Now that June is here, there is considerable activity throughout Wisconsin yards and gardens. Summer officially arrives this month and with it peak growing season for many plants. Making checklists helps ensure everything gets completed in a timely manner.

Early June is prime time in vegetable gardens. No longer a need to wait for planting warm loving crops like melons, pumpkins, eggplant, tomatoes, and peppers. For transplants, make sure they have been acclimated to outdoor conditions. Ideally plant on a cloudy day or provide some temporary shade for a few days. Warm loving crops benefit from black plastic mulch, not only for weed control and conserving soil moisture, but retaining soil heat gets plants off to faster starts.

Lilacs have put on another colorful blooming show across the state. Now is the ideal time to prune them to keep the flower displays coming in future years. Older stems of multi-stem lilac shrubs should be cut down to the ground level, allowing newer stems to develop and keeping lilacs flowering productively. The same holds true for shrubs with colorful bark, such as red and yellow twig dogwood. Newer stems have better color than fading old ones, which should be removed on a regular basis.

Now is a suitable time to remove any dead stems or limbs from trees and shrubs, including any recent storm damage. Make good clean pruning cuts and avoid applying wound dressings. Most trees can be pruned now if needed. Do not prune oaks now, however, due to the threat of oak wilt. Instead, wait until mid-October and prune oaks when they are dormant.

Warm season ornamental grasses, including native prairie species, are just starting in their growth and development for 2025. If you have not already done so, remove any old foliage from last season still left on ornamental grasses. Conversely, daffodils and other spring bulbs have completed blooming across Wisconsin but remember to allow green foliage to remain until it fades to yellow and brown. Green foliage is producing energy for these bulbs needed for growth and flowering in spring 2026, and early removal disrupts the process.

As we advance toward summer, the best suggestion for lawn care checklists is to raise your mower blade height setting. Higher heights of cutting help lawns with summer heat and potential drought conditions, in addition to being a prime management tool to keep crabgrass at bay. If overseeding or renovation work is on your checklist, table it until late August, as lawn grasses develop faster and have fewer problems heading into fall as compared to summer.

June is prime time in the yard and garden!