While many gardeners make the most of sowing seeds in the springtime, June is also a great month to sow seeds and get some young plants in the soil. The high air and soil temperatures are the perfect conditions to kick-start plant growth. Any tender crops or annuals that are in the greenhouse should also be planted outdoors.
There is one particular vegetable that will grow well in the June weather, but must be sown before the month ends to give it enough time to thrive and produce a good harvest. Gardeners’ World shared the advice, as well as instructions on how to grow it.
It said: “This month is your last chance to sow courgettes direct outdoors if you want to ensure a long enough growing season. It’s also a good month to plant out courgette seedlings grown indoors.”
Courgettes are easy to grow and highly productive plants, according to the gardening website. The great thing about growing courgettes is that the plants bear “masses of delicious, nutty crops” perfect for summer dishes and salads.
While they do take up a lot of space, they provide more than enough vegetables to feed a family and even have some left over to share out with others.
To grow courgettes, gardeners should choose a warm, sunny spot and sow the seeds 2.5cm deep, keeping them 90cm apart. The plants should be well watered and fed regularly.
Courgettes should then be harvested when they are around 10cm long as “leaving courgettes to grow larger will reduce the plant’s vigour and fruiting potential”.
Gardeners should also note that courgettes are hungry plants, so it is crucial that the soil is enriched with plenty of well-rotted horse manure or compost. They will also need feeding weekly with a high-potash feed, such as tomato food. This will help promote growth and flowering.
Courgettes can be at risk of bearing no fruits, which happens if it only produces male flowers. However, Gardeners’ World wrote: “The production of male flowers is usually due to dry conditions. Keeping the soil consistently moist should solve the problem.”