Watering, weeding, harvesting, and pruning are just a few of the important early summer garden tasks to accomplish in June. You’ll also want to ensure your irrigation system is ready for drought and your plants have sufficient nutrients for explosions of growth.
With unpredictable spring weather behind us and the summer solstice ahead, June is an auspicious time in the garden. While northern gardeners plant the last of their warm-weather crops and southern gardeners gear up for the heat, this is a prime time to focus on garden maintenance.
Let’s dig into 15 June gardening tasks to prepare for an abundant summer!
15 June Tasks for Gardeners
Early spring was for planting, and early summer is for tending. There are still many vegetables and flowers to get in the ground, as well as early harvests from your first successions of crops. But, most importantly, use this time to tend and maintain the garden so your plants have everything they need to flower and fruit profusely this summer.
For temperate gardeners, June is the tipping point where your hard work begins to pay off. For southern and subtropical gardeners, this is a vital time to ensure plant survival through the sweltering heat. Don’t skimp on water, weeding, mulching, and fertilizing!
Install or Check Irrigation
Install a drip irrigation system for efficient and effective watering.
If you don’t have a semi-automated irrigation system yet, now is the time to install one. For gardeners with an irrigation system already installed, you need to check all the components for leaks and problems that may have occurred over winter or spring. Turn on the system, check the pressure, clean out filters, and replace broken parts.
Summer watering is so much easier when you can flip one or two switches and water all of your beds. One of beginner gardeners’ biggest mistakes is assuming their plants can fend for themselves. Unless you receive abundant summer rains or you grow only native plants, most gardens need an irrigation system. There are many things you can do to conserve water and build a drought-tolerant garden, but a dependable watering system is still a crucial backup plan.
Drip irrigation is the most popular and effective form of watering. It delivers water straight to the base of your plants so it can soak in the root zone. This has three key benefits:
Use less water overall by ensuring efficient delivery to plant roots.
You won’t lose as much water to the drying effect of UV rays.
Less water on the leaf surfaces means less risk of fungal diseases.
Don’t worry: irrigation is not as complicated as it seems! You simply need a hose spigot, a main line, and a pressure regulator. The various tubes and parts fit together like Legos to get the water where it needs to go. This video explains everything you need to know about installing a basic irrigation system:
If you don’t like plastic drip lines and emitters, you can always go for old-fashioned copper tubing irrigation lines. Soaker hoses are another excellent alternative that can be buried in the upper soil or beneath mulch to gradually saturate the root zone through porous tubing. They still require a mainline hose, a timer, and sufficient water pressure to be automatic.
For raised beds and containers, you can also try an olla. This ancient form of irrigation uses a porous clay pot to slowly water plants from below the surface. Ollas are highly efficient, completely natural, and tech-free.
The terracotta-like texture allows only the right amount of water into the soil at a time, and it stops releasing water when the surrounding ground is saturated. This can be very helpful for gardeners who accidentally overwater their plants! All you need to do is find the right size ollas, bury them at the proper spacing and depth, and then fill them from the top as needed.
Mulch Your Beds
Don’t skip mulch—it’s a garden superhero providing multiple benefits!
Mulch is one of the most underrated garden tools. It provides so many benefits that it’s hard to believe people skip it. Natural ecosystems almost always have a layer of mulch (decomposing organic matter) on the soil surface at all times. Nature does not want her soil to be naked! Bare, exposed soil is more prone to erosion, drying, and weeds.
The benefits of mulch include:
The sun’s drying rays won’t hit bare soil, so the ground stays moist longer.
Mulch smothers small weeds and prevents new ones from germinating.
Biodegradable mulch, like leaves or straw, enrich the soil over time.
Earthworms and soil microbes thrive under a protective mulch layer.
Melons, pumpkins, cucumbers, and squash stay much cleaner on a pillow of mulch.
Plant parts elevated off the soil surface are less likely to become infected with diseases.
The protective layer ensures cooler soil in the summer and warmer soil in the winter.
