June Vegetable Garden Checklist

By Kymisha Montgomery, CGC Urban Agriculture Coordinator

Our June garden can be full of surprises. Some of us are harvesting, while others are transplanting seedlings into the soil before summer officially arrives. Tasks to tackle can vary depending on what you were able to accomplish in the cooler months of spring, but June is the month where things really heat up—and there's no lack of garden tasks, so enjoy all the rain we recently received! If this year is anything like the last, drought is definitely in our future. Here are some June garden tasks to tackle to prepare you for your bountiful harvest in the months to come.

Sow More Seeds and Transplant Your Seedlings

Sometimes we don’t stick to our garden plan and tasks get left undone. In June, it’s not too late to sow seeds in the soil. Even if you’ve done so already, sowing another round could lead to a greater benefit. A succession of seed sowing can make sure you have more food growing as you continue to harvest from your garden.

 Some seeds to sow now: beans, squash and zucchini, corn, cucumbers, okra and fast-maturing carrots. 

Some seedlings to transplant: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, tomatillos and herbs like rosemary, thyme, lemon balm and others in the mint family.

Monitor Your Spring Crops

Keeping an eye on your spring crops can help eliminate or at least significantly decrease any pest pressure before it becomes an infestation. Take a walk around your garden and look for any sticky “honeydew” residue on the leaves of your young and mature greens. This might be a sign of aphids. Check for holes and eggs laid on the upper and lower surfaces of your cool weather crops’ leaves. To learn more about how to control garden pests on both cool and warm weather crops, register for our free HUB Garden class where we’ll take a dive into pest ID and management.

Prepare your Crops for Climbing

Trellising crops has several benefits, including maximizing space by growing vertically, supporting heavy fruit, improving airflow, increasing sunlight exposure and making harvesting easier. Pole beans, cucumbers and some indeterminate varieties could benefit from these structures. It can be as easy as using wooden stakes for beans to climb on, or you can utilize more complex materials like bamboo and galvanized steel to make trellising structures for vining plants to climb. Want to learn more? We’re teaching a HUB Garden class on trellising as well!

Preventing Spring Crops from Bolting

As temperatures rise, our spring crops like lettuce, cilantro and other cool weather greens can quickly go to seed before we would like. Most brassicas and other leafy greens mature better before temperatures are consistently above 80 degrees. Signs that your plant might be bolting include when it gets taller than its maturity height and a flower head appears. In many cases, these changes make the vegetable’s flavor bitter and its stems or roots woody. To lower heat stress on your plants, water consistently or use a shade row cover to create a microclimate of lower temperatures inside.

Here’s to a productive summer of gardening!