Now is the time to divide bearded irises, replant sections that have two or more fans on them. Keep watering plants, especially newly planted ones, young vegetables, containers and hanging baskets. Protect plants from slugs and snails.
Cut down oriental poppies to ground level after they have flowered, and they will send up new foliage. Check roses for signs of blackspot, aphids and leaf rolling sawfly damage. Cut down daffodil bulbs now as it has been at least 6 weeks since they flowered. Thin out or trim back Clematis Montana if it needs controlling. Trim evergreen hedges, but check for nesting birds first and wait until they have fledged. Keep dead heading summer bedding, early flowering perennials and repeat flowering roses to encourage more flowers.
Pinch out tips of new growth on figs at the end of month, when the shoots have 5 leaves. Stop cutting asparagus now and topdress with a general purpose fertilizer. Thin fruit on young or heavily bearing fruit trees, after the June drop, to improve size and quality. Net soft fruit bushes to stop the birds taking the fruit. Remove side shoots from cordon grown tomatoes.
First early potatoes can be harvested when they begin to flower. Plant out sweetcorn in blocks, rather than rows as this will aid pollination. Prune ornamental cherries after flowers have faded. Keep pruning cuts to a minimum as they do not heal well and can allow in diseases such as canker.
Regularly mow lawns, mowing in different directions to prevent wear patterns and to encourage upright growth. A high-nitrogen summer lawn fertilizer can be applied if there isn’t drought conditions.
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