Urgent jobs in the garden for June

• Make compost.
• Collect autumn leaves to make leaf litter or to add to compost. Mow the leaves before using. Add sparingly to compost as too much in a layer causes matting. Mix leaves well with other ingredients to prevent this.
• Net brassicas and Asian greens with exclusion netting, weighing down the hem to keep pests out.
• Plant out second crop of autumn/winter vegetables.
• Cut strawberry runners and pot up in potting mix. Cut back leaves of strawberries – you can even mow them down on a high blade – and dispose of them. Divide them in spring if they are too crowded.
• Cut asparagus fronds to ground level once they have yellowed.
• Provide trellises for climbing peas.
• Remove any fallen autumnal fruit from the ground including feijoas, guava, persimmon, tamarillo and citrus. Check for Queensland fruit fly by cutting open fruit and looking for larvae. Microwave any with Queensland fruit fly.
• Prune fruit trees once they have lost their leaves and remove all mummified fruit from the branches.
• Spray peach and nectarine trees a full 360 degrees to cover every branch once bare with Lime Sulphur.
• Check olives for harvest readiness. Process within 3 days of picking as they begin fermenting the day they are harvested. Store in open weave baskets, not buckets, while waiting to process.
• Cut autumn raspberries to ground level, remove dead leaves from the soil and cover ground with compost.
• Prune currant bushes and other berry vines.

Videos

Using Dipel to manage cabbage white moth
American Upland Cress

Written by Robin Gale-Baker