This is the month when all your hard work really starts to show. Most gardens reach their peak in June – borders look perfect and summer fruit and vegetables are flourishing. Ornamental borders will soon be at their best with scented roses beginning to flower in earnest. There is plenty to do in the garden to keep you occupied, such as cutting back and mowing, but it’s a time of year to really sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labours. So above all, take time to reward yourself this month. There’s nothing better than sitting quietly in the garden in the evening enjoying the sights, sounds and fragrance of your own private space. But there are still plenty of June garden maintenance jobs to keep you busy this month!

If your garden has bare patches, one way to liven it up is to use containers with summer bedding to provide instant, if temporary, colour. Alternatively, make new flower beds and plant them up with colourful perennial plants to flower every year.

Deadheading is a regular task in all parts of the garden as some flowers ‘go over.’ With many plants the flowering period can be extended if old flowers are removed as soon as they fade. This is particularly important with roses. It will prevent the plant’s energy going into seed production and channel it into new growth and flowers later in the season. Most deadheading can be done with secateurs, cutting back to just above strong buds lower down the stem. Some plants, like hardy geraniums, can be chopped right back with garden shears. This may seem a bit drastic, and especially at first they will look very bare, but later on in the season they will reward you with a flush of new flowers.

Hoe or hand-pull annual weeds while they are still small. Choose a dry day and leave the leaves on the surface to wither. Perennial weeds (things like dandelions and ground elder) are trickier to deal with. They have to be dug out and effectively removing completely; if any trace is left in the soil, be warned: they return!