Tips for Summer Gardening

Tips for summer gardening – to keep your garden busy and you relaxed and enjoying the balmy weather (when it appears).

We would nearly all like to have an easy life and a beautiful garden in the summer, so that ‘just pottering’ is all that’s necessary and more is optional. Whether you’d like to spend more time entertaining friends, playing with the kids or just sitting under a shady tree reading a book, I have some tips and ideas for you.

These tips are based on my own years of gardening and also questions from my gardening students and design clients.

Tips for summer gardening – have the right mindset to begin with

How do we enjoy the fine weather, keep our flowers blooming, our grass green and still have easy maintenance summer gardens? For starters, we stop expecting perfection. Or rather if that’s what you need to relax, then realise you’re going to have to spend more time doing chores or spend your money on employing a good gardener. (And they’re probably all booked up for this year).

Let’s take a frequent problem – Weedy driveways

When your driveway was redone, you chose to have bricks laid on sand (and a proper semi-permeable sub-base). This gave you a more flood resilient surface. But you’ve since forgotten being told that you were likely to get weeds growing in the sand between the bricks. And they’re annoying you. You have to hand hoe them out as you dont want to use weedkiller. You did get someone in to use a pressure washer, but that took out the sand as well as the weeds.

Possible solutions that don’t involve bribing a teenager: –

1] Look at your drive from a different perspective. You know those green front gardens you’ve seen at garden shows where theres a tramline for the car wheels and the rest of the surface is plants and flowers? You’ve got a version of that. Now obviously you don’t want thigh-high nettles, but low growing weeds and wildflowers shouldn’t be to much of an issue. And you’ll be providing food for pollinators too…

2] Perhaps you feel that’s too messy? How about the version of that which allows the weeds / wildflowers to grow at the edges and down the middle and just remove the ones where your tyres go. That way it looks more managed, ie you meant it to be a wildflower meadow. You could even add in a few wildflower seeds to make your concept clearer to the neighbiurs.

3] Still not convinced? A quick tip for reducing the weed problem is this. Set your mower blades at a high setting and run the mower over the drive. This takes off the flowering stems and taller leaves, thereby reducing the likelihood of annual weeds self-seeding. Over time, if carried out regularly, it also reduces the vigour of perennials. If the plants aren’t in seed then you could put the cuttings into your compost bin rather than the council green waste.

Tips for summer gardening when it’s not raining

In other words – when do you need to get out the watering can or hose.

Do I have to water my raspberries?

Yes and no…

Fruit bushes and trees need watering at key times such as pollination, fruit setting (when the flower is turning into fruit) and before harvest.

Summer fruiting raspberries which are ripe and ready to harvest will benefit from watering (if there’s not enough rain) as this encourages plump fruit and also more fruit.

Autumn fruiting raspberries may or may not need watering, you’ll need to have a look to see what stage theyre at.

My new turfed lawn was laid six weeks ago – can I stop watering it now?

Yes and no…

Your new lawn will need regular watering for about six weeks after installation, depending on the British weather. This is to encourage root formation and the settling in of those roots so they can take up water and nutrients from the soil.

However, unlike established lawns, which will tolerate drought, the new grass will need to be watered during a prolonged period without rain during its first growing season. This obviously means hot, drought-like conditions, but should we have a long, warm rain-free period it is worth giving your lawn at least one good soak.

Is there a best time to water if I have a slug problem?

Watering in the early morning is better if summer gardens are prone to slug and snail damage. This reduces the moistness around the plants overnight, when those gastropods are most active.

If snails and slugs are less of a problem then watering in the evening is generally better as this reduces evaporation (which is water loss through the leaves). See more slug and snail tips in the blog link below.

To prune or not to prune?

Are you wondering why tips for summer gardening is including this topic? You may be surprised to learn that pruning is a year round gardening task. But that doesn’t mean it’s an onerous one. Check out pruning blogs (links below) for more info.

I only prune my apple trees in the winter – right?

Generally speaking, apple and pear trees are pruned when they’re in their dormant period, ie without leaves. However, trained fruit trees are summer pruned. In other words, if you have an espalier or cordon apple tree or pear tree, they should be pruned in the summer, when in leaf.

