What to Do in the Garden in June
Companion planting of cherry tomato, amaranth, beebalm, eggplant, and cardinal basil, June 2020
Are you hardcore? You have to be to garden during the Texas summer.
June can fool you. Sometimes the beginning of the month is still feeling so lush and green, still riding high on the rains of May, typically Austin’s wettest month. The beginning of June sometimes makes you forget that the big red sun of Texas summer approaches. By late May, the temps were in the 90ºs every day and by the end of this month, we will surely hit triple digits. Now is the time to take inventory of yourself and your will to tend your garden through the heat to come. If you go hard in June, will you still be there to nurture those crops in July and August or will you be inside blasting the AC? (NO SHAME.)
Our summers are so hot and humid, that even tomatoes take a break and stop producing. Lots of gardeners in this zone take the summer off and start up again when the days get cooler. I respect that choice.
Know thyself, and your garden will be better for it.
The Garden as Self-Care
Rudbekia and purple coneflower in the wildflower patch.
I don’t know about you, but for my own mental health, I need my garden more than ever. The world may have opened up again but it frequently still seems like a scary, unsafe place to go out in. I need my garden as my safe space. It goes both ways. Your garden is reliant on you to tend it, to love it, to give attention to it so it can grow. I encourage you to continue to expand that effort. More than just the garden, is there anything you can do to make it more of a sanctuary? This time last year, I was very low in spirit. I didn’t go into the garden for a few days. I was about to throw out some old herbs I’d harvested and kept in water on the countertop when I found a Swallowtail caterpillar who’d sneaked in on the fennel. Setting up a habitat for that little guy lifted the gloom a bit. That motivated me to set up a hummingbird feeder that had been on the shelf for a while. I encourage you to look for those little ways to care for small creatures. Those seemingly small gestures can make a big difference, both to the ecosystem you are building in your backyard, but also to your own heart.
Summer comes in hot
We officially enter summer this month. In our climate, summer is basically an endless heatwave that gets more intense as it goes. So it makes sense that you don’t plant as much this month. By August, you shouldn’t be planting anything at all. So if you still have some space in your garden, and you are up for watering new plantings through the summer, take advantage of these last few bearable days to get some plants and seeds in the ground.
Plant any transplants after the heat of the day and water them in well. If the transplant seems very young, you may need to harden it off from the sun before planting by leaving it part shade for a few days. When you take them out of their container, give them a nice soak in some water pre-planting. Add a little seaweed if you have it. It’ll help them with those first brutal days transitioning into the ground. It also helps their transition and reduces transplant shock if you can provide them with a little shade for the first few days in the ground. You can also still plant flower seeds. I sow zinnias, cosmos, and basil all through the month. If June starts out wet, make sure you are treating your plants with an insecticide soap spray every other week. If plants are overwatered, they will be vulnerable to pests until they even out. Powdery mildew can set in. The spray will treat both.
What to Plant in June
Early June: Cantaloupe, summer & winter squash, sweet potato slips, watermelon
All Month: Warm season greens, okra, black-eyed peas, pumpkin
Flowers can be planted all through the month. Celosia, gomphrena, portucula, ice plants, cannas and you can do succession plantings of zinnias, cosmos, and sunflowers to keep your cutting garden fresh. Echinacea (purple coneflowers) and Rudbeckia are two of my fave flowers and they are perennials that bloom from late spring until frost. Those two need to be planted from transplants as the time to plant their seeds is in the fall and they are part of my wildflower mix.
Herbs you can pretty much always plant. June is no different. Mix in some ornamental basils so you have some bouquet filler that smells amazing. Let them flower, but make sure to pinch off any flowers on your culinary basil.
Cover crops are a great way to add nutrients to the soil in any area that you don’t have time or energy to thoughtfully consider. In summer, your best options are to plant cowpeas (Black-eyed peas) or buckwheat (not wheat, actually related to rhubarb). They add nitrogen into the soil ahead of fall-planted crops and attract many beneficial insects that prey on pests. They also smother weeds if planted in a raggedy corner of the garden. Cut them down and then till into the soil after harvest in the case of cowpeas or at about 7-8 weeks for buckwheat, before it goes to seed.
