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- June sees start of the first of the harvest from our vegetable garden,
including early potatoes and delicious strawberries.
The plants are growing strongly, now the weather is warmer.
So there's plenty to do, including watering, weeding, and feeding.
And even some planting, looking ahead to the winter.
Watch out though, as the pests and diseases are also becoming active now.
So you need to keep on top of things if you want your vegetable garden to be full of vigour this
June.
Most tomatoes are grown as cordon.
This means we train them as only one stem, which directs all their energy into making
big tasty fruit, rather than lots of leaves.
To grow a tomato as a cordon, you need to remove the side shoot that
grows between the main stem and the leaf.
Simply snap it off, and then make sure you are supporting your plant
by wrapping it around the string it's growing up or tying it onto the cane.
Give your tomatoes a thorough soak every day.
Tomato fruit can split if it's watered irregularly.
And you can also get a problem called blossom end rot, which causes the base of the tomatoes
to turn black.
To keep your greenhouse cool in warm weather, make sure you come in every morning,
open up the windows, check the vents open, and then pour water on the greenhouse floor.
As it evaporates, it will increase the humidity, and help cool down the temperatures.
Back in February, we planted some early crops in the greenhouse.
Baby carrots, [INAUDIBLE],, and these potatoes, and today
is the day we're going to harvest them and find out what we've got.
Now you don't have to take them all out in one go.
You can just take as many as you want at one time.
Now if I reach in here, there are some very nice potatoes, hiding just under the surface.
Unless you grow asparagus, peas and broad beans are
likely to be one of your first harvests of the year.
Now with both, the secret is to pick them early, and pick them regularly.
Otherwise, you could end up with a bit of a glut.
There's no worry even if you do, as both of them freeze really well.
Now check that the pods are ready to harvest, by feeling them and making sure they feel full.
Then the secret is, is to pull down and twist them.
If you pull them up, you're going to wind up pulling the whole plant with it.
When I crack them open, we've got some lovely beans inside.
By late June, the first potatoes are ready to harvest.
And it's the early varieties like Casablanca that are ready first.
Now they don't make as much leaf as the main crop varieties.
And you might not find that they're flowering yet, but we've got a few here.
To check if they are ready, it's worth lifting one or two plants,
just to see what's underneath the soil.
You're looking for something that's about the size of a hen's egg.
Now let's see what we've got here.
Wow, there's some big ones in here.
They really grow to an enormous size, even though they're early potatoes.
They're gonna taste great.
Keep your eye on your strawberries, as they're ripening all the time.
The joy of growing your own is you can wait until they're perfectly red all the way around.
This one's still a bit pink, so I'm going to leave this one for later.
Once you've had a chance to check over your crops, and you've
got all the ones you're going to take today, make sure you put that netting back on as the birds
are going to want to eat them as well.
And if you're having a bit of slug damage, top up the slug pellets.
How ever good your soil is, you're going to need to give it an extra feed about now.
You could use our best buy, Vitax Q4, or Grow More.
But if you are an organic gardener, you'll want to use organic chicken manure
pellets, which do a great job as well.
I've been telling you to sow quick growing crops, like these beetroot,
for the last couple of months and it's fantastic, as we've just harvested the first ones.
The secret with all these quick growing crops, like beetroot and lettuce,
is to just sow a few plants at a time.
Otherwise, you'll wind up with a bit of a glut.
Now at the time of the sowings, the secret with that is to sow one batch of seeds,
wait for it to come up, and then sow the next one.
That way, you'll have a lovely, even harvest, and no gluts.
In our May update, we planted Brussels sprouts, ready for Christmas.
And there's still time to be planting brassicas, such as these black kale, ready for the winter.
Now the secret with planting any of the brassicas, is to make sure you get them in really firmly,
so they won't come up.
They'll rip rather than come up if you pull them.
And then keep an eye on them now, over the next few weeks,
and water them really well if we get dry spells.
Otherwise, the plants will wilt, and they won't get off to a great start.
With the warmer weather, we not only get slugs and snails,
but we also get flying pests like aphids and black fly.
Now you can spray them with a solutions, such as Soft Soap if you're organic.
Or you can use an insecticide recommended for use on fruits and veg.
An alternative is to cover your plants with a very fine mesh such as this, which will help keep out
any flying pests, and keep them lovely and clean.