The most consistent-quality mulch we’ve found is GardenStraw. It is weed-free, chemical-free, and finely shredded, making it easy to apply to raised beds, containers, or in-ground borders. Spread mulch one to three inches thick on your vegetable, flower, and ornamental beds.
Remember to leave a small ring of space around the plants’ bases. You don’t want the mulch to smother the stems and crowns, which could create conditions for fungal rot.
If you are using drip lines or soaker hoses, run the irrigation underneath the mulch layer to deliver water straight to the soil. Watering mulch from above may actually block the moisture from reaching the root zones. If you have problems with slugs or earwigs, wait until the June weather is fairly dry to apply the mulch.
Always remove weeds before mulching. Mulch can smother small weed seedlings and prevent new weed seeds from germinating. However, it cannot kill large weeds, especially perennial species with deep taproots. Pull up as many weeds as possible from the root to ensure your mulch can do its job.
Plant Flowers and Pollinator Habitats
Boost your garden’s beauty and pollinator habitat with wildflowers.
June is a perfect time to add more annual wildflowers to your garden. Pollinator habitat is crucial for most crops, and it enhances the garden’s overall beauty. Moreover, a diversity of flowers attracts more beneficial predatory insects to aid in pest control. Interplanting vegetables with wildflowers enhances the overall yields. For example, white alyssum is the perfect companion for strawberry beds. Marigolds are excellent additions to tomato beds.
Since the risk of frost has passed for most regions, June allows you to directly seed a huge diversity of flowers. Native wildflowers can typically be broadcasted shallowly on the surface because most species need light to germinate. You can also find an abundance of flowers at your local nursery to transplant into the garden.
Some of the best flowers to plant in June include:
- Phacelia
- White alyssum
- Zinnias
- Nasturtiums
- Begonias
- Cosmos
- Impatiens
- Echinacea
- Poppies
- Aster
- Lantana
- Marigolds
- Calendula
- Sunflowers
You can also plant summer bulbs! June is not too late to plant summer flowering bulbs and tubers. In fact, the warm weather ensures rapid establishment, especially in zones 4-7. Early summer planting can ensure fall blooms and establish perennial beds for next season.
Excellent warm-weather flowering bulbs for June include:
- Dahlias
- Caladium
- Canna lily
- Crocosmia
- Gladiolus
- Caladenia
Remember to research the specific types of bulbs or tubers you are working with. Some require special treatment, like extra-deep planting or early pinching to ensure prolific flowers.
Direct Sow Warm-Weather Crops
Get your summer veggies thriving by direct seeding now.
June is not too late to plant vegetables! Many warm-weather crops eagerly take off when direct sown in the ground in early summer. Since the soil is sufficiently warm and the nights are likely frost-free, you can establish plants more quickly from seed. No need to fuss with indoor grow lights or transplanting any longer!
Direct seeding is particularly advantageous for crops with sensitive taproots. For example, Cucurbit-family plants like cucumbers and melons prefer to be directly sown. I once did an experiment with transplanted versus direct seeded Cucurbits. The seedlings were transplanted at the same time that seeds were sown next to them in the garden. Even though the transplants had several weeks of growth in the greenhouse, the directly sown plants quickly caught up to them and began fruiting at the same time.
No matter how careful you are with transplants, the root disturbance and transplant shock of moving locations can still cause stress for the baby plants. If the weather is warm, why not just direct seed? This lesson proves that transplanting is not always worth the extra effort!
Sweet potatoes are another awesome crop to add to the mix in early summer. These frost-tender South American plants are grown from tubers or “slips.” Once the weather has thoroughly settled, about one month after your last frost date, you can typically plant sweet potato slips outside without worry. Plant them two to three feet apart on mounds 8-12” high. They also grow excellently in raised beds. For southern gardeners, sweet potatoes provide heat-tolerant nutritious greens in the peak of summer’s sweltering weather.
Other great summer crops to plant in June include:
- Corn
- Pumpkins
- Zucchini
- Basil
- Tomatoes (it’s not too late!)
