Pest Control
Keep up with the slug and snail control. If you are using slug nematodes make sure you reapply them every 6 weeks for maximum protection.
This is the time when caterpillars are likely to be a problem, especially the cabbage white. You can now spray them with a solution of natural nematodes. The packs contain 3 applications that you spray onto the caterpillars at 5-7 day intervals.
Keep birds off ripening fruit with colourful windmills, streamers and even old CDs strung from string to sparkle in sunlight.
Sowing Now
Seeds Suitable to Sow Outside: Basil, coriander, cabbage, courgette, lettuce, radish, salad leaves, turnip. In mild areas you can also make a final sowing of French beans and runner beans.
In The Greenhouse
As the weather heats up make sure you can keep the greenhouse well ventilated. Add shading if necessary and damp down the greenhouse floor to keep the air humid and reduce the problem of red spider mites.
Other Jobs
Make sure your tomatoes get a constant water supply. Letting them dry out and then drowning them will increase the chance of problems such as splitting fruit and blossom end rot.
Continue to pinch out the side shoots on cordon grown tomatoes. Pinch out the top when they reach the desired height.
Thin out the fruit on your apple, pear, peach, nectarine and plum trees. You will get larger, better quality fruit.
Provide support and tie plants in to canes as they grow.
Prune cherries and plums after harvesting. Choose a day when it is likely to be warm and dry for the next few days to reduce the likelihood of bacterial canker.
When raspberry canes have finished fruiting cut them down to the base.
If your strawberry plants are 3-4 years old now is a good time to think about replacing them if the yields have started to drop. Container grown strawberries especially can have a real drop in yield as the compost gets exhausted. You can order plants to be delivered in the autumn. This gives them a head start for the following year.