Pride of Barbados Caesalpinia pulcherrima
Pollinator Garden
Brighten up your landscape with perennial plants that will attract bees and other pollinators to your veggies. Now is a great time to plant those Texas native, heat-loving beauties that get dramatic with color and size. Once established, they are all very drought tolerant and hard to kill. Because they are perennial, they will not reach their largest size in year one. Don’t think you got a dud or your plant is struggling if it’s not as big as your neighbor’s. Faves in this category for central Texas and similar climates: Lantana, Esperanza, Plumbago, Amistad Sage, Texas Sage, Russian Sage, Salvia greggii, and Pride of Barbados.
Sow zinnias all through the month!
Don’t forget to cut bouquets! Cutting your flowers actually keeps the plants producing.
June Garden To-Dos's
Wear sun protection & stay hydrated! Don’t go out there without a hat and some SPF, I mean it.
Feed your container plants I like to do a new round of compost in my containers in June. Your plants will have depleted a lot of the nutrition from the compost you planted them with. Remove the mulch, add 2” of new compost, then put the mulch back on top.
“Pinching Back” For a lot of blooming plants, such as zinnias, cosmos, amaranth, and basil, what you want to encourage is more of a compact, bushy plant, not a long, lanky one. Pinching them back tells the plant to send up multiple stems from below where the cut was made, resulting in more blooms throughout the season as well as longer stem length. I cut my flowers back before they bloom, but that does delay the first flowers for 2-3 weeks. So, you are forgiven if you want to see them bloom first (unless you are growing giant zinnias, cut them back when they get about 18”). What you should do, is when plants are between 8 to 12 inches tall, take sharp pruners or scissors and snip the top 3 to 4 inches off.
Treat problems before they start Get in the habit of spraying your plants on the regular with an all-purpose homemade organic insecticide soap that also prevents powdery mildew. The recipe is super easy: 1 tbsp baking soda, 1 tbsp all-natural dish soap or Dr Bronner’s, 1 tbsp vegetable oil, and a gallon of water. Mix well and then fill up a spray bottle. Do this for your zinnias from the get-go as they are especially prone to powdery mildew.
Remove diseased or damaged leaves and plants from the garden entirely. I like to walk around the garden with a little tub and pinch off suspect leaves and discard in the tub. Do NOT compost these leaves. Throw them away so they don’t contaminate other plants.
Put water or a bird feeder out for squirrels. I know, they can be jerks. But when they get thirsty, that’s when your tomatoes (or your succulents) become targets. They really just want the moisture inside, and who can blame them? Put out fresh water and save your harvest. Ironically, putting out a bird feeder also distracts them, and they will focus more on that then they will on your garden. Birds may get an occasional snack too.
EVIL INCARNATE ALERT!
Squash Vine Borer Moth
The enemy. If you see this in your garden, it’s probably laying eggs. Once its larvae have destroyed your squash or pumpkins, and you have known that heartbreak and loss, you will understand that this moth is the devil and must be driven from your garden with torches (or a fly- swatter or garden hose.)
Check squash daily for Squash Vine Borer eggs. Supposedly, there are two waves of egg-laying, one in mid-May and one in August, but I advise constant vigilance because if you miss them, your squash will be devastated. Once the squash is infested, cut off any stems that look unhealthy and see if you can catch a worm inside, or near the main stem. Look for their gross, orange poo, known as frass. It resembles sawdust and can be found near entry holes or infected stems. From there, insert a wire or long pin inside the hole to try to puncture any other worms. I squirt BT inside the stem as well, and have had success saving a plant when it’s been invaded, but it is not easy. Growing them in a poly-tunnel is another way to protect them, but not everyone has that kind of space.
Mulch (if you haven’t yet) to preserve moisture before it gets super hot.
Trim back any mums or asters that bloomed in the spring to a neat, compact shape so they can bloom again in the fall.
“Deadhead” spent flowers If you don’t regularly cut your flowers for bouquets, make sure you cut or pinch off the spent blooms as you see them in the garden so that the plant will keep blooming and not go to seed.