- Malabar spinach
- Tomatillos
- Ground cherries
- Green beans
Remember to check the days to maturity of your seed variety to ensure that the plant will have enough time to develop and yield in your climate.
Sucker and Prune Edible Plants
Boost your harvest by removing plant suckers for better yields.
Sucker removal is a somewhat controversial topic in the garden world. Many growers insist that pruning is unnecessary for crops like tomatoes and strawberries. However, in my six years as a commercial-scale organic farmer, I found that pruned plants always out-yielded their unpruned counterparts. Moreover, pruning keeps the beds cleaner for better airflow and reduced disease.
Suckers are lateral sprouts produced by plants in an attempt to grow more vegetation. These energy-sucking side shoots are called suckers because they “suck” nutrients and water away from the plant’s fruit production. Most of us aren’t growing summer veggies just for their leaves. We want scrumptious tomatoes and juicy cucumbers! If you want to promote higher yields, sucker removal signals the plant to focus its energy on flower and fruit production.
Tomatoes produce suckers in the “elbow ditches” where their stems intersect with the main stalk. If you leave them untouched, each sucker can grow into its own giant vine. Removing the suckers while they are small makes it much easier to find fruit and train the plants up their trellis.
Similarly, strawberries produce runners that leap out from the central mother plant. Each runner can grow into an entirely new strawberry plant, creating a tangled mess of a bed. Snapping the runners (also known as suckers or stolons) from the base of the plant will keep your strawberries tidy and focused on producing berries.
Other edible plants you should consider pruning include:
- Tomatoes, especially indeterminate
- Strawberries
- Cucumbers
- Melons
- Pumpkins
When removing suckers on young plants, use sanitized pruners or a knife to avoid yanking the plant from the ground. Once the plants are more mature, it is easy to snap off suckers every few days whenever you peruse through the garden. Just five minutes per week of sucker removal can make a tremendous difference in plant health and fruit harvests! Continuous suckering throughout June ensures abundant production in July and August.
Prune Spring Flowering Shrubs
Pruning spring flowering shrubs post-bloom offers continued beauty and growth.
Perennial pruning is not only a winter and spring task. While most fruit trees and ornamental shrubs should’ve been pruned earlier in the season, spring flowering shrubs are best pruned after their flush of blooms. Some may even reward you with another round of flowers later in the season.
Spring flowering shrubs are any plants that bloom before mid-June. Removing the spent flowers keeps the shrubs tidy and productive.
Early summer pruning is very helpful for species like:
- Lilac
- Forsythia
- Weigela
- Mock orange
- Viburnum
- Dogwoods
- Lavender
- Rosemary
- Spirea
- Butterfly bush
- Some roses
Remember to sharpen and sanitize your tools before using them. Quality, ergonomic pruners make the job extra easy and comfortable. You do not want to risk spreading disease around the garden or harming the woody growth of your plants with shredded, imprecise cuts.
Catch Weeds While They’re Young
Regular weeding in June prevents larger problems later in summer!
Weeding doesn’t have to be a miserable task. If you catch weeds while they are young, it can actually be quite rewarding. The “bean thread” stage is when weeds are just emerging from the ground as little white seedlings. They have yet to anchor their roots and are super easy to hoe, rake, or hand-pull.
A few sweeps through your garden beds throughout the month of June ensure that these weeds never take hold or grow any larger. As the weather warms, most species grow more rapidly. If you can stay on top of weeding at least once per week, you will save yourself many headaches later this summer.
You can also take steps to reduce your overall weed seed bank, which is the reservoir of weed seeds lying dormant in the soil. If you reduce or eliminate the amount of weed seeds in your garden, you can go longer periods of time without weeding.
Here are a few quick ways to reduce the amount of weed seeds:
- Never let weeds go to flower and spread their seeds!
- Remove weeds while they’re young
- Avoid rototilling or deeply disturbing the soil, as this brings up more weed seeds
- Source quality amendments so you don’t import weed seeds from compost or straw
- Use a hori hori to dig up taproot plants from the base
- Suppress perennial weeds with tarping or deep mulching during the winter
- Grow robust transplants that can quickly outcompete weeds
- Apply a layer of mulch after the weeding session
- Cover unused beds with mulch, cover crops, or tarps at all times
- Ensure a layer of groundcover or wide-leaved foliage covers the soil at all times
The final two points are especially important. Bare soil is like an open invitation for weeds to take hold. Nature wants her fragile skin to be covered at all times. If the soil is exposed with nothing growing on it, weeds will quickly colonize the ground as an ecological protective mechanism. You can prevent this by always maintaining green, growing plants or a layer of organic matter in your garden beds!
Deadhead Ornamental Flowers
June deadheading ensures continuous blooms throughout the summer.
What’s a garden without a proliferation of flowers? The diversity of scents, shapes, and colors is absolutely enchanting. But if you want to keep the garden show going throughout the summer, June deadheading is an essential task.
Deadheading flowers means removing spent blooms from plants. Every time you cut off an old, withered flower, the plant gets the message that it should grow a new one to replace it. For many species, deadheading promotes more floral growth. Instead of funneling its energy toward seed production, the plant will send out more flower buds.
These species are particularly responsive to deadheading:
- Calendula
- Hydrangea
- Salvia
- Cosmos
- Snapdragons
- Zinnia
- Bee balm
- Phlox
- Blanketflower
- Bellflower
- Nasturtium
- Lavender
- Delphiniums
- Petunias
- Geraniums
Use sharp, sanitized pruners to cut the spent flowers at the base of their stems. You can also pinch them off. Plucking the blossoms naturally encourages more blooms for edible flowers like calendula and nasturtiums. Some cultivars of ornamental flowers like petunias and begonias are “self-deadheading,” which means they naturally drop their spent flowers to save you a little bit of effort.
Stake and Trellis Plants
Install trellises early in June for optimal plant training.
Trellising is the golden ticket to a tidy, efficient garden. Staking and training plants allows you to make the most of a small space while adding attractive features like pergolas, archways, and decorative fence lines. Most trellises are simple to install, and most vining plants are eager to climb them. However, if you wait too long before installing a trellis, the vines may become woody and less pliable, making it difficult to train them in the direction you desire.
Installing stakes and trellises is a crucial task to add to your June gardening to-do list. You want to make sure the trellis is in place as soon as possible after planting summer crops. Ideally, you should install it at the time of planting. Just like a new puppy, you want to train the plant as soon as possible so it is easier to deal with as it ages.
Vining plants like indeterminate tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, peas, and pole beans, as well as climbing perennials like grapes, clematis, or roses, perform best when trained from the very beginning. The fresh, green growth of spring is much more flexible when young. As the plant ages, the stalks become thicker, harder, and sometimes woody. This can make it very difficult to trellis the plant and may even risk snapping off large stems.
Whether you choose A-frames, cattle panels, T-posts, Florida weaves, or archway trellises, this is the time to install them and check that your plants are growing in the right direction. Most vines have tendrils (little curl-q stems) that reach out to attach to surfaces as the plant climbs. You can direct a vine in the direction of your choosing by placing it up against the trellis. Use trellis clips or twine to tie it in place and encourage upward growth, as shown in this video:
For plants like tomatoes and cucumbers, it’s easiest to trellis and prune suckers at the same time. This will help you sort through the vines and ensure a clean, well-aerated bed. Choosing just one or two main “leader” vines can improve productivity and airflow.
Thin Seedlings
Ensure proper plant spacing for optimal growth and yields.
It is a common mistake to sow plants too densely. If you forget to thin newly germinated seedlings, you risk overcrowding and reduced yields. Before summer reaches full swing, check on your late spring plantings to ensure they have sufficient spacing. Use needle-nose shears or your fingertips to pinch out the weaker seedlings. This leaves room for the strongest ones to thrive and grow to their fullest potential.
It may seem counterintuitive, but fewer plants can often yield more fruits. In other words, an overcrowded mess of ten closely spaced zucchini will actually yield less squash than two or three plants with 18” of space between them.
