June in the garden

This month in New Zealand, we are approaching Winter Solstice—the 'shortest day' (or 'the longest night'). The sun is at its lowest point in the sky, and shadows will be at their longest.

Understanding where we are throughout the year in relation to the sun is helpful in garden planning.

It influences the temperature of air and soil; the amount of light or shade in your garden; and often the kind of weather we might expect.

It's worth looking around your garden at solstice and paying attention to where the shadows are, and for how long.

The solstice is on the night of the 21st June and into 22nd June. For a couple of months after that, we will be looking at our coldest—and possibly wildest—weather of the year.

But then our days will slowly get longer again as we move towards spring, and that's worth being happy about.

Top level tasks for this month:

• Planting garlic and shallots.
• Planting and maintaining strawberry beds.
• Spraying and maintenance of stone fruit trees with fungal issues like brown rot.
• Pruning pip fruit trees.
• Harvesting citrus fruit.

Garlic!

For me, Solstice usually means putting my garlic in the ground. I aim for the week after-ish, depending on the weather and what else is going on.

But often the 21st and 22nd seem to be clear and beautiful. If you haven't done it yet, this month is the time!

Select good-looking, fat cloves—don't bother planting the small inner cloves (eat them instead).

Soak them for a couple of hours in some organic fertiliser diluted with water, and plant 10cm below the surface.

More planting tips are available at Gourmet Garlic.

Shallots

Another member of the allium family it's time to get into the ground.

When we moved here, I planted a bag of Henry's Flowering Shallots from Kōanga Institute and we've been growing them ever since.

They're one of the easiest crops we grow here. Simply pop them half-way into the ground with the root-side down.

Keep them free of weeds, and they usually multiply by a factor of over 10 before they're ready to harvest around December-January.

Each year I hold onto around a dozen of my best and put them aside to grow on the next year. They've replaced onions in our pantry.

Asparagus

Established beds should be mulched down. You can give it a good weed and apply a layer of compost and mulch.

If you're planning a new asparagus bed, now is the time to make sure it's ready to go for planting in late winter into early spring.

Cultivate it deeply to 30-40cm and incorporate organic matter (compost, blood and bone, aged manure, worm castings etc) and a generous serving of lime.

Peas

If you live in Zone A on the map, you can start planting peas this month—and every month through to about September.

Peas—like all legumes—are best planted as seed directly into the soil. These days I usually dig a shallow trench and lay down a row of seed.

Then as they start growing, I 'thin out' the plants so they're about 10cm apart. The seedlings I pull out make great chicken food.

Sow your peas below something they can climb up.

The variety I grow (Alderman) can get to 2m tall and I've never managed to build a structure tall enough!

Peas sown this month will be harvestable in late August/early September.

Potatoes

This definitely only applies to the warmest areas of Zone A. Planting and growing early potato varieties (Swift, Rocket, Jersey Bennes, Cliff Kidney etc) can start this month.

However it is very, very important you keep them well-mulched and protected against frost.

One frost can wipe out early potatoes, and this time of year can be dangerous in a lot of places. Even in the Far North's sub-tropical conditions, a very light frost zaps them.

But, if you keep your spuds properly mounded with soil and thickly mulched (I use lawn clippings)—and then cover with a protective cloth when they get too big for mulching—then it can be done.

Spuds planted this month are usually on your plate by September.

Still planting

Broad beans can still be planted either as your first batch of the year, or as a successive sowing to earlier plantings.

Successive sowing means a longer harvest. I gave some sowing tips back in April.

You can still get away with planting Chinese cabbages like pak and bok choi, but the bigger brassicas like broccoli or cabbage are a little marginal this late in the season. Going into our coldest period of the year, they don't seem to get the warmth they need to establish.

Now's a great time to get onto renovating your strawberry beds too. Established beds can be given a layer of compost and mulched to keep weed growth down. You can lift any runners to plant out yourself, give away, or sell.

Get going on onions. Seeds and seedlings can be planted this month. I published some tips last month.

Lettuces, rocket, cilantro, radishes, and spinach can be planted too.

Stone fruit

Leaf-fall should now be complete. You can pull off any leaves that remain.

If your plants typically suffer from bacterial diseases, now is the time to get on top of that.

Those diseases are hanging around and will take hold again as your tree begins to flower and develop leaves. So now is the time to "clean things up" as much as possible.

Remove the leaves and any mouldy fruit from the area. Dispose of them in a green waste facility—the pathogens will survive home composting and go on to re-infect your trees later if you let them hang around.

Copper sprays are used to 'disinfect' the tree. Spraying oils such as Conqueror will suffocate any small insects hiding out and waiting for spring. Both are certified organic products.

If you can, use a sprayer with a wand so you can get between the branches and thoroughly coat each part of the tree.

Pip fruit

It's time to get pruning your apples and pears! I've published my guide to pruning fruit trees to give you all the tips and tricks you need to know to get this job done.

Citrus fruit

My lemon tree is absolutely dripping with ripening lemons, and we're tearing into juicy sweet mandarins.

Now is harvesting time with your citrus. Start with the fruit on any branches you're thinking about pruning—we're not quite at that time yet, but we will be soon, so you might as well take the fruit first.

If you live in Zone 3, ensure you're protecting your plants from frosts—most citrus can deal with a little cold, but need protection from extremes.

Get to it!

I hope you've found some ideas for your garden in here—a little bit of work up front really pays off.

I find winter to be a great time to get on top of my weeds, tidy things up, and get ready for the warmer weather later on.

If the weather's giving you an opportunity, it's time well spent to spend it in the garden.