Gardening in June is always all about berries. The strawberries, osoberries and currants that grow in June are ripe and ready to be picked. The first raspberry blossoms can come at any moment and the fruits of the first blueberry bushes are starting to turn blue. Now that the tulips, peonies and irises are completing their flowering cycle, we are fully in the middle of summer. Everything that you have not yet planted needs to go in the ground, while we maintain and care for the plants that we have already established.

Once your lilacs have stopped blooming, you may want to consider cutting them back so that you can encourage a second flush of blooms this fall. You will want to remove about ⅓ of the stems from the plant so that you encourage new growth each year. This goes for all of your early summer blooming shrubs and trees, such as azalea, forsythia, Japanese kerria, weigela, deutzia, false orange, St. John’s wort, viburnums, and red or yellow dogwoods.

Pruning should extend to your tomatoes, which are now in the ground. You will want to prune for runners, depending on the type of trellis system you have set up. If you want to let indeterminate tomatoes have only one strong "leader" or stem, prune aggressively, but you will need a tall trellis. Also, be sure to cut away any diseased parts of the plant, but remember that you only want to touch your tomatoes after the morning dew has dried and with clean shears. Spray Lysol or another disinfectant between plants so that you do not spread mold or viruses yourself.

Once the strawberries have finished bearing fruit, mow them down and put a layer of mulch over them. This will stop them from growing runners, but will allow them to focus on root growth next year.