Must-Know Summer Gardening Tips For A Flourishing Season
As the peak of summer approaches, it is critical to keep your garden in top form so you can enjoy a season spent outdoors. The warmer temperatures and longer days offer ample opportunities for outdoor activities, and a well-tended garden makes it even more enjoyable.
Summer is when your garden bursts with colours, but certain key gardening activities are necessary to uphold this and ensure that you can have a beautiful, flourishing season.
At Heath Landscapes, we have decades of experience in designing gardens and landscapes. We are well aware of the importance of summer for our garden spaces and are offering our top summer gardening tips so you can make the most out of this season.
The Importance of Summer-Time Gardening
As well as offering sun-filled days that are perfect for outdoor activities, summer is also a critical period for garden enthusiasts. This time of year holds significant value in the gardening calendar, as it requires specific jobs and maintenance to preserve the health and aesthetics of your landscape for the rest of the year.
During the summer months, most plants and flowers are at their most active growth phase. The extended daylight hours and warmer temperatures provide the ideal environment for plants to bloom, making summer a vibrant season for our surroundings.
However, with great growth comes great responsibility and proper upkeep is essential to maintain your garden’s health during this time. Our summer gardening tips mainly centre around the care and maintenance of your existing landscape, to help you support the plant life across your garden so it can flourish.
Essential Summer Gardening Tips
Summer is the perfect time for outdoor activities, and an ideal chance to maintain your garden for lasting appeal as the year winds down. The vibrancy and bloom of this season make gardening exceedingly enjoyable and the longer days of summer give you ample time to tend to your landscape.
Our summer gardening tips help you maximise your garden’s potential during this season, while also ensuring lasting health for a promising future.
Regular Watering
One of the most important summer gardening tips revolves around watering your plants, flowers, and foliage. It is crucial to provide sufficient water to your garden at all times of the year, but especially during summer.
Water is vital for the growth and health of every living organism, including your garden plants. The summer’s warmth and extended sunlight hours make watering extremely important to prevent your plants from drying out during this season.
However, while you aim to prevent the plants from drying out you also need to avoid overwatering. Overwatering is just as big of a risk during the summer and can cause as many issues as drying out your plants.
To prevent this, develop a regular watering schedule. A regular watering schedule will allow you to effectively maintain your plants and aid their growth without over or under-watering all season long.
Consider watering your garden early morning or late evening to minimise evaporation, ensuring the moisture reaches the roots to support growth. As the temperature goes up, so does the risk of the soil drying out, but a regular watering routine like this can avoid this risk.
Our summer gardening tips also include a deep soak for certain plants. A deep soak once or twice a week is more effective than frequent shallow watering for some plant species and is a good option if you plan to be away from home this summer.
Deep soaks can encourage deeper root growth, making your plants more resistant to dry conditions, but should only be used sparingly.
If you have a lawn, watering is also required here. To make this summer gardening job easier, think about installing a sprinkler system with a timer to maintain consistent moisture levels.
For flower beds and vegetable gardens, drip irrigation systems are a great choice as they deliver water directly to the base of your plants. This approach helps to conserve water while also keeping the foliage dry.
Flower Deadheading and Pruning
Mid-summer is the perfect time to tidy up your garden by deadheading wilted blooms and pruning overgrown plants.
Deadheading is one of the top summer gardening tips because it neatens your garden and also helps plants to produce more flowers as the season progresses.
For perennials like roses, geraniums, and dahlias, regularly removing faded blooms prolongs their flowering period and keeps your garden vibrant throughout the season.
Pruning is another one of our key summer gardening tips as it helps maintain the shape and health of your plants.
To prune, trim any dead or diseased branches and thin out dense foliage. Not only does this enhance the appearance of your plants, but also aids in improving air circulation, reducing the risk of fungal diseases.
Summer-flowering shrubs, such as hydrangeas and buddleias, will benefit from light pruning during this season to encourage new growth and more abundant blooms next season.
Feeding Your Plants
Maintaining your garden in its peak condition requires you to provide your plants with the necessary nutrients to support their growth.
Fertilising plants should be done throughout the year but is especially important during the summer when plants are in full bloom. During their peak bloom, plants and flowers require extra feeding to support their growth.
For these summer gardening tips, use a balanced, slow-release fertiliser for the majority of your plants. This can regularly supply nutrients over several weeks to aid the growth of your plants. You can use synthetic fertilisers or organic options like compost or well-rotted manure, to enrich the soil and boost growth.
