June, work in the garden – all you need to know for a perfect vegetable and flower garden

June, the sixth month of the year, summer has just begun and our garden is at its best. Vegetables, aromatic plants and fruit trees show vigorous vegetation and rich fruit and we should be by their side to take care of them.

So let’s go out in the garden or on the balcony of our house at this time, to do our gardening work while enjoying our favorite hobby. Some of us will wake up early in the morning to take care of our plants while others will take care of their garden at dusk as the sun sets.

June is an important month for the care of our plants as we have to deal with the late planting of vegetables, the harvest of fresh fruits and vegetables but also the collection and drying of our aromatic plants and herbs. Also, this month, it is necessary to take the appropriate ecological and biological measures to protect our vegetables from insects and nightshade, the protection of the vineyard and the treatment of olive blight.

So we supply the appropriate tools and equipment, gloves, shovels, diggers and start the necessary garden work in June. We take our family and friends together to help as we have to share the beautiful moments of gardening. So let’s see in detail how to take care of the plants in our garden and on our balcony in June to plan the work required to enjoy a wonderful garden.

We plant summer vegetables in the vegetable garden

In June, it is the right time for late planting of our vegetable garden, as as summer progresses planting becomes more difficult due to high temperatures. We can start late tomato cultivation, pepper cultivation, eggplant cultivation, cucumber cultivation, zucchini cultivation, corn cultivation, melon cultivation, watermelon cultivation, bean cultivation and okra cultivation. This month, we can also try the sweet potato crop that is planted in early summer and takes 4-5 months to harvest. The sweet potato is a different kind from the potato, very tasty and with great nutritional value. We must be careful enough to do the planting of vegetables at appropriate planting distances, avoiding dense plantings that create conditions of poor ventilation and disease development.

We enjoy fresh vegetables and seasonal fruits

The time is coming for our first summer harvest as in June, we harvest many vegetables from our garden, such as tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, onions, peppers, cucumbers to make wonderful summer salads. We also harvest for our cooking to use in our recipes, zucchini, eggplant, peppers, potatoes and vlita. A special place on our table will have the first corn that we will boil and enjoy.

How about harvesting delicious fruit to make wonderful fruit salads. They will start with juicy strawberries, the first aromatic melons and the first sweet watermelons. From the fruit trees of our garden, we harvest many fruits such as apricots, peaches, nectarines and pears.

We collect and dry aromatic plants

In June, the collection of aromatic plants begins, such as oregano, marjoram, dittany, rosemary, lavender, sage and thyme, which we cultivate to put as a spice in our salads and meals or to we make a drink. The collection of leaves, shoots and flowers of aromatic plants should be done on sunny days as soon as the flowers begin to open, as at this stage they are rich in essential oils.

After we harvest them, we proceed to the drying of the aromatic plants. Tie the aromatics and spices in bunches and hang them upside down in a shady place to dry. After a few days, after they dry, we put them in airtight jars and store them in our cupboards.

We start the fight against the olive tree

In June, the protection from the dako, the most important entomological enemy of the olive tree, begins, which is a big headache for all growers, both for the oily olive varieties and for the table varieties. The ecological control of the olive grove requires both the careful monitoring of the evolution of the grove population, as well as the use of a combination of ecological treatment methods to reduce the intensity of the infestation and the damage it does to the olive fruit. The main methods of biological treatment of dako are mass trapping, bait spraying with approved ecological preparations and universal spraying of the leaf surface of the olive with kaolin.

We take care of the indoor plants

As temperatures rise in June, the indoor plants we have indoors and in the office need special attention. The orchid, the anthurium, the kentia, the zamiokulkas, and the benjamin fig and so many other indoor plants need a cool environment and increased relative humidity. So we make sure to open the doors of the house more often to ventilate and cool the space. Check the soil of the pot more often and water more often so as not to create a problem for the plants and keep them watered.

Clean the leaves of the ornamental plants from the dust with a wet cloth and spray the foliage of the plants with distilled water to create a cooler environment by increasing the relative humidity. Finally, we carefully observe the foliage of indoor plants for the appearance of insects such as meligra, floury and cotton due to rising temperatures combined with poor ventilation conditions to deal with it in a timely manner.

We take care of and protect the vineyard

We continue this month, in June, to take care of our vineyard and our favorite bed that every year gives us delicious grapes. This period needs a lot of attention and we must protect the cultivation of the vine from fungal diseases, and from entomological infestations so as to ensure a good production this year as well. In particular, we take preventive protection measures for the mildew of the vine that infects the leaves and grapes of the vine. Specifically, we make sprays with an ecological preparation of wet sulfur or dust our vineyard with sulfur. It is also necessary to fight eudemida, the most important entomological enemy that infects grapes, during the summer. To ecologically treat eudemida, dusting or spraying with a biological preparation of Thuringian bacillus is required. Alternatively we can spray the vine and the bed with summer pulp in combination with natural pyrethrum.

We protect plants from insects and diseases

At this time of year, in the month of June, the rise in temperature favors the appearance of infestation by several insects and by the night owl, which do significant damage to both our vegetables and our ornamental plants. In the vegetable garden, we must carefully examine the leaves, both on the upper surface and at the bottom, lest we see infestations by the characteristic insects of aphids and mealybugs that infect cucumbers, zucchini, melons and watermelons.

We should also be vigilant to fight the stink bugs that mainly infect tomatoes, peppers, beans and corn and degrade the quality of the fruits produced. In addition, it is necessary to treat this (Tuta sp.) In tomatoes that creates holes in the tomato fruit. We protect our vegetables from nightshade and insects, using preventive sulfur around the roots of plants and on the leaves as well as organic preparations that we procure from agricultural stores such as Thuringian bacillus, natural pyrethrin and potassium salts. Alternatively, for the preventive protection of our vegetables, we can use homemade ingredients such as green soap, cayenne pepper and ground cinnamon and prepare our own plant protection recipes with natural ingredients.