This is to reduce their vigour, which is all those extra stems and excess foliage. Espalier pear trees and cordon apple trees need to be kept to their precise shape so that the tree is kept small, to fit into the space available and to encourage the pear or apple tree to produce fruit not leaf.

But a positive to get you through this task is this: Apple wood has a sweet smell when burnt on a log burner, open fire or BBQ. And theres’ time for the cut wood to season before winter. You only have a BBQ? Keep the wood for next year or have a Midwinter outdoor feast!

Cherry trees

All of the Prunus species, which includes edible and ornamental cherry trees, should be pruned when in leaf. This may be in summer, or if you’re chilling, do itin the autumn before leaf fall…

Flowering shrubs

Spring flowering shrubs such as lilac should be pruned after flowering. This gives plenty of time for the new flowering shoots to grow ready for blooming next spring. Which means if you haven’t done it yet, you probably should do it now.

Herbaceous perennials, Dahlias and Roses

Just as a heads-up, deadheading is a form of pruning. More to the point taking off the dying / dead flower down to where theres a new flower bud on the stem encourages further flowering. The main trick is to prevent seedheads from forming too soon, as then the plant doesn’t need to produce more flowers.

Tips for summer gardening in the veg patch

Pests and Predators

The very soggy spring of 2024 has played havoc with many a vegetable garden thanks to the hordes of slugs, snails and other pests. Let some garden friendly predators do most of the pest reduction work for you.

Encouraging birds into your garden is one way to reduce the time you spend picking up slugs in the dark in your PJs. Thrushes, blackbirds, robins, starlings, jays and magpies will all eat the molluscs. As will hedgehogs and frogs of course.

Another tip is to spray your particularly pest-tasty plants with one of the organic sprays that make them less tasty to pests and safe for humans, pets and ‘friendly’ wildlife. You can at least do this one and see results straight away. Encouraging predators into your garden may take a while longer, but its never too soon to start.

Is it too late to grow salads?

Of course not!

Lots of lettuce, or salad leaves if we want to include plants such as rocket, mizuna and pakchoi, are quick to germinate. And they are, of course, delicious when eaten as young, immature salad leaves or as tiny, seedling sized microgreens. Which means that if you sowed some seeds now, you could be eating your own home grown baby salad within two – three weeks.

Many gardeners practise successional sowing, which basically means sowing a couple of pots or half a seed tray of seeds every couple of weeks or so. Now, even if you haven’t done this, theres nothing to stop you from sowing a few pea and bean seeds now.

Bargains

It’s worth having a hunt around at the garden centre, plant nursery, or school plant sale. You may find a few bargain trays of lettuce or peas, already partly grown. Now if they look a bit scruffy don’t worry too much. Generally speaking a quick trim or pinching out of the growth tip is all that’s needed. And maybe being stood in a tray of water for 30 – 360 minutes for a long drink if the soil has dried out.

See, it can be easy to have summer gardens full of edible crops even when you start late!

And finally

Tips for summer gardening because summer gardens are for fun times with family and friends; a relaxing drink after a hard day’s work. You should be surrounded by colourful, scented flowers, aromatic herbs, shade-giving trees and tasty treats to eat.

Hopefully you found these tips and ideas helpful, but if you have a different question, why not ask me on social media? Or get in touch to ask about our design and consultancy services.

But if you’d prefer hands-on personal help from yours truly, with a mix of practical sessions and theory in our bespoke Gardening Lessons and Courses check out the blog link below plus link for the pdf download with more info

For further gardening advice and inspiration, ideas for pest resistant gardens and more, check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, including the selection below and our monthly Tipsheet You could also come and find us on Instagram Pinterest and Facebook

And on that note, you can have a peek at the progress of my garden renovation, Spitfires and Slow Worms, on Instagram and Facebook You may even get to see it in person later this year / early 2025 as I’m planning a couple of workshops. I had hoped to do that already but house renovations have been as big a thing as garden reno so there hasn’t been the room. Keep an eye on the website and social media for an update. (And who knows, I may even bake my famous lavender shortbread for workshop attendees! If you can’t wait check out Plews ebook “In Your Summer Garden” as the recipe is in there and there’s a summer sale)