Fertilizing
- Fertilize or sidedress your vegetables as needed.
Planting
- Start plants in June of brussel sprouts and collards for transplanting into the garden in mid-July.
- Plant the following vegetables in your garden in June: beans, lima beans, southern peas, pepper, sweet potato, pumpkin and tomato.
Pruning
- Late June is the recommended time to prune white pine. Trim new growth only.
- Prune narrowleaf evergreens like juniper and arborvitae..
- Prune the bigleaf or florist hydrangea when the flowers fade.
- Trim hedges as needed.
- Remove water sprouts on any fruit trees and crabapple.
- Cut off the faded flowers of phlox, shasta daisy and daylily to encourage a second flowering.
- Trim dried up foliage of your spring flowering bulbs.
- Prune out dieback on hybrid rhododendron, azalea, mountain laurel, and blueberry.
- Pinch your chrysanthemums to encourage branching.
Spraying
- Spray the following landscape shrubs for the following insect pests: arborvitae- bag worm, boxwood- leaf miner, crapemyrtle – aphid, hemlock – spider mites, and pyracantha – lace bug.
- Spray for Japanese beetles as needed.
- Spray the following vegetables if insects are observed: cucumber (cucumber beetle), squash (squash borers and aphids), tomato and eggplant (flea beetle), broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower (worms).
- Keep spraying your tree fruits and bunch grapes with a pest control program.
- Check your asparagus plants for the asparagus beetle. Spray with the recommended insecticide if beetles are observed.
- Continue with rose spray program.
- Watch for dark brown spots on your tomato leaves. If observed, spray with a fungicide for early blight.
- Spray herbicides on the following woody weeds: poison ivy, honeysuckle and kudzu.
- Use pesticides sparingly. Spray only when needed.
Lawn Care
- Continue fertilizing zoysia this month. Do NOT fertilize tall fescue and bluegrass now.
- Start zoysia in June.
Propagation
- Late June is the ideal time to take semi-hardwood cuttings. Azaleas, cotoneaster, camellia, holly, pieris, red-tip photinia and rhododendron cuttings should be taken in June or July.
Specific Chores
- Build a coldframe for rooting your shrub cuttings.
- Renovate your strawberry bed after the berry harvest is completed.
- Water your favorite plants during periods of dry weather. Water early in the morning. Watering late in the day encourages plant disease growth.
- Vegetable gardens need 1 inch of water per week.
- Harvest crops on a regular basis to keep plants producing.
Extension Master Gardener Volunteers of Durham County 