It’s the middle of May as we write this, which means spring is about to turn to summer!
If you followed our spring gardening tips you’ll be well placed to get your garden bright and beautiful for the summer months. In this post, we’ll share our summer tips to taking care of your garden, so you can keep your summer sun trap looking luscious throughout the warmer season.
What can you do in the garden in hot weather?
Wondering how to care for you garden in the summer? Follow this helpful checklist to have your little bit of Blighty blooming and beautiful in the sunshine.
1. Get that watering hose out!
The first way to look after your garden in the summer is to water it much more than in any other season. Soil dries out in the summer much more quickly – particularly the soil that’s not in the shade. So whether you’re looking to grow plants or just keep your grass in good condition, you’ll want that garden hose at the ready on a daily or at least weekly basis. To make it easier, make sure you pick up our Qwickhose® Starter Set – regular garden watering is just the kind of job we designed it to help you with!
2. Weed everywhere
Plants aren’t the only thing that grows fast in the summer – the weeds do too. So tending to those needs to be pretty high up on any list of how to care for you garden in the summer. Catch them before they seed and you’ll have less weeding to do later. Not sure where to start? This handy six-step guide by Fine Gardening has you covered.
3. Make it mulchy
We mentioned mulch in our springtime tips but it’s something you might want to keep adding throughout the summer if it starts to look a little thin. Better Homes & Gardens has everything you’d need to know about making mulch and where to put it.
4. Feed your flowers and plants
You also shouldn’t forget about feeding the plants you do want to grow, either. Simple water-soluble plant food should do the trick for the vast majority of the plants you planted in the springtime.
The exception to that is shrubs and perennials, which you should feed with a slow release plant food just twice a year. We’d suggest doing this before mid-July so that the new growth can harden before the cold season sets in.
5. Edge your plant beds and borders
Another handy summer tip to taking care of your garden is to devote some time to the edging of your garden borders and plant beds. Well-defined edges simply make your garden look smarter, and give you a border where you can place mulch to help the plants around the edge of your garden grow to full blossom.
6. Plant those seedlings
Speaking of plants, early summer is the time to get down any seedlings you didn’t sow in the spring months. In particular, summer is a great time to grow edible herbs, fruits and vegetables. Another of our summer tips to taking care of your garden is therefore to consider planting one or some of the following in the summer months:
- Beetroot
- Canna lilies
- Carrots
- Chilli peppers
- Coriander
- Corn
- Dahlias
- Fennel
- Gladiolus
- Lavender
- Melons
- Sage
- Swedes
7. Add support for tall plants
As the summer goes on your plants will grow and might begin to need a little extra support. With that in mind, another top tip on how to look after your garden in summer is to look for your taller plants to start leaning or covering nearby ones, and buy a stake, ring, cage or similar. Similarly, if you have vines creeping up past the top of their trellis, consider adding some extra trellis or other support to help them on their way.
8. Protect against garden pests
Insects are going to be everywhere in your garden this summer – there’s no getting away from that. And not all of them are bad – in fact, some can even be beneficial! However, some certainly aren’t and should be guarded against at all costs. One of the best ways to look after your garden in the summer is to guard against budworms, caterpillars and other pests using a biological insecticide like DiPel powder.
This video from Northern gardener Tony Smith should help give you all the tips you need.
9. Set your garden up for entertaining
With your garden watered, the weeds gone, mulch down, spring-planted bulbs beginning to flower, tall plants supported and your garden edges in great shape, you’ll finally want to put some time into preparing to invite people into your beautiful summer sun trap!
Whether you have an exposed patio, garden decking or decide to place your furniture right in the middle of your lawn, you’ll want to think about how you’re using each part of your garden space. From dining to conversation to lawn games, there’s lots of different activities to think about. The good people at Fine Gardening can help walk you through the best things to consider.
10. Get set for autumn
And so we arrive at the last of our ways to look after your garden in the summer.
As the dead of summer turns to the Indian summer of September, you’ll want to think about getting your garden ready for leaf fall season. Be it deadheading bulbs, going over the garden again with weed spray, saving summer seeds, fertilising your perennials or planting for autumn, there’s a bunch to do before the sunny season gives way to the colder weather.
Make the most of your summer garden with Qwickhose®
So that was our second seasonal gardening instalment dedicated to how to look after your garden in summer. We hope it was helpful and gave you some handy tips to consider, whatever time of the year you’re reading it!
Of course, if you are getting your summer gardening gear together, you won’t want to forget about that Qwickhose® Starter Set. It’s designed to keep your hose attachments tidy on the wall, and make it easy to use with garden hose connectors that simply slot onto your hose easier than anything else available on the market.
To find out more about how Qwickhose® can make your gardening life easy in summer and beyond, take a look at our entire Qwickhose® range.
