With the summer solstice this month, we will be enjoying long hours of daylight throughout the month. Our tip this month is to make the most of all this light to enjoy any outdoor space that you have. If you’ve spent time sowing, weeding, pruning, mowing and planting for the first few months of the year, take some time to step back and enjoy the fruits of your labours.  While past performance is no guarantee, June has been quite a warm month in the past couple of years, so this month may be more suited to a bit of R&R than heavy labour.

If we get a spell of decent weather many people’s thoughts will turn to outdoor eating, which often means barbecues in the afternoon or long light evenings. However, a lovely treat in high summer is an outdoor breakfast. With sunrise well before 5:00 a.m. this month the temperature rises quickly and can already be very pleasant by the time that most of us are thinking about surfacing. An early breakfast outdoors, before too much traffic is on the road can give you the chance to catch up with birdsong before the wider noises of life intrude too much.  We’ve been known to pack a flask of tea and a couple of croissants for an early morning breakfast on the allotment.

Breakfast on the allotment

If the weather isn’t so good, June is also a good month for bringing a bit of the outdoors inside. Depending on what you grow, you may be able to bring cut flowers such as roses, peonies, irises, philadelphus and star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) inside. These will all give fabulous scent as well as splashes of colour.

Roses and Peony in full bloom

If you are a kitchen gardener, you may be eating your first early potatoes, the new season’s peas, early strawberries, blackcurrants and the first baby carrots this month, all seasonal treats that are worth sitting down to enjoy.

New Potatoes June 2015

Home grown strawberries

Of course, if you get a bit restless, the long days will leave a fair amount of time for further weeding, pruning, mowing and planting if you fancy.