic pesticides.

Planning for the Next Garden

The winter cold is the perfect time to start planning your next garden. In fact, you may have noticed that you start to get seed catalogs this time of year with the newest collection of plants and seeds. Take the time to not only plan what you want to grow or plant this year, but also to reflect on what you did last year.

To improve your garden year over year, you need to make small adjustments based on what works and what doesn’t work. If you tried a new type of tomato that just didn’t thrive, don’t buy it again. It may not have been compatible with your climate. If you tried a new organic pesticide that worked well, continue to do that this year. It seems silly to think about what worked and what didn’t, but this is why so many gardeners get stuck in a rut. They fail to observe what worked for them and what didn’t..

When you’re planning your garden, consider expanding it in new and exciting ways. If you’re traditionally a vegetable gardener, try adding some colorful beneficial flowers, like marigolds or nasturtiums to your garden. If you usually stick to growing flowers and caring for your flower beds, consider adding some flowering herbs that you can use.

What to Do in the Garden in June Based on Your Zone

Zones 3-4

This is the time to harvest asparagus and cool season crops if you planted any. Harvest lettuce, greens, and radishes. Fast growing varieties can be replanted at the beginning of the month.

Other vegetable plants can be planted this month. It’s time to harden off any remaining seedlings that you started and move them into the garden. Tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, cucumbers, and peppers can be planted in the garden. Put support cages around tomatoes. Eggplants and peppers can also get top-heavy, so you may want to put support cages around those also. Cucumbers will grow up trellises if you start training them now.

This is the ideal time to direct sow seeds. Sow summer squash, zucchini, and melons straight into the soil. This is also the perfect time to direct sow annual flower seeds.

Zone 5

Many plants can be put into the ground this month. You can put started melons, eggplants, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers into the ground if you haven’t already. You can also direct sow squash, corn, and beans. In fact, many plants can be sown in the ground this month for fall crops. Carrots, leeks, parsnips, and turnips can be sown now for a fall harvest.

Flowering plants are making a statement this month. Mums will start to appear and should be pruned back starting this month. Pinch back your mums about ½” every other week to force a full plant, rather than a leggy one. It’s also a good time to fertilize your roses and other perennial blooming plants.

Zones 6-7

June is a heavy harvest month if you have berries planted. Strawberries and early raspberries will produce this month. Be sure to harvest them daily to prevent the fruit from getting too ripe on the plant.

Stake or provide support for your tomatoes and peppers. Put up trellises or netting for your vining plants to climb. This will make it easier to check for pests, increase the airflow around your plants, and make them easier to manage and harvest.

Put any remaining summer crops into the ground. Indoors, you can start seeds for fall crops. Some of these can also be direct sown if you have room in the garden.

Now that some of your flowering plants have bloomed, make sure that you prune them back. Deadheading annuals is a good way to keep them blooming all season, so remove any spent blooms. Focus on keeping weeds and pests to a minimum.

Zone 8

Your vegetable garden is in full force. You’ll want to keep up with weeding, watering, and removing pests. As your crops begin to produce or mature, harvest them. Crops will quickly become overripe when left on the plant too long.

Do you have unused space in your garden? If so, start layering the top of it with compost. You can cover it to keep the weeds out. A cover crop can also act as a coverage for your garden, while adding nutrients back to the soil. If you want to make use of your empty garden space, start direct sowing plants for fall crops. You can plant things like turnips or parsnips for a fall harvest.

It’s also a good time to plant a second crop of okra, sweet potatoes, squash, and cucumbers for a second harvest.

Some fall flowers can be planted also. Sow seeds for mums, vincas, geraniums, marigolds, and pansies to add fall color in your flower beds. Continue removing spent blooms on your annuals that are blooming now.

Zones 9-10

If you haven’t gotten your tomatoes into the ground yet in Zone 9, you’ve missed your chance. Instead of worrying about tomatoes that never got planted, focus instead on the plants that you can plant during the rainy season. Okra, some types of peas and sweet potatoes can be planted. They’ll handle the heat just fine. June is hot and rainy, so you’ll want to make sure that your heat hardy plants are out. Flowering annuals like celosia, vinca and portulacas will do really well this month. Some types of coleus can handle the heat also. Do you want palm trees in your landscape? If so, June is the perfect month to plant them. They thrive in warm, rainy weather, making this month ideal for planting them and giving them a jump start. Since this month is usually rainy, you won’t need to water your plants as often. Keep an eye on the soil moisture. Once your plants get used to having frequent rain, you’ll want to water them if you have a day or two with spotty showers.

Zone 11

June is a maintenance month in Zone 11. There’s not much to plant, but if you’re really itching to plant something, plant some sweet potatoes. Otherwise, keep up with your current plants. Spend time looking for pests, managing weeds and appreciating the plants you’ve got growing.

Planning Ahead

Although you’re in the thick of your summer garden, you’ll want to start thinking about your fall garden. It won’t be long and you’ll be able to start seeds indoors. Consider cool season crops that you enjoy. On rainy days when you can’t venture into the garden, start planning out your next round of seeds that you’ll need to start for your fall garden and flowerbeds.