Summer is official here, enjoy your garden or favourite green space!
The garden is a great place to while away a summer’s afternoon, or to celebrate the festive season with family and friends with a barbecue, picnic or game of backyard cricket.
This month, we’ve got advice on caring for and enjoying your garden in summer, along with ideas on what to plant, prune and how to protect your garden so it shines throughout the heat of summer.
Celebrating the festive season in your garden
If you have family or friends visiting your place this festive season, it’s time to whip the garden into shape. Make a list and work your way through it. Jobs that can give the garden a refresh include cleaning paving, and outdoor furniture and repainting areas such as the back fence.
In the weeks leading up to the arrival of visitors, concentrate on weeding, pruning and removing spent plants so the garden looks fresh and well cared for. As you weed, have mulch on hand to cover disturbed soil and take care not to spread weed seeds.
Make sure all parts of the weed are removed or it will just regrow. If weed infestation is too hard to control try an organic herbicide such as EarthCare Organic WeedKiller spray. It controls anything it encounters, so be careful around your favourite plants.
Prepare the garden for summer planting.
Pruning back plants after they’ve flowered encourages new growth, and brings on a new flush of flowers. After pruning, help plants recover by watering with Seasol.
Where annuals have been removed, improve the soil with homemade compost or aged manure and/or Seasol Super Compost before replanting seasonal colour that will provide flowers through until autumn.
To get a head start on growth, look for advanced potted colour at the local hardware and garden centres. Look at where there are dull areas or bare spots. These may be the ideal spot to pop in summer-flowering shrubs such as hydrangeas.
In the days before your outdoor event, mow the lawn high, trim the edges and make sure the barbecue is clean and ready to go.
Some like it hot – flowers for summer
Make your garden sparkle this summer with heat-loving flowers. Zinnias, portulaca and heat-tolerant salvias all relish summer’s warmth. Zinnias are quick growing, colourful and ideal for picking to use in a vase.
Portulaca is a low-growing succulent with small, rose-like flowers in bright colours like pink and orange. Grow it in a sunny garden as an edging or in a pot.
Salvias are large shrubs to add both colour and bulk to the summer garden. Many have fragrant foliage. Once established, salvias are drought tolerant. Lightly prune and liquid feed regularly every two weeks with PowerFeed PRO SERIES for Roses & Flowers to encourage flowers for many months.
Keep wisteria under the thumb
Wisteria is one of the most beautiful flowering climbers to grow in a garden. Its blooms in early spring bring colour and scent. It is a fast-growing plant, which makes it a great choice to grow over an archway or pergola for summer shade.
The downside of that abundant growth is that wisteria can get out of control, romping up nearby trees, scampering over fences and invading gutters and roof spaces.
Prune wisteria now to keep it where you want it. Cut back long tendrils or tie them down to a climbing structure. Apply a slow release fertiliser to keep your plants and soil flourishing with Seasol plus Nutrients Roses & Flowers.
Five important jobs for early summer
- Shade new plantings until they are well established and keep all plants regularly watered especially on extra hot days. Liquid feed regularly with PowerFeed All Purpose including Natives to help promote strong, healthy growth.
- Put out clean fresh water in a bird bath to help birds and insects survive the summer’s heat.
- Deadhead spent flowers to encourage new growth and a succession of new blooms.
- Check developing fruit clusters for pests and apply EarthCare Natural Pyrethrum insect spray if the infestation becomes too hold. Cover to protect ripening fruit from birds and pests such as fruit fly.
- Don’t let weeds flower and set seed.
Vegies to plant now summer is here
Summer can be a rewarding time to grow your own edible plants for homegrown salads, sandwich fillings and pizza toppings. The abundant harvests can also be frozen or preserved for the leaner months ahead. To have a bountiful vegie plot through summer plant lettuce, cucumber, beans, cherry tomatoes, zucchini or squash and lots of leafy herbs such as basil and parsley.
For a quick start use seedlings or advanced seedlings and keep them growing strongly with regular applications of liquid fertiliser such as PowerFeed PRO SERIES for Tomatoes & Vegetables. Water vegetables daily and watch out for pests such as snails that like to eat juicy young foliage.
When it’s hot and dry
Summer can be hot and dry. Most plants need extra water especially on extra hot days. If there’s little rain about, keep your garden in tip top condition with regular deep watering. Make sure water is soaking into the ground or into the potting mix if the plant is in a container.
If the water seems to be simply pooling on the surface, apply Seasol Super Soil Wetter & Conditioner to help the water soak down to root level. A good tip for potted plants that are hard to rewet is to soak the plant (pot and all) in a bucket of Seasol Super Soil Wetter & Conditioner until the plant and its potting mix is thoroughly hydrated. It could take an hour or longer.
