Summer gardening tips from our commercial grounds maintenance team.
During the later part of summer, consistent dry heat and minimal rain can cause stress to your lawn and plants. You find you need to spend a lot of time in the garden, day after day, using a hose to get the plants looking vibrant and healthy. However, nature seems to do it with ease after a good downpour overnight.
Although growth may be slow during this time, there are a few tasks that can be done to ensure your garden is healthy going into autumn. Below is a list of jobs that will help your garden get through the heat of summer.
Summer Gardening Tips:
* Continue to water new plants and lawns until established (usually 6 – 8 weeks). Most established plants will handle the heat and do not need to be watered every day to survive.
* Regularly water pot plants. If you have trouble keeping pot plants alive this summer, it may be worth planting hardy drought tolerant plants like succulents, e.g. agaves, yuccas, echeverias, kalanchoes, aeoniums, and so forth.
* Feed and mulch roses, and prune rambling roses as soon as they have flowered.
* Dead head (prune/remove) flowering plants to promote new growth.
* Continue to tip prune hedges to keep form.
* Continue to weed regularly (fortnightly is sufficient).
* Cut back herbaceous plants to encourage a new flush of flowers and foliage leading into autumn.
* Mow lawns regularly, but set the blades higher during the dry spells.
* It’s also a good time to plant spring flowering bulbs like daffodils, crocuses and snow drops.
Plus – don’t forget to slip, slop, slap out there and enjoy!
