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[Campo Girl]

• It's one of the busiest months in the garden and it helps to follow the mantra of water, water and water, if the weather's dry. Plus, get those bedding plants in!
• First, prepare the planting areas by forking deeply to loosen the soil and mixing in a bucket of compost and a sprinkling of general plant food per square metre. Before planting, water pots or trays of bedding plants thoroughly with a liquid feed. Once in place, pack the soil tightly round the roots and water well to settle the soil.
• If you are growing sweet peas to use as cut flowers, then you´ll want your blooms to have straight stems. To achieve this pinch off the tendrils from the stems as they grow. Tie in the stems to supports every few days so they don´t go all floppy on you.
• Once you´ve got your plants in order. think about adding interest with structures, such as a weather cock or by dotting some pebbles in amongst your plants. They´re a great way to keep down the weeeds. If your lawn is looking scraggy or mowing is just not your thing, dig it up, lay a thick membrane and lay small pebbles or gravel. You will still need to lift the odd fallen leaf, but pebbles look interesting and tidy come rain or shine.
• Move pots and trays of bedding plants you´ve grown from seed in the greenhouse outside and water.
• Spread a mulch of compost or bark around trees, shrubs and roses as this prevents them getting thirsty in warm weather.
• Once in your borders, pinch out the tips of bedding plants to encourage them to branch out more.
• Lay netting over soft fruits to protect your crop from birds munching their way through your tender plnats (we share our raspberries with the birds).
• Keep box or privet in shape by trimming. This way it will keep its dense foliage and look neat too.
• Prune spring-flowering shrubs immediately after flowering.

Please add your tips for June gardening

[Suzy]

I found a rather odd tip for battling white fly the other day. Apart from the usual advice to interplant french marigolds amongst your veg as an insect repellant.  It is recommend to hang yellow bottles along lines (swill bright yellow paint in 15 litre empty water bottles) Apparantly the white fly hate the yellow glare?  Has anyone tried this, it would be interesting to know if it really works.  It seems so crazy it could just work.

[Suzy]

Sound advice as usual Simone, can I also add keep dead heading.  You will be rewarded with loads more flowers if you keep up the regime of going out first thing every morning and taking off the dead heads. 

I can´t find a translation for this in Spanish (probably sound like a crazy executioner) - do you know what it´s called in Spanish.  I look after my Spanish neighbour´s garden during the week and they are amazed at how much more their plants are blooming, all due to dead heading which they don´t do.  I have tried recortar, corte, but they just don´t seem to get it. 

[Alcalaina]

Suzy - re translation for deadheading, Wordreference.com online dictionary has "sacar las flores marchitas".

[suzy]

Thanks very much for that.  It makes sense, from this I think the literal translation in English would be "take out the shrivelled/withered heads"----makes me feel like Arnie!!   (please correct me if I´m wrong with this literal translation!!).  We have so much to learn about Spanish/English translations,  only today I found out that propoganda in Spanish is sponsorship.  So much different from our English meaning.  Or so I understand.  Thanks Alcalaina, please correct me if I´m wrong.
Cheers
Suzy