Cottonmill and Nunnery Allotment Association

Sowing & planting In June/July you can sow beetroot, carrot, lettuce and salad leaves, radish, spring onion, kohl rabi, swede, spring cabbage and endive, plus dwarf French beans for a late crop. You can also continue sowing peas and mange tout. You should soon be transplanting sprouts, kale, spring and winter cabbages, cauliflowers and artichokes. Don’t forget to keep thinning out your carrots and beetroot to stop overcrowding and give you good sized crops.

Broad beans Nip off the tender young tips of the plants when the first beans start to form. This will ensure an earlier crop and should deter blackfly from infesting them.

Onions Never let your onions go short of water or their yield will be reduced or they will bolt. Water them once or twice a week and keep the weeds down with a hoe.

Harvesting You should start harvesting your first early potatoes in late June, wait until the first flowers are fully open then check one plant first to assess the tuber size. Other crops coming into harvest include beetroot, broad beans, carrots, French and runner beans, peas, summer cabbage, celery, courgettes, leaf beet, lettuce, radish, rocket, onions and garlic.

Greenhouse You could now have tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, aubergines and all manner of other things growing and hopefully some cropping as well. Remember to water and feed them regularly and to tap tomato blooms to improve pollination. Paint greenhouses with a whitewash or put shade netting in place for hot days. Open ventilators and doors every morning, but close them again on cool evenings if you can.

Fruit Tie new raspberry and blackberry canes to support wires as they grow. Cover your soft fruit with nets to protect them from hungry birds, but do check the netting regularly to ensure that none have become trapped. Gooseberries need thinning in June to ensure you get large fruit and check for attack from gooseberry sawfly caterpillars.

Enjoy the fruits of your labours by picking rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries, currants, cherries and gooseberries.

Must do jobs for the summer

• Cover fruit bushes with nets
• Regularly water dry crops, especially onions and greenhouse plants
• Nip off the tips of broad beans to deter blackfly
• Plan your entries for the CNAA Summer Show