How to make your garden look great in June, and a new planting design course

What to do in your garden this month. Plus: nine fabulous roses to plant, the new planting design course, slugs (again), How to Use Substack, and another Real-Life Meet-Up

In The Gardening Mind today, everything’s coming up roses as we take look at some of the very best performers so far:

It’s been an amazing year for roses, and later in this post I’ll go into details as to why I think this is, but can we firstly just have a quick word about them here?

Is it just me or is it an exceptionally superb year for roses? Or do I say this every year?

I’m wondering whether it's weather, or the feed that they had, or a combination of everything, but so far these roses have been absolutely, truly and unashamedly magnificent. There’s more on why this might be in later this post, along with my best-performing varieties so far, but in the meantime, here’s a taster of their sheer splendour:

My garden roses on June 1st

It’s easy to get seduced by our green spaces heading to their first peak of fabulous summer colour - I really don’t want to rain on your parade, but don’t forget that you may well then get that terrible July gap of colour emptiness. In June’s to-do/not-to-do list later in this post, I’ve been planting some of the saviour plants I previously listed in this post:

What to plant in your garden right now for later summer colour

Newsflash: there’s a new course here on The Gardening Mind

Roses and flowering shrubs make so much difference to a flower bed or border; if you’re thinking your planting areas are lacking a certain something, make sure to look out for next weekend’s post, as we’ll be starting our new course on Border Planting Design.

Whether you’re embarking upon a new project, or would like zhoosh up an existing border, there’ll be something for you as I take you through all the different aspects of creating a planting that just works. Island beds, borders against walls and fences: we’ll be going through it all.

Prolonging flowers and foliage is a key part of June’s garden activities: I’ll be doing more of this ‘Hampton Hack-Back’ at the end of the month, but before then, I’ve still got a bit of time to administer the Chelsea Chop

Before we get to What to do and What Not To Do in your garden in June- and apologies if you’re having your breakfast while reading this - dare I ask:

How are your slug defences going?

I don’t know about you, but gastropods have taken over a huge part of my mind, and their threat looms:

I’m slightly obsessed in my campaign against slugs and snails

Taking a look at my vegetable patch - as yet untouched - I’m not sure which of my seven methods has been the most successful, but I reckon they’ve all combined to hold off the slimy attackers. So far anyway.

How to buy the best plants at a garden centre, the Small Garden Design course is back, and seven ways to beat slugs

The wool pellets seem to be working well, but I’d say the judicious use of nematodes has also had an effect, which reminds me that another watering-in of the slug-devourers is due. It’s one of my jobs of the month, coming up later in this post.

But, wait for it: there’s a national shortage of nematodes, which I can well believe, given the sheer numbers of slugs and snails that we’ve been dealing with. Illustrating this, our fellow Gardening Mind Lou suggested to her son that she’d pay him for every slug and snail he found, and she posted the results on the Chat:

“I didn’t quite think this through. A box ball has proved to be my son’s personal cash machine. Wet half term anyone?”

Frightening and at the same time hilarious, that looks to be about £25-worth so far, Lou - a very entrepreunerial son, Lou - we applaud your parenting! Stealth gardening, I think.

I’ve located a supply of nematodes at Gardening Naturally - it looks like they’ll be getting more stocks in shortly. The trick is to keep going with this nematode treatment through the growing season: every six weeks or so, dilute the mixture in a watering can and sprinkle it on your beds. It’s so simple, and definitely helpful.

Welcome to all the new subscribers - The Gardening Mind continues to venture into new territories, and we’re all super-excited to meet new members of what I definitely think is the very best gardening club in the world.

• Remember to join in our Sunday Show Us Your Plots Chat - it’s a fabulous chance to share photos of your garden or a green space near you. Our patience is being rewarded as the Northern Hemisphere gardens have now got their June colours; for our friends in the Southern Hemisphere, the wheel of the year is slowly turning in the other direction. Whatever, whichever and wherever, do come and join us - you’ll see a post on the Chat on Sunday starting ‘It’s Sunday 2nd June and it’s time to Show Us Your Plots!’.

• If you’re wondering about how to use Chat and other Substack features, I regularly host Zooms for paid subscribers where I explain to you how to find your way around The Gardening Mind. Here’s the next one for your diaries:

  ‘Finding your way around The Gardening Mind and how to use Substack’ on Tuesday 4th June at 6pm UK time.

  Feel free to come and join us for 30 minutes of my showing you around TGM- it’s an excuse for a get-together! Everyone is welcome - whether you’ve been a Gardening Mind from the start, or whether you’ve just joined - come and take a look around. The Zoom link to this is at the bottom of this post.

• If you’re new to gardening, or you’re just pondering about dipping a toe into this I-promise-you-wonderful-world, then an extra big hello and welcome to you. You might like to explore the How to Garden Series, which starts here.

• If you’re here because you’re interested in creating your own garden design, and you’d like to catch up on the Small Garden Design Course, you can find a full-round-up of all the assignments and articles, in chronological order, here. You can find each relevant piece here to work through at your own pace.

• Our Real-life Meet up it looks like we’re going to have a jolly crowd at our real-life meet-up in June. The details are at the end of this post, along with the menu if you’d like to join me for lunch first. There’s also a quick two-question poll for you to fill in if you’re coming.

• I’ve been promising another Meet-Up in a different area of the UK - again, more details at the bottom of this post.

Meet-ups, to do and not-to-do lists, best roses and delicious menus - all of that to come: