Garden Chores for June

This is the month when alliums, peonies, lavender, yarrow, irises, heucheras, clematis and roses are starting to bloom in earnest. As blooms fade on perennials such as nepeta and hardy geranium Johnson's Blue, they can be cut down to two or three inches. Give them a little liquid feed, and new growth will soon flush out, and you may get a re-bloom in late summer. Deadhead spent blooms of your peonies, irises and lavender so the plants don't put energy into developing seeds. It is also a good time to trim your lavender after flowering to keep them from becoming too lanky and woody. Just make sure you can see fresh growth points on the branches you want to shorten, and cut to that point. This is a good month to take softwood cutting from shrubs, including lavender and hydrangeas, if you wish to multiply your stock of plants for free. 

June is also a good time to prune your spring flowering shrubs for shape and size control. By June, any bare branches of deciduous shrubs and trees are likely to be dead, and can be pruned off. If you want to be sure, do a scratch test- scratch the bark of a branch, and if you don't see green, the branch is dead and can be cut off. Continue to be vigilant and pick off slugs and snails or apply slug bait, especially around newly planted tender annuals such as zinnias, dahlias or thinner leaved hostas.