Long sunny days and warm light evenings make June the month when even the most reluctant gardener will enjoy spending time outside, even if it's only lounging on the patio with a long cool drink. Roses, honeysuckle and clematis are in full flower, and bedding plants in summer containers will start to fill out. All containers will need careful feeding and watering – you can rely on J Arthur Bower's specially designed composts and feeds to give you a summer display to be proud of. If you're really stuck for space, how about investing in a couple of grow bags.

ESSENTIAL JOBS CHECKLIST FOR JUNE

• Water containers and feed when necessary
• Plant new acquisitions and water regularly
• Stand cacti and houseplants outside – repot id necessary
• Continue to feed and mow lawns. Aerate
• Harvest vegetables and herbs. Earth up potatoes
• Harvest soft fruit
• Prune fruit trees
• Mist greenhouse on hot days and shade
• Clear blanket weed from ponds
• Clip hedges and topiary and feed

Plant out summer bedding

• June is one of the most popular months for buying perennials and shrubs – hardly surprising with so many beautiful plants flowering this month. Make sure all new acquisitions are planted with a good handful of your favourite J Arthur Bower's planting mixture (see our Quick Tips for suitable recipes). Water new plantings in very well and continue to water regularly – every couple of days if it's really hot – until the plants are established and making new growth.
• Summer bedding can be planted out in your borders this month. Follow the usual planting rules, remembering that many bedding plants only have small root systems and very likely to dry out in hot weather.
• Prune shrubs that have finished flowering, such as flowering currants, kerrias, weigelas, philadelphus and deutzias, by cutting back flowered shoots to a healthy bud. In mature plants, you can cut out whole branches that have flowered to open up the shrub and promote new growth. It's best to cut back about one third of branches each year in a three-year cycle. After pruning, water the shrubs well and give them a good feed using J Arthur Bower's Growmore or Fish, Blood and Bone
• Evergreen hedges and topiary of yew, privet, box, Lonicera nitida and Leyland cypress can be clipped this month and given a light feed of all-purpose plant food.

• Continue to spray roses against pests and diseases where necessary
• Dead-head large-flowered and cluster-flowered roses that have finished flowering- this will promote a second flush of flowers in July and August. Feed after the first flush of blooms with J Arthur Bower's PureRose.
• Shrub roses and once-flowering old-fashioned varieties do not need drastic pruning. Dead-head them unless

• Feed your lawn with J Arthur Bower's Spring and Summer Lawn Food, if you didn't do it last month. If weeds or moss are still a problem use the appropriate product from the huge range of J Arthur Bower's Total Lawn Care range.
• Mowing should now be done with the blades set low, unless the weather is very dry – in such conditions a medium setting will be better for the grass
• Aerating your lawn will enable it to take up moisture as well as improving drainage, so if you didn't do it earlier in the year it's worth doing now. However, don't do it in really dry conditions – best done after rain.

• Keeping plants moist and protecting them from intense heat will be priorities this month. Paint shading onto the glass, and mist plants as well as watering regularly. You can boost the humidity of your greenhouse by spraying the floor with water each morning. Keeping the atmosphere moist will help to keep red spider mite at bay.
• To keep displays of fuchsias and pelargoniums looking good, remove faded flowers regularly and apply a liquid feed such as J Arthur Bower's Growmore Liquid Hanging Basket and Container, which has extra potassium to boost flowering.
• African violets and Begonia rex can be propagated from leaf cuttings. For African violets, push a leaf with an inch or slightly more of stalk attached vertically into a small pot containing a mixture of equal parts peat and sharp sand. For begonias, cut the veins on the underside of the leaf in several places and lay the leaves, cut side down, on top of a small tray of the same mixture. Fasten the leaves down with two or three stones or hair[pins. In a few weeks baby plants will be produced – these can be potted up separately into J Arthur Bower's Houseplant compost.
• Plant up your J Arthur Bower's Grow in Bags with your choice of crop. Keep the bags well watered – you will find that the New Horizon peat-free bags need slightly more water than peat-based grow in bags. Bags should also be fed at least once a week with J Arthur Bower's Liquid plant food. If you're growing tomatoes don't use the Liquid Tomato Food until the first truss of flowers has set fruit.

• Finish planting up containers of summer bedding. Make sure you keep them well-watered, especially hanging baskets and shallow window-boxes. Aim to water these once a day if you can, preferably when the sun isn't on them.

• You can start planting out young leeks this month – make holes with a dibber, plant the leeks then water without a rose on your can so that the soil is washed from the sides of the hole. Cut the tops of young leeks back by about a quarter before planting out.
• Brussels sprouts, winter cabbages and sprouting broccoli can also be planted out
• Earth up potatoes when the foliage is 23cm (9 inches) high. Drawing the soil up around the stems in this way will prevent tubers that form near the surface from being green and unfit to eat.
• With a bit of luck you should be harvesting early summer cabbages and cauliflower this month.

• Many herbs will be ready for picking. Choose a dry sunny morning (before the heat of the day releases the herb's essential oils). Cut shoots and tie them into small bundles before hanging upside-down in a warm place. Once they are dry, strip the leaves from the stalks and store in jars. If you haven't really got a suitable place for drying, try using the microwave. Place sprigs or leaves in a single layer on a sheet of kitchen paper and microwave for 2-3 minutes, checking every 30 seconds. Cool, then crumble and store.
• Another way of preserving herbs is by chopping them and freezing into ice cube trays. This is especially good for parsley, basil, mint and whole borage flowers. Add one tablespoon of water to each tablespoon of herbs.
• Continue to take cuttings of rosemary, sage and thyme.

• Apples will drop many small fruits this month – it's known as the June drop. Don't worry! It's nature's way of thinning out the crop. Gardeners can do even more thinning if a particularly heavy crop is being carried. This is easy on dwarf trees, but is not worth doing on large old standard trees.
• Check gooseberry bushes for sawfly and mildew and spray if necessary

• If you have a pond with fish but no fountain, oxygenate the water in hot weather by spraying in fresh water from a hose. This is especially important in shallow pools.
• Top up pebble pools as water evaporates

• Healianthemums that have flowered should have their stems cut back by half to encourage next year's flowering
• Dead-head plants unless you plan to save seed. Cut out dead rosettes of foliage and do any weeding as necessary. Don't let perennial weeds become established as they can quickly overwhelm alpines

Look at our information pages. The aim is to cut out the mystique that surrounds many common tasks, and to explain in a simple way, why and how to do them. This way, we hope to help you enjoy your garden more, and get the best out of it.

Under each topic, you'll also find a guide to the wide range of J Arthur Bower's products available to help you with that particular task. The choice is yours.