Mid to Late Summer Gardening Tips

Here are some tips on what I do to keep Linda’s Serenity Garden looking good without wearing myself out.

The Ornamental Garden

Now is the time to deadhead your flowing plants. This will help them to keep producing blooms over a longer period. This is a task that you can do while enjoying a summers evening. Get into the habit of taking a stroll around your garden every evening. Stop and snip or pinch off spent blooms. If you do a little of it often, then it is not a big project, rather,  a way to enjoy  the plants in your garden.

The Vegetable Garden

Harvest your vegetables as soon as they are ready to eat. You will enjoy them at their peak of sweetness and flavor.  Harvest continuous producers regularly to encourage more fruits to develop.

House Plants

It should now be warm enough for you to take your house plants out into the garden for a summer holiday which they will appreciate.

Lawns

If you didn’t get around to feeding your lawn in the spring, you can still apply a fast lawn feed now. You will really notice the results. Be prepared to push the lawn mower more often however!

Since you will be out in your garden more often during the summer months, take the opportunity to assess your garden and make notes of any changes you would like to make.  It always helps to take some photos though out the season to remind you what the borders looked like at various times. Digital cameras are great to use for doing this.

Do not forget that it is also time to be putting out garden decor and accents in your garden and lawn. Visit our website and check out the large selection of bird houses, birdfeeders, bird baths, garden gnomes, fountains, statues, English garden houses and troughs, wind chimes and much more. These will give your garden that unique personality that only you can give it.

The most important thing that you can do to take care of your lawn during the hot summer months is to properly water it. The stress of the summer heat makes proper watering important.

Water your lawn early in the morning. During the day up to 30% of the water from a sprinkler can evaporate before even hitting the ground! Water ing in the early morning hours prevents the water being lost to evaporation and allows it to soak into the ground before the heat of the sun can evaporate it. Do not water at night. Night watering invites fungus to form in your yard.

During the summer months cut your grass higher then you normally do during the spring and fall months. I recommend setting your mower blade at least one inch higher during the summer months. I like to cut my grass at least 4 inches tall during the hot summer weather.  The taller grass blades will help to shade your root zone and retain moisture.

Keep your mower blades sharp. The sharp blade cuts the grass blade straight across. A straight cut blade of grass will seal faster to retain water then a ragged edge grass blade from a dull lawn mower blade.  Leave your lawn clippings on the ground to decompose and also help keep the moisture in the ground.

Always fertilize your lawn in the spring. Do not fertilize in the summer. The fertilizer will put your lawn into distress. The fertilizer application you made in the spring suffice.  See our blog on using compost to fertilize your yard.

If you have areas of brown dead grass check to see if weather you can pull the grass up by its roots or not. Grass that is suffering from drought damage will not pull up by the roots. If the grass does pull up by the roots it you may have an infestation of bill bugs. Check with your local lawn and garden store for how to properly treat for bill bugs.

Remember that during June, July and August keeping the lawn sufficiently watered is the key to having a healthy lawn. With a great looking healthy lawn, garden accents from our website will give your lawn that unique look that only you can give it to personalize your lawn.