This month we can hopefully expect warmer temperatures and more sunlight. Flowers are blooming, but the weeds are also coming up from nowhere! Keep on top of them!

Here are some top gardening jobs for this month…

In the veg garden

Pinch out side shoots on tomatoes

As your tomato plants grow, look for the small shoots that appear in-between the main stem and main branches. These are the side shoots. Use your finger and thumb to pinch them off. This prevents them from growing and keeps the plant’s energy focussed on the main stem and producing tomatoes that will ripen before the end of the season.

Protect any fruit starting to develop by placing netting around the plants

Use netting to protect your fruit bushes from birds and small animals. This can help to prolong the life of your produce and protect them from pests and disease.

Netting is available either loose to wrap around the plants or by using canes, or by using ready made fruit cages,

Harvest salad crops every 2 weeks for a constant supply

To ensure the longest, steadiest supply of young leaves throughout the growing season, try to sow small batches of seed every two weeks until late August. It is best to harvest leaves in the morning when they are at their freshest. Try to only harvest what you need for each day as baby leaves can wilt quickly.

In the flower garden

Stake and support tall, floppy perennials

If you have any tall, floppy plants, add supports around them to prevent them from becoming too tall and bushy – there are a wide range of ready-made supports available do this.

Dead head roses

You can deadhead individual flowers or clusters of flowers. The sooner you deadhead the roses, the sooner new flowers will appear, as the energy the rose is using to make rose hips will be channelled into making new flowers.

For multi-flowered roses, take off each flower from the cluster as its petals begin to fall, snipping with secateurs or pinching it out. This will keep the plant looking good while the rest of the buds open. Once all the flowers in a cluster have finished, remove the whole stem.

When deadheading roses with single-flowers, snip off the flowerhead and around 15cm of stem, cutting just above a strong, healthy leaf. Your next flower shoot will grow from that leaf joint.

Hoe borders regularly to keep down weeds

Going through borders every week with a garden hoe will help keep down weeds. The action will disturb the annual weed seeds just germinating and cut off any new or fresh growth from perennial weeds.

If hoeing is continued weekly, the pieces of root will eventually become exhausted and unable to produce any more shoots. Also, there’s no need to pick up weeds after hoeing, unless they have flower heads.

In and around the garden

Feed and water containers

Plants in containers need more watering and feeding than those growing in the ground, as they have only a small amount of compost to sustain them.

Feed once or twice a week with a liquid or soluble plant feed.

Mow lawns at least once a week

For regular lawns, cutting once a week is ideal, possibly upping it to two times a week when the lawn is growing its fastest, but you don’t have to stick to a strict regime. Cut more often if the lawn is growing strongly and starting to look shaggy. Likewise, when growth starts to slow towards the end of the season, reduce the mowing frequency to suit.

Use greenhouse shading 

Greenhouse Shading is essential during the summer months – even during a British summer, the sun is able to increase temperatures within the greenhouse to such an extent that plants can be damaged – a surprising amount of damage from overheating and scorching can be done to your plants in a very short period of time.