June.

Every bed is full — now defend it

• Weed while weeds are small

  A weed at 3 inches pulls out with one finger. The same weed at 8 inches needs a hoe, and it's already stolen water and light from the crop next to it. Weed weekly, small.

• Stay out of the garden when leaves are wet

  Fungal spores travel on water and shoes. Walk through a wet tomato patch and you spread early blight to every plant you brush. Wait until leaves dry before working.

• Get last warm-crop transplants in the ground

  Late tomato and eggplant transplants, direct-sown beans and squash for succession — this is your last window to plant with enough season left to mature.

Getting ahead of pests

• Watch for beetles: potato, cucumber, squash vine borer, Mexican bean

  The first ten beetles you see is the moment to act. Hand-pick them into a jar of soapy water, or spot-treat with neem or spinosad. Don't wait for damage — by then you're behind.

• Cover brassicas with floating row cover

  Cabbage moths lay eggs on any exposed brassica leaf; the caterpillars can strip a broccoli plant to ribs in a week. Row cover from planting through harvest is easier than picking caterpillars.

Managing the fruit and flowers

• Begin softwood cuttings of shrubs

  In June, current-year growth is soft and green — the perfect stage to root cuttings. Take 6-inch tips of spirea, lilac, or viburnum, dip in rooting hormone, and stick in damp perlite.

• Thin fruit on peaches and apples

  A peach tree that sets 200 fruits gives you 200 tiny peaches. Thin to one fruit every 6 inches; the tree pours the same energy into fewer, bigger, better fruits.

• Divide bearded irises after bloom

  June is the transplant window. Dig, split the rhizomes, discard soft or diseased pieces, and replant with the tops just at the soil surface.