June Garden Calendar

• Plant seeds that like warm soil. Sow corn, squash, cucumbers and melon seeds or seedlings when the soil has warmed to at least 65° F, usually two weeks after the last frost date. • Finish planting annuals in containers and in bare spots in your garden. Large greenhouses will still have lots of selection at the beginning of the month. • Divide and transplant most late-summer and fall-blooming perennials now. Wait to divide spring bloomers until fall. • Continue planting trees, shrubs and roses. But don't plant bare-root types. They need cool, wet weather to take off. • In the northern Midwest, continue to plant gladiolus corms, canna rhizomes, begonia tubers, and other summer bulbs.

• Deadhead flowers regularly. It not only keeps your landscape tidy-looking, it encourages certain flowers to bloom more. • Harvest veggies regularly. It will encourage vegetables to keep producing well until fall. This is especially true with green beans, but also green peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, squash, eggplants and tomatoes. • Keep up with weeding. The best time to weed is after a good rain so you can easily pull out the roots.• Fertilize containers regularly. Watering flushes out many nutrients. For best results, use a special bloom-boosting fertilizer on flowering plants.• Mulch now. Use wood chips and other weed-suppressing materials now that the soil has warmed. • Remove spring bulb foliage. Once the foliage pulls away with very little resistance, you can discard it.

• Mow high this time of year. The longer grass will shade the soil, conserving moisture and discouraging weeds. Mow to 3 inches long for cool-season grasses such as Kentucky bluegrass and 2 inches for most warm-season grasses, such as Bermudagrass and zoysia. But also remember never to remove more than one-third of the grass blade at a time or you'll stress your grass.