Why should we be drinking water?.
Weight Loss
Water is one of the best tools for weight loss, first of all because it often replaces high-calorie drinks like cola, juice and alcohol with a drink that doesn't have calories. But it's also a good appetite suppressant and often when we think we're hungry, we're actually just thirsty. Water has no fat, no calories, no carbs, no sugar.
Heart Healthy
Drinking a good amount of water could lower your risks of a heart attack. A six year study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that those who drink more than 5 glasses of water a day were 41% less likely to die from a heart attack during the study period than those who drank less than two glasses.
Energy
Being dehydrated can sap your energy and make you feel tired – even mild dehydration o as little as 1 or 2% of your body weight. If you're thirsty you're already dehydrated and this can lead to fatigue, muscle weakness, dizziness and other symptoms.
Headache Cure
Another symptom of dehydration is headaches. In fact, often when we have headaches it's simply a matter of not drinking enough water. There are lots of other causes of headaches of course, but dehydration is a common one.
Healthy Skin
Drinking water can clear up your skin and people often report a healthy glow after drinking water. It won't happen overnight, of course, but just a week of drinking a healthy amount of water can have good effects on your skin. Drinking water also helps to limit stretch marks during weight loss and pregnancy.
Digestive Problems
Our digestive systems need a good amount of water to digest properly. Often water can help cure stomach acid problems and water along with fibre can cure constipation – often a result of dehydration.
Cleansing
Water is used by the body to help flush out toxins and waste products from the body.
Cancer Risk
Related to the digestive system, drinking a healthy amount of water has also been found to reduce the risk of colon cancer by 45%. Drinking lots of water can also reduce the risk of bladder cancer by 50% and potentially reduce the risk of breast cancer.
Better Exercise
Being hydrated can severely hamper your exercise activities, slowing you down and making it harder to do aerobics and to lift weights. Exercise requires additional water, so hydrate yourself before, during and after exercise.
How To Form The Water Habit
Here are some tips that have helped me.
How Much Water?
As a rule of thumb 2l of water per day and if exercising 2.5l of water. It's not good to drink water when you're thirsty as you're already dehydrated by then. Best is to form a routine: drink a glass when you wake up, a glass with each meal, a glass in between meals, and also drink before, during and after exercise. Try to generally keep yourself from getting thirsty.
Carry A Bottle
A lot of people find it useful to carry a plastic drinking bottle, fill it with water, and carry it around all day. When it's empty, fil it up again and keep drinking.
Set A Reminder
Set your watch to beep at the top of each hour, or set a periodic computer reminder, so that you don't forget to drink water.
Substitute With Water
If you normally get a cola, or an alcoholic beverage, get a glass of water instead. Try sparkling water instead of alcohol at social functions.
Exercise
Exercising can help make you want to drink water more. It's not necessary to drink sports drinks like Lucosade when you exercise, unless you're doing it for more than an hour. Just drink water. If you're going to exercise, be sure to drink water a couple of hours ahead of time, so that it will get through your system in time, and again, drink during and after exercise as well.
Track It
It often helps, when forming a new habit to keep track of it. This increases awareness and helps to ensure that you're staying on track. Keep a little log, which can be a simple tick for each glass of water you drink.

Flaming June should bring us a hot sunshine filled month with the risk of frost passed and those in more northerly parts should be able to catch up with those in the south. We're also moving towards the longest day, June 21st being the summer solstice so there is plenty of daylight to let you get on with things.

There is a lot to do in June but the rewards for our efforts are coming in the harvest.

Harvest

Salad crops should be available, lettuce, spring onion, radish etc, Summer cabbage and early carrots. With carrots the later thinnings can provide a great addition to a salad or just steamed with a cooked meal.

The early potatoes will be coming in this month. Because your potatoes will be going from ground to pan in a matter of minutes you will discover a truly wonderful flavour.

Beetroot, young turnips and summer spinach may all be welcome fresh additions to your diet.

The early peas could well be cropping in June, especially in the south

Sowing, Planting and Cultivating

Cultivating

As with May, we really need to keep on top of the weeds. Hoeing them off as small seedlings will make the job far easier than waiting for them to grow and send their roots down. Hoeing is best done on a dry day so that the weeds do not have a chance to recover. Don't forget to sharpen your hoe before you start and frequently as you use it. Keeping a small sharpening stone or file in your pocket will make this more convenient.

Continue thinning out your carrots, parsnips, beetroot etc. As I said above, later carrot thinnings can provide a tender and tasty addition to a meal.

Water when required. Your best measuring instrument for water is your finger. If the top of the soil looks dry, insert your finger into the soil. If it's dry at the tip, then you need to water.

Don't just sprinkle a few drops on the surface, it probably won't penetrate and do any good. Far better to give a good soaking less frequently that will get to the roots of your crops.

In very dry weather, keeping the surface friable by hoeing will help keep the water from getting to the surface by capillary action and then evaporating away. It also helps water soak in when you do get some rain.

Planting

You should be able to plant out brassicas now. Broccoli and calabrese, Brussels sprouts, summer cabbage.

If you have started beans in pots, both runner and French these can go into the outside too. Leeks may well be ready to move to their final position. Ideally they want to be about pencil thickness. Don't follow the old guidance to trim the leaves and roots when transplanting leeks. It has been proven to be of no benefit and is counter-productive. Celery can go out now as well.

Outdoor tomatoes can go to their final position now. When moving plants from greenhouse to outdoors it is a good idea to condition them to the move. Take them out in the day and put them back at night for a few days or move from greenhouse to coldframe. This avoids shocking the plant by a sudden and drastic change in climate.

Sowing

There is a lot to sow this month and with many crops you can sow one set and then a few weeks later re-sow to give you a succession of fresh vegetables at the peak of perfection. In dry weather it is a good idea to soak your seed drill before sowing and then just water with a fine rose after.

• French and Runner Beans
• Maincrop peas
• Beetroot
• Carrots
• Turnips
• Swedes
• Cauliflowers
• Chicory
• Endive
• Kohlrabi
• Sweetcorn
• Squash
• Courgette and Marrows
• Cucucumber

Beetroot, french beans, carrots, kohlrabi, peas, lettuce, endive,radish should be sown at intervals throughout the summer months to provide a constant supply Successional sowing ensures you always have fresh crops at the peak for your table

 

In the greenhouse

Keep pinching off the side shoots with your tomatoes and keep an eye out for pests such as aphids, whitefly, red spider mite. If you are subject to attack by these pests it is worth checking out biological controls as these are perfectly safe to use and, used correctly, more effective than traditional chemical controls. Many of the chemical controls of the past are no longer available anyway so the organic alternatives are now the mainstream choice.

Fruit

Make sure your fruiting plants have sufficient water when the fruit is swelling. This is critical to a good crop.

Thin out plums and apples in June. Better to have one reasonable apple than three miniature marbles. Nature naturally tends towards this and sheds excess fruit. This is known as the 'June Drop'. It's best to thin out after this.

General Tasks

The infantry of slugs and snails are attacking at ground level so take action to keep them down and the air force of birds are coming from the skies to eat your crops. Don't forget the netting.

The butterflies are about now as well. Beautiful as they are, check the undersides of your brassica leaves for the yellow or white eggs that will hatch into caterpillars and devastate the plant. You can squash them, wipe or wash them off easily at this stage.