Similarly, if you broadcast sow a hundred tiny lettuce seeds and forget to thin them, the leaves may barely grow to a few inches tall before they turn yellow and whither. Overcrowding leads to unnecessary competition for water and nutrients. Humans don’t like being crammed like sardines in a subway train, and plants don’t like it either! Thin them out to give everyone the space they need!
While many seed packets have row spacing and plant spacing recommendations, it’s sometimes easier to think of crop spacing as square footage. How many square feet does each plant need? When a spacing recommendation says “6 inches on center,” it means that the plant needs six inches in every direction from its base.
Here are some spacing recommendations for common garden crops:
- Beans: 4-6”
- Beets: 2-4”
- Broccoli: 12-18”
- Cauliflower: 12-18”
- Cabbage: 12-18”
- Cucumbers: 12-18” (closer if trellised)
- Corn: 10-12:
- Eggplant: 18-24”
- Leeks: 3-6”
- Lettuce: 10-12”
- Baby Lettuce: 2-4”
- Onions: 2-4”
- Radishes: 1-3”
- Squash: 24-36”
- Zucchini: 18-26”
- Tomatoes: 18-24” (closer if trellised)
When in doubt, opt for more space rather than less. Thin those seedlings out so they have space to grow. Intensive vegetable gardening ensures high yields from small spaces, but planting too close can also do more harm than good. If you don’t know how big a plant will get, experiments are always helpful to test different varieties in your particular setting.
Regularly Harvest Vegetables and Fruits
Harvest promptly to encourage continuous growth and optimal flavor.
Spring’s greens, radishes, beets, peas, kale, and cabbage may be yielding in abundance. Meanwhile, early summer’s first tomatoes, zucchini, onions, peppers, and carrots could be ready to pick. Depending on your planting time and zone, it is important to start harvesting as soon as plants are ready. For most crops, harvesting stimulates new growth to maximize your yields over the long haul.
For example, if you planted rainbow chard in early May, the plants should be about one to two feet tall. Start pulling the largest outer leaves in early June. As you harvest more foliage, the plant will produce fresh new leaves on the interior. You don’t want the leaves to get too huge or mature, as they can turn tough.
The same concept goes for radishes, beets, turnips, and carrots. Root crops should not be left in the ground for too long. They quickly become bitter, tough, and pithy as they grow oversized. If you are unsure when to harvest, pulling up a plant and giving it a taste test never hurts. In general, radishes and turnips taste best when they are golf-ball size or slightly larger. Beets are still tender when two to three inches in diameter. Carrots can be eaten in baby or medium size, but you generally don’t want them to get larger than three inches wide or eight inches long.
Remember, young greens and roots are typically sweeter and more tender. For fruiting crops, wait until signs of ripeness. Color is usually the most obvious indicator for tomatoes, peppers, and strawberries. For plants like zucchini or summer squash, harvest when five to seven inches long and easy to scratch with your fingernail. Giant zucchini squash may make impressive displays, but they don’t usually taste very good.
Pinch and Prune Herbs
Pinching herbs promotes bushier growth and prevents bolting.
You already removed suckers from your annual veggies and pruned back your perennial flowers, but what about the herbs? Pinching is a highly beneficial practice for June. When you remove the growing tips of herbaceous plants, it encourages them to produce more side shoots. This creates a more bushy shape with more dense foliage and flowers. If you don’t want flowers, pinching can also prolong leaf growth and prevent bolting.
Basil is the most commonly pinched herb. I like to pinch basil every time I harvest because it knocks out two tasks at once: You can gather stem-free, pesto-ready basil clusters while simultaneously preventing the plant from bolting.
Lavender, rosemary, thyme, oregano, cilantro, lemon balm, and mint also benefit from pinching. The reason this works so effectively is that these plants have a concentration of stem cells at their tips. In botany, we call them apical meristems. When you remove the apical meristem, it signals to the plant, “grow outward, not up.” In other words, it makes the plant bushy and low to the ground rather than spindly and tall.
