It's a busy month in the garden, but as we approach the longest day on the 21^st June, we've plenty of daylight to work in.

If we are lucky and get the hot dry weather we love, then we've got the problem of keeping things watered. Never satisfied, are we? We all know about conserving water nowadays, if only to keep the meter reading down. What many people don't appreciate is the way we water is important in conservation. 

Sprinklers are extremely easy to use; set them up, connect the pipe and leave them to it. Unfortunately much of the water hits the ground and evaporates in the sunshine. A much more efficient method is to use a soaker hose. These are porous hoses which you can connect to the mains or to a water butt and they allow the water to soak slowly into the ground and the surrounding soil. Evaporation loss is negligible and the water gets to where it is needed.

When watering, you are much better off to give a good soaking every three days or so rather than a little drink every day. The reason is that the little drink keeps the surface damp even when it is dry underneath and the plant roots are encouraged to stay near the surface. A good soaking will go deep down under the surface and the plants will be encouraged to go after it. Before deciding you need to water, just check first. Scrape an inch or two of topsoil off, then insert your 'water meter mark one' or index finger as I call it, into the ground. You'll be surprised how often a dry surface covers a damp soil below. Finally on watering, hoeing the weeds off will also break up the surface of the soil, this prevents capillary action from drawing precious water to the surface of the soil to evaporate in the sun.

This is the time of year when the vegetable grower is getting the first crops out. Early potatoes that taste like a different vegetable to shop bought being my favourite early crop. As a space clears, don't just leave it. All that will happen is the weeds will grow. Try sowing some Dwarf French beans in the space. They're fairly fast to crop and being a legume that produces its own nitrogen, actually add some value back to the soil.

If you're fortunate enough to be growing in a potato barrel, don't forget you can remove enough tubers for a meal and leave the plant to carry on growing.  There's no need to empty it in one go. On the subject of barrels, I've got a strawberry barrel. Not only does it allow me to grow 4 times as many strawberries in a given space, it also comes with a net to keep those pesky birds from eating my crop. Let them grow their own, I say!

Talking of pests, don't forget to keep on top of the slugs. You might not see them in the day but they're just waiting for dusk to come out and eat their way through your plants.

I favour using the safe slug pellets that are harmless to wildlife, we don't want to hurt our predator allies, but there are a wide range of traps and deterrents available.

Hopefully you'll be enjoying some salads now, don't forget to keep sowing each fortnight to replace what you eat or what goes over. I never worry too much about a bolted lettuce. They'll compost so all I've really lost is a few seeds. Incidentally, if you've got a lettuce about to bolt, try cooking it with peas or even making a lettuce soup. It's a more versatile vegetable than you might imagine and if you want some recipe ideas click here 

Let's hope you're not reading this because we've a monsoon!

Copyright © John Harrison 2008
Author of the Best Selling "Vegetable Growing - Month by Month Guide" and Editor of the Allotment Website: www.allotment.org.uk