Feeding guidelines will vary based on the location and type of plant. For instance, plants in containers and hanging baskets may require more frequent feeding during the summer, as nutrients can leach out of the soil more quickly.
A liquid fertiliser applied every fortnight during the summer will keep these kinds of plants healthy and vibrant, allowing you to enjoy a colourful garden all season long.
Managing Pests and Diseases
Often summer gardening tips include dealing with pests and diseases that pose a threat to the health of your plants as summer is an optimal growth period for both plants and the pests and diseases they attract.
Be vigilant for common pests such as aphids, slugs, and caterpillars during the summer, and act at the first sign of damage.
There are various methods to combat pests and diseases, based on your preferences and the needs of your garden. Natural remedies like neem oil or soapy water can help control pests without harming the beneficial insects that are welcome in your garden.
During summer, be on the lookout for any fungal diseases that could be impacting your plants. Symptoms like powdery mildew and black spots on certain plants indicate fungal diseases and need to be addressed quickly. These can arise during summer and can be lethal if left unattended.
To prevent the spread of these diseases, ensure good air circulation around your plants and avoid overhead watering.
If needed, use a fungicide to treat affected plants and prevent the spread of disease, or hire landscape gardeners to help eliminate the infection from your garden.
Weed Control
Summer is the season of growth for all types of plants, including weeds. This is why weed control is one of the most useful summer gardening tips and requires particular care to ensure the lasting health of your landscape.
Weeds can overrun your garden if not controlled and will compete with your plants for water and nutrients. Not only do weeds ruin your garden design, but they pose a higher risk of infection and potential fatality to your plants by draining nutrients.
Regular weeding is one of the most important summer gardening tips and should be carried out all season to maintain the lasting health and visual appeal of your landscape.
Weeds can be manually pulled by hand or using a hoe, which makes it easier to remove them from the root. During the process of weed removal, take care not to disturb the soil excessively as it could negatively affect the plants you want to nourish.
As well as manually removing weeds from the garden, consider applying mulch around your plants as it can suppress weed growth and retain moisture in the soil for greater overall health of the landscape.
Lawn Maintenance
A lush, green lawn is often the pride of many gardens, and summer is the perfect time to give it some extra attention. This is why our key summer gardening tips involve regular mowing and watering of your lawn.
It is recommended to mow your lawn frequently during the summer, as it can grow quickly and may look unkempt. However, be careful not to cut the grass too short as it can stress it and make it more prone to drought. Ideally, the lawn should remain about 2.5 to 3.5 cm high after mowing.
Another important summer gardening tip for your lawn is aerating. Aearating the lawn can provide better water penetration, and also reduce compaction to promote healthy root growth in the grass.
If your lawn shows signs of wear, consider overseeding with a mix of grass seed to fill in any bare patches. Apply a summer-specific lawn fertiliser to help keep your grass green and healthy all summer, especially when growing new sections.
Supporting Plants
Tall or top-heavy plants might need additional support during the summer months to prevent them from collapsing under their own weight. As these plants grow taller and larger, they might find it difficult to support their weight.
For our summer gardening tips, we recommend using stakes, cages, or trellises to provide the necessary support for these plants. Securing plants to their supports with soft twine or plant ties can keep them upright and reduce the risk of damage.
Plants like tomatoes, beans, and sunflowers can benefit from these summer gardening tips and may need additional support as the season progresses.
Harvesting
If you have fruit and vegetable plants in your garden, summer is the perfect time for a healthy harvest.
No summer gardening tips are complete without recommending a regular harvest of crops to encourage continuous production. This allows you to savour the freshest produce and helps keep your garden healthy.
Plants such as beans, peas, tomatoes, and cucumbers are just a few examples of vegetables that benefit from regular picking during the summer.
In addition to harvesting vegetables, summer is also the time to enjoy fruits like strawberries, raspberries, and cherries if they are available in your garden. Harvesting during summer gives you the most delicious fruit while also reducing pests and diseases in your garden.
Heath Landscapes For Year-Round Landscaping
At Heath Landscapes, our team of expert gardeners are available to help you with all your summer gardening needs, from watering and pruning to pest control and lawn care.
We also offer the construction of new driveways and paving to help improve your outdoor spaces when you need it most.
With our passion for quality workmanship and customer satisfaction, we can help you create a garden that you can be proud of all year round.
Contact Us
If you are ready to take your summer gardening to the next level, contact us today. Together, we help you create a stunning environment for a vibrant summer spent outdoors.