Removing the apical meristem sometimes removes upper flower buds, which can be useful for encouraging more herbaceous growth. Don’t worry; these herbs will still flower later in the season as the temperatures warm. Pinching in early summer can actually promote more floral production later.
Scout and Prevent Pests
Take action against emerging pests to protect your crops early.
All those pesky bugs have emerged from dormancy and are ready to feast on your crops. If you haven’t already, you may have noticed some white cabbage moths flying around or tiny black flea beetles feasting on your brassicas. It’s important to take hold of pest issues before they get out of hand.
These pest prevention tasks can make a huge difference this summer:
- Place critter cages over the top of new transplants to protect them from rabbits and mice.
Check under leaves for signs of aphids and spray with a firm blast of water. - Hang sticky traps in greenhouses and trellises to trap tiny flying bests.
- Scout potatoes for Colorado potato beetles and remove them by hand, drowning in soapy water.
- Use Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) on brassica crops (cabbage, broccoli, kale) to reduce caterpillar populations.
- Use slug bait or beer traps to get rid of slimy slugs.
In the case of big infestations, remove whole leaves or plants to prevent spread. Use horticultural soap or neem oil to knock back populations so they don’t create problems for you in the rest of the summer.
Side-Dress with Fertilizer and Compost
Boost your plants for summer with a side-dressing of fertilizer.
Everyone could use a nice boost before going into the flurry of summer! Side-dressing with fertilizer supplies plants with extra nutrients as they shift into flowering and fruiting stages. Even if you amended your beds at the beginning of the season, it can be helpful to feed plants again.
Generally, crops moving into reproductive (fruit and flower) growth need more potassium and phosphorus rather than nitrogen. You will often see fertilizers specially formulated for fruit production, and these are the best options for June applications. Heavy feeders like squash, pumpkins, tomatoes, peppers, melons, and corn can all benefit from side-dressing.
A slow-release organic fertilizer is ideal for side-dressing. This will provide a steady supply of nutrients and minerals without much risk of overdose. Unlike quick-release synthetic fertilizers, organic fertilizers require microbial breakdown. This means that soil microorganisms must work to make the nutrients available to plants in the quantities they need. In biologically rich gardens with lots of compost and diversity, soil microbes do most of the heavy lifting for you.
If your soil is already very rich, you may not need to side-dress at all. Instead, add a one inch layer of compost or mulch to provide extra organic matter and water retention.
Flip Your Compost Pile
Keep your compost pile thriving by giving it a flip!
June is not only for tending crops but also for decomposing plant residues! If your compost pile is filling up with kitchen scraps, lawn clippings, and perennial prunings, it’s probably time to give it a flip! Flipping a compost pile is crucial for quality compost. This process incorporates oxygen to yield an aerated, biologically-rich finished product.
If you forget to flip your pile, it may start smelling bad. A foul smell from a compost pile is a sign that it has gone anaerobic, and it may be housing pathogenic organisms. Flipping ensures more aeration, which allows the pile to heat up and become home to beneficial soil microbes that can further break down the compost ingredients.
Use a pitchfork or shovel to flip the pile, bringing the center contents out to the side and the bottom contents up to the top. A three-bin composting system or a compost tumbler like the Hungry Bin makes this process even easier. If you aren’t having much luck with composting, you may need to consider the ratio of greens (nitrogen inputs) to browns (carbon inputs). Too many nitrogen-rich materials like food scraps and manure need to be balanced out with leaves or straw.
If you don’t want to flip a pile, vermicomposting is a great alternative to thermophilic composting. The worms take care of the aeration for you, and there is less risk of the pile becoming smelly or messy.
Final Thoughts
With warm weather and a new flush of harvests, June is a joyous time in the garden. It is vital to prepare for dry, hot weather up ahead by checking your irrigation system, mulching, and planting warm-weather crops. You can seed wildflowers, plant tropical bulbs, and prune back flowering shrubs. Don’t forget to get a headstart on weeding and suckering to ensure abundant yields in the coming months!
