If this is one of those years when your kitchen garden or allotment has gotten away from you (and we all know what that feels like), then don’t despair.  It may be late June, but there are still plenty of ways to turn the situation around, from clever methods of tackling weeds to cunning ways to play catch-up with crops.

So let’s start with those weeds… If you’ve let them run riot, then it’s going to take a little work to get your plot ship-shape again. But a badly overgrown area can be daunting to tackle, so start off by partitioning it into separate, smaller sections and setting yourself the more manageable challenge of clearing these one at a time.

Not only will you feel less defeated by the scale of the task, but this approach also allows you to quickly start getting plants in the ground, adding more of them as space becomes available.

If the overgrown area you need to tackle is a really large one, then don’t give yourself the Sisyphean task of getting it all back into full productivity this year. Instead, treat the weediest sections as a more-long term project.

Just strim/cut back the weeds to ground level, mulch with a generous layer of manure or garden compost, and finish off with a topcoat of strong black polythene sheeting stretched taut over the soil, its edges trenched 10-12cm into the ground.

By next spring, you’ll be able to peel it back and dig the soil with ease.

Your next step is to prioritise the crops you’d like to grow. It’s now too late to sow/plant most of the more slow-growing veg such as parsnips, broad beans, or leeks.

But if you buy them as young plants from a good garden centre, you still have enough time to get courgettes, cabbage, kale, purple sprouting broccoli, lettuce, dwarf French beans, Florence fennel, scallions, runner beans and squash in the ground.

Plant-fairs/festivals such as next weekend’s  Galway Gardening Festival (see the ‘Dates For Your Diary’ slot below) are also good hunting grounds as regards niche suppliers including the Cork-based ‘Natural Growing Company’ (087 6911308) ,which sells a vast range of wonderful edibles as young, module-raised plants.

It’s also important to think ahead, by sowing seed of leafy salad crops (lettuce, oriental greens,), and a few fast-growing edible annual flowers and herbs (pot marigolds, nasturtiums, borage) into seed trays/ modules now.

This way, you’ll have plenty of young plants ready to go in the ground as you liberate more of that lovely, growing space.

Again, think carefully about your selection of varieties.

For example, the sweet, crunchy ‘Little Gem’ semi-cos lettuce may be a top-notch variety, but it’s one that’s widely available in most supermarkets.

But that’s not the case for the highly decorative rainbow chard, or the scrumptious butterhead-type lettuce known as ‘Marvel of Four Seasons, a fast-growing, heritage, purple-leafed variety available as seed from Cork-based Brown Envelope Seeds and Mayo-based Seedaholic.

Similarly delicious but equally expensive/difficult to buy in a supermarket are peas, beetroot and Florence fennel, all of which can be sown into modules now, for transplanting into the garden in a few weeks. You can also direct-sow seed of turnip, radish and kohl-rabi if you desire..

Sowing into modules/seed trays also helps to fast-track the first and most vulnerable stages of the growing process, protecting baby seedlings against predatory slug/ snails and allowing them to establish a strong, healthy root system so that they’re better able to compete with both weeds and pests as well as to withstand adverse weather conditions.

If at all possible, try to keep these freshly-sown trays above the ground (for example, on an outdoor table or bench) where you can keep a very careful eye on them, making sure to water daily and inspect for any early signs of slug damage.

Don’t let all this hard work go to waste by planting into poor, hungry soil. Instead, enrich any freshly cleared ground with a top dressing of homemade garden compost, a sprinkle of dried seaweed and a scattering of a good quality, slow-release organic fertilizer.

Well-rotted manure is great too, but bear in mind that some plants- for example, members of the cabbage family- dislike freshly-manured ground. Always make sure that new transplants get a really good soaking prior to planting, and then mulch after planting to preserve moisture around their roots.

Finally, remember that your allotment/ kitchen garden has the potential to be every bit as beautiful as it is productive. So find some space for a few show-off edible flowers like dahlias, a large genus of tuberous, late-flowering, exotically beautiful perennials that love the same rich growing conditions as most vegetables.

You won’t find their fleshy, fat tubers (also edible) for sale at this time of year but you will find pot-grown plants for sale in any good garden centre. The same goes for the aforementioned borage, nasturtiums, and pot marigolds as well as host of other floral edibles including chrysanthemums. The result, by late summer, will be a kitchen garden/ allotment that’s the envy of your neighbours.

This week in the garden:

Keep an eye out for bad infestations of aphids, which can attack the soft, green growing tips and flower buds of plants at this time of year. When/if spotted, avoid using environmentally damaging insecticides and instead use a strong jet of water from a garden hose to wash the them off infested plants.

Dead-head and then liquid-feed early flowering perennials such as lupins, Alchemilla mollis, foxgloves, herbaceous geraniums, Welsh poppies, geums, hemerocallis and astrantias to encourage a further flush of their pretty blooms.

Other species, such as oriental poppies and catmint, benefit from being sheared back hard after flowering as a way of encouraging the plant to produce fresh foliage.

If you’re planning on harvesting seed of yellow rattle later this summer with a view to sowing it in your garden, then it’s worth scouting for plants now while they’re still in bloom and easier to spot. Always harvest the seed responsibly by only ever taking small amounts and getting the permission of the landowner in advance.

Dates For Your Diary: Saturday, 2nd July- Sunday, 3rd July (11am-6pm, adult admission€10), the seventh Galway Garden Festival takes place in the grounds of Claregalway Castle, with guest speakers including Helen Dillon, Carl Wright of Caher Bridge Garden, botanical artist Jane Stark and nurseryman Phil Havercroft, as well as stands from a host of specialist nurseries and suppliers, see galwaygardenfestival.com.

July 2nd (11am), this year’s Dublin Community Growers Annual Food Cycle begins in the gardens of Aras an Uachtarain before taking participants on two tours of some of the capital city’s great gardens. Spaces are limited so pre-registration is essential (€5, email brennan015@gmail.com ).: