June Gardening

(from Pat Welsh’s Southern California Gardening a Month to Month Guide)

Do the last thinning on deciduous fruit trees after June drop has occurred. The trees naturally drop an overload of fruit but there might be more to do. Clean up the fallen fruit before it rots and spreads disease. (If it isn’t rotten, chop and add to compost pile.)

Pick outside leaves of lettuce. Pick beans (not early in the day when the dew is on, because doing so can spread rust and mildew) and summer squash daily while still small, but pick tomatoes when fully ripe.

If you didn’t side-dress the rows with fertilizer last month, do it now. Most crops need additional nitrogen at some point during the growing season except beans (unless they show signs of distress). Too much nitrogen for beans prevents them from bearing. Corn needs additional nitrogen and plenty of water when they start to tassel out. The best time to side-dress tomatoes with additional nitrogen is when they start to bloom.

Water regularly and deeply.

It’s not to late to put in seeds – you will just harvest later. (Corn, cucumbers, green beans, lima beans, leaf lettuce, okra, peppers, pumpkins, New Zealand spinach, summer squash, winter squash, melons, beets, carrots, Swiss chard, radishes, turnips and tomatoes.)

Heat lovers such as eggplant , peppers and tomatoes do well and grow rapidly when put in from transplants this month.

Pest control – continue to release beneficial insects and arachnids. (Identify in a book like Starcher’s Good Bugs for Your Gardens) Wash off aphids with soapy water. Handpick large bugs and beetles. Mint, (which is very invasive – try planting it in a 1-gal. can to keep them contained) basil and dill are said to protect tomatoes from hornworm. Marigolds as well as other herbs are also very good to combat pests. Plant them near and in your garden beds.

Clip runners from your strawberry plants. Keep the ground deeply mulched with pine needles or straw. Sprinkle bait under organic and plastic mulches against sowbugs, snails, and slugs. Don’t let the plants go dry now, or fruiting will stop.