WHAT TO DO THIS WEEK
MOST houseplants are in active growth now so will need regular watering and feeding.
CHECK brassicas (cabbages, broccoli, turnips, brussels sprouts) for butterflies’ eggs – often you will find them on the underside of leaves. Remove these as when hatched as caterpillars they can completely exfoliate your plant.
KEEP fruit bushes well watered in dry spells to allow fruit to swell. Plums, pears and apples can be thinned out this month. This happens naturally as well – it’s called June drop – but if you want bigger fruit, remove some smaller fruitlets.
■ MOVE citrus fruit outdoors for the summer months.
■ POP a few nasturtium seeds in the ground or pots for late summer flowers.
■ CONSIDER installing a water barrel to conserve rainfall.
■ CONTINUE successional sowing of salads, and outdoors sow cucumber, sweetcorn, squash, French, runner and broad beans.
■ EARTH up potatoes.
■ PRUNE springflowering deciduous shrubs such as kerria, forsythia, ribes and weigela as soon as they finish flowering.