VEGETABLE PATCH : Before 00h38 (UTC), a brief leaves phase closes the night — worth knowing if you were up early. After 00h38 (UTC), the day shifts fully into a fruits phase, and with the Full Moon arriving tonight at 23h56 (UTC), sap is riding high through stems and fruit walls: a genuinely charged moment for harvesting and caring for fruiting crops. Pick ripe courgettes (Cucurbita pepo) at 15–20 cm length, cutting cleanly with a sharp knife to encourage the plant to set more fruit rather than divert energy into oversized specimens / Harvest the first outdoor tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) — ‘Gardener’s Delight’, ‘Black Cherry’ or ‘Marmande’ — by supporting the truss gently and snipping the stalk rather than pulling; fruit picked around a Full Moon tends to be firm, juicy and full of flavour / Tie in new lateral growth on climbing beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) and runner beans, directing stems around supports every 20–25 cm to prevent tangling and improve air circulation / Check cucumber plants (Cucumis sativus) for the first female flowers (those with a tiny swelling at the base) and remove any deformed fruitlets to concentrate the plant’s resources / In Mediterranean or sheltered gardens, aubergines (Solanum melongena) and sweet peppers (Capsicum annuum) are also at their best for harvesting now — cut rather than twist to protect the stems.
ORCHARD : A warm June evening under a near-Full Moon is the right moment to assess your fruit trees with fresh eyes. Check the developing fruitlets on apple (Malus domestica), pear (Pyrus communis) and plum (Prunus domestica) trees: if clusters are still bunched after the natural June drop, thin them by hand to one fruit per spur, spacing remaining fruitlets at least 10–15 cm apart — this prevents branch breakage later and produces noticeably larger, better-flavoured fruit / Inspect the undersides of gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa) and redcurrant (Ribes rubrum) branches for sawfly larvae or aphid colonies; remove by hand or rinse off with a firm jet of water, keeping any treatment minimal this close to harvest / If you have a fig (Ficus carica) in a warm corner, remove any small embryo figs that formed late — they will not ripen before autumn and drain energy from the main crop already swelling.