Maintaining a healthy garden in the Summertime, while immensely satisfying, can be a difficult task. Weather patterns shift rapidly, insects and disease swoop in without warning, and the sheer heat can make it tough to get outside and do the work that needs to get done. If you decide to invest your time in maintaining your garden during the Summer, however, you’ll reap the rewards many times over.
Here are some key garden maintenance tips to help you get the most out of your garden:
Pest Management
When in your garden, look for signs of insect and disease pests. The solution might be simple or complicated, but either way, the key to getting rid of insects in your garden is to catch them early on and deliver prompt treatment. There are good bugs to be had, so invite them in, but be wary of those that seem intent on eating your garden before you can try any of the tasty veggies or fruits you have in the works.
Remove Spent Flowers
By getting rid of spent flowers, your plants will be able to put more energy into flowering. Annuals, perennials, and repeat flowering shrubs will offer more color with greater frequency during the season if you get rid of your spent flowers.
Weed
If you’ve been able to keep your plants weeded up to the beginning of the Summer, they’ll be able to shade out most of their weed competition. It’s perfectly okay to slow down, but don’t stop weeding- a single weed left to go to seed can cause much more weeding in the future.
Pick Veggies Clean
In your vegetable garden, it’ll be important to keep repeat fruiting plants picked cleanly as their fruit ripens. If you allow your fruit to become over-mature, production will slow and the end of the season for your plants might come sooner than you’d hope.
Water
This might seem obvious, but I continue to be amazed by the number of people that have Summer gardens and don’t give them sufficient water. A good rule of thumb is to give your garden an inch of irrigation water per week, assuming it’s dry, and containers might need more in hot, arid conditions. Be sure that the automated irrigation is turned off or adjusted until needed if you’re having a wet Summer.
Fertilize
The best time to address fertilization in the landscape and garden is mid-Summer, a little over a month after you’ve planted your hungry garden veggies. If any of your plants’ leaves are yellowish, you’ll need to start fertilizing right away (as yellow leaves often signify an iron deficiency in an otherwise healthy plant).
Mulch
Mulching will make a tremendous difference in growing conditions, from helping to conserve moisture, to insulating soil from the heat, to blocking weeds. Keeping a thick layer of mulch on your landscape and garden plantings throughout the Summer will go a long way, though in wet years, some water-sensitive plants might benefit from the removal of mulch to allow drying to take place.
Source: Prudent Garden