What should you be doing in your garden right now?

Early June may be a time when you are stocking up on plenty of your favourite mail order seeds, but it’s also a time when there are so many other things to do around the garden. Your garden should be approaching a nice peak right now, given the decent amount of rain we’ve had, not to mention the late spring and continuing warmth. But now is not a time to get complacent about your garden, whether or not you are a Seeds By Post (http://www.seedsbypost.co.uk) customer.

Are your containers and hanging baskets looking good this week, for example? Even if the sun hasn’t been as intense in your area of the country as it might have been where we are, they may be drying out and require everyday watering. With the temperatures continuing to rise, you should also keep up with the hardening off of outdoor tomatoes and courgettes, while you can also ensure larger blooms when you disbud border carnations. Now is also a good time to head to the rock garden and cut back alyssum and aubrieta, post-flowering.

There is also an obvious excuse to buy seeds online, given that now is the perfect moment to have seeds of fast-maturing annuals sown directly into the ground, as well as thinning any seedlings sown some months ago. There are even many spring-flowering biennials that you could sow right now, with examples including sweet Williams, wallflowers and forget-me-nots. You may also want to spend this week dividing any primulas and other early-flowering perennials, as well as lifting spring bulbs once the foliage has died down, should extra space be required. The bulbs can subsequently be stored in boxes in a well-ventilated shed.

Other steps that can be taken in your garden this week include hoeing regularly on dry days to prevent the establishment of weed seedlings, using a watering can to apply lawn feed, warding off birds by covering currants, strawberries, gooseberries and soft fruits with netting and planting out chrysanthemums and dahlias that you may have raised from cuttings. You could even head into the greenhouse, where the tips of cucumber side shoots two leaves beyond developing fruits can be pinched out.

As the month progresses, fans of our flower, herb and vegetable seeds will have further work to do, including weeding and thinning, digging out tulips and storing them dry for the summer, planting up pots and tubs for the summer and pinching out cordon tomatoes and earthing up potatoes, if required. With the risk of frost now over, you might also want to take the chance to sow French and climbing beans.

Some of these steps may seem more necessary than others, depending on the nature of your own garden and your level of confidence and skill in tending for it. One definite constant, though, is the availability of the best seeds online for all manner of purposes, from the experts here at Seeds By Post (http://www.seedsbypost.co.uk).

Editor’s Note: Seeds By Post (http://www.seedsbypost.co.uk) are represented by the search engine advertising and digital marketing specialists Jumping Spider Media. Email: info@jumpingspidermedia.co.uk or call: +44 (0)20 3070 1959 / +34 952 783 637.