Introduction:
June is the start of the harvest period! You can also keep sowing seeds for successional cropping, and loads of flowers can be direct sown this month too. There is still time to start sweetcorn, peas, beans, squash, pumpkin, and salad crops too.
Read the previous articles here:
January / February / March / April / May
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Seeds to Sow in June:
June is a great time to start thinking of a certain festive event in December – do you want to grow your own veggies for Christmas dinner? Now’s the time to start them! Carrots and parsnips sown in June & July will be ready for December.
Parsnip seedling
Indoors/under cover:
- Squash (patty pan, spaghetti)
- Pumpkin (all varieties)
- Courgette (all varieties)
- French beans
- Lettuce
- Kale
Herbs (start under cover):
- Coriander
- Oregano
Outdoors (direct sow): this list is almost the same as May, but you can direct sow tomatoes outdoors in June.
- Corn salad (lambs lettuce/mache)
- Sorrel
- Rocket
- Chard
- Beetroot
- Radish
- Turnip
- Carrot
- Kale
- Tomatoes
- Runner bean
- French bean
- Peas
- Spring onion
- Pak choi
- Sweetcorn
Protect seedlings from birds! They will pull up seedlings thinking that they are grubs or worms. You could use taut netting, rigid plastic mesh, chicken wire, or pop bottle cloches.
Parsnip, carrot, swede, turnip, and radish do not like being transplanted so do not start these in pots – just sow the seed directly into the ground/compost.
Flowers (direct sow):
- Calendula
- Sunflower
- Sweet pea
- Nasturtium
- Cosmos
- Tagetes
Nasturtium are a great sacrificial crop – the cabbage white butterflies lay their eggs on this plant instead of your brassicas! They also attract blackfly away from beans. Any aphid-free flowers and leaves can also be eaten in a salad.
Nasturtium (left) and calendula (right) growing amongst courgette
Successional Sowing:
- Radish
- Carrot
- Parsnip
- Salad crops (lettuce, rocket, mizuna, sorrel, spring onion)
Planting Out in June:
- Peas – all
- Beans – all
- Brassica – cauliflower, sprouts, cabbage, broccoli
- Sweetcorn
- Leek
- Pumpkin
- Courgette
Sweetcorn should be planted in a spaced-out grid. Put each plant at least 30cm apart in each direction. Leek will be in the ground for a long time so give them their own space! Pumpkins are vines and will sprawl so they need lots of room. By lots we mean loads! We had two plants in a 4m long bed and we had to cut the plants back every few weeks to keep them under control.
Pumpkins! This was two plants, one at each end of the bed. We cut the leaves back by half every three weeks.
Harvesting Food in June:
Lots of crops are ready in June, especially if you started things last autumn and have overwintered the crops. Lots of salad crops will start to bolt (go to flower) during the warmer months so harvest them while you can, and sow fresh seed in a more sheltered area.
- Broad beans
- Early peas
- Spinach
- Rocket
- Mizuna
- Mustard leaf
- Corn salad
- Sorrel
- Chard
- Radish
- Carrot (small ones!)
- Spring onion
Young small carrots can be roasted whole with radishes as a side dish. Chard leaves can be chopped up and used in stir fry, and spinach, sorrel, rocket, mizuna, spring onion and radish can all be used for a fab side salad.
Seeds Sown in May:
The sweetcorn I started in May has been planted out at our Ley Hill Community Garden space. Beans and peas planted last month are ready for planting out – remember to sow more in case the slugs eat these ones!
Peas – ready for planting!
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