My Ridiculously Optimistic June To-Do List

(And The Tough Plants That Might Save Me)

WHAT A WEEK! From speaking at Hay Literary Festival about Gardens of The Future to rescuing exhausted bees with my keyring gadget, working up concepts for a Hampstead garden, pricking out myriad seedlings and jumping for joy when this week’s rain finally came – it’s been absolutely mad and I’ve loved every minute of it! I’m all stoked up for some R and R, though that’s probably more rushing and rampaging than the more usual initialism.

And honestly, with my garden looking decidedly more ‘work in progress’ than ‘romantic idyll’ right now, I’m feeling the urgency to get ready for what promises to be another challenging summer. Because let’s face it – after one of the driest starts to the year on record in many parts of the UK, followed by these glorious downpours, our gardens are getting quite the workout from increasingly unpredictable weather.

So what will I be up to this weekend? I thought I’d share in case you’d like to follow suit. And talking of Gardens of the Future – the new British Library publication where our studio has designed a Family Garden with principles that I think we all might need to embrace in the coming decades – I’m sharing what I’m absolutely thrilled to have planted last autumn that has grown beautifully here in Hampshire despite the very little rain we’ve had. Don’t worry, this won’t be worthy or preachy – just practical plants that work harder so you don’t have to.

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Essential June Jobs: Less Panic, More Progress

Right, let’s tackle June sensibly, shall we? The key is working with the season rather than against it, and accepting that not everything needs doing at once (this is more of a note to self rather than actual advice – I always seem to go at things like I’m on a one day tv garden makeover, tiring myself out in the process!).

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The Weekend Sprint

If you’re anything like me, you’ve got a proper list in your head planned for this weekend. Thankfully, one item got crossed off this morning – feeding my annuals – I can already see this paying off having picked my first three sweet peas and a weekly feed should keep them going all summer. The dahlias are finally going into their summer pots too (don’t forget to pinch them out); I’ve been hardening them off for weeks and they’re chomping at the bit to get planted up properly.

I’m thrilled that sweet pea picking is about to become a daily joy – the more you cut, the more they flower, so I’ll be wandering out with scissors and taking off the tendrils as I pick, to make sure the energy wasted on producing those (they have their own jute climbing wall to clamber up with the odd tie in by Jules my husband who in recent years has become the tying in king) all summer I hope to be coming back into the house with fistfuls of fragrance. Absolute heaven.

I’m also tackling the lawn this weekend. No Mow May wasn’t terribly successful here – instead of a verdant meadow, I’ve got more of a trampled mess. Probably because I spent most of the month working on the surrounding borders, tramping back and forth like a demented thing. Sometimes good intentions and reality don’t quite align, do they? The mower will come out, the lawn will be edged too and if the weather is anything to go by, all will be brown the moment after it all looks decent again – no worries for me there, I’d prefer to be using water on my newly planted out seedlings… that’s if (ahem) they actually make it out there!

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The Great Planting Out

Yep, it’s time to bite the bullet and get all those ridiculous amounts of seedlings out of their seed modules and into the ground. Thankfully, the tomatoes have FINALLY made it into their summer homes planted out in Gertie the greenhouse but the garden table is groaning with the weight of cosmos, zinnias and rudbeckia that are practically elbowing each other for space. They’ll be much happier in the borders, or in pots, though they’re still filled with the glorious tulips that did so unexpectedly well under my rhododendrons. Out with the tulips and in with the summer’s bounty.

Just SOME of the seedlings on my garden table!

I’m also sowing direct this weekend – finally getting my peas, french beans, and borlotti beans in the ground, amongst more scatterings of Anethum ‘Mariska’, Papaver ‘Lauren’s Grape’ and Zinnia Queen Series. I should have done this weeks ago, but life’s just been so busy. There’s still time though, plants will just bloom later, and now it’s warmed up so nicely and I have the whole weekend completely to myself, there’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of tucking seeds directly into warm earth, without the panic of everyday life stressing me out.

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The Pruning Window

It’s not too late for a bit of Chelsea chopping, which is a very good thing because with all the sunshine we’ve had these past couple of months, plants like my Veronicastrum could do with a bit of taming. They’re absolutely racing away and threatening to become rather gangly giants by midsummer.

I’ll be doing some strategic cutting back this weekend – cutting the front sections down to half height while leaving the back ones to reach their full glory. This trick gives you a medley of flower sizes and heights, creating much more natural-looking drifts rather than a uniform wall of blooms. The chopped sections will flower later too, extending your display well into autumn instead of having everything peak at once in July.

It works brilliantly with other tall perennials as well – try it with asters, eupatorium, rudbeckia, and heleniums. The plants you cut back will be bushier and sturdier too, so less likely to need staking later. Just make sure to do it before the end of June, as cutting back much later can prevent flowering altogether.

Don’t be shy about it either – these robust perennials can take quite severe cutting and will bounce back with vigour. I always feel slightly brutal wielding the secateurs, but the results speak for themselves.

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Pest Patrol

Though this year I’ve noticed a sharp decline in slugs and snails, this is the season for them (if you’ve got hostas, you’ll know exactly what I mean!). After months of not being able to place an order for nematodes, I’m delighted to let you know that I’ve just received an email from Nematodes Direct letting me know that they’re finally back in stock. I’ve just placed my order for a subscription so the microscopic slug patrol army will be popping through my letterbox every six weeks for the whole of the coming season. I know it’s a bit spendy, but given the investment in my plants, I think they’re totally worth it.

Keep an eye out for aphids too – they seem to appear overnight and invite themselves to an all-you-can-eat buffet on your favourite plants. A strong spray with the hose often sorts them, or encourage ladybirds with some fennel and yarrow nearby.

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