Summer Gardening Task Checklist
Although the heat of summer is great for trips to the beach, family barbecues, and afternoon drinks outside, it can be tough on your garden! You can do some pre-summer gardening tasks to ensure that your garden doesn’t succumb to the hot heat once summer is in full swing. To help prepare your garden, we’ve used our expert gardening knowledge and recommended some tasks to ensure your garden survives the summer months!
Easy Summer Gardening Tips
Preparing your garden for the hotter months doesn’t need to take all day and night! Follow these simple tips to summer gardening so your garden will be resilient against the intense summer heat.
Create a watering schedule
You don’t want your plants to dry out during the hot days so it’s important to create a watering schedule. Setting up an irrigation system is a good idea as you won’t have to worry about watering the garden yourself and will ensure a deeper watering.
We recommend watering your garden once or twice a week, and to water early in the morning. This will give the water enough time to evaporate, otherwise the excess moisture will create a condition wherein the plants become vulnerable to attacks from fungi and mildew. It can also attract unwelcome guests such as sand flies and mosquitoes. If you are collecting rainwater in tanks, make sure that these are properly covered to avoid making these a home for both frogs and pesky mosquitoes.
Protect your plants
The heat can not only dry your plants out, but also put them under intensive stress. While there are full-sun plants, the majority of plants can find the summer sun a little too much. To help retain moisture and give them some protection, we recommend mulching your garden. Protect seedlings and new plants from the summer heat by providing these with shade. You can use cloth, old curtains, or even leafy branches.
For potted plants, the addition of a layer of mulch can help prevent overheating. You may also want to move these plants under a tree or any shelter for more shade. Consider replacing the water on saucers with moist sand. This helps the plants stay cool while preventing the breeding of mosquitoes.
Harvest your summer fruits and veggies
If you’ve followed our planting advice, your summer fruits and vegetables plants would have been planted in late spring so they are more established once summer hits. As the hotter months hit, you should be seeing the literal fruits of your labour! We recommend harvesting your fruit and vegetables as soon as they are ripe and ready. Otherwise, leaving produce for too long can cause it to rot and attract pests and birds to your garden.
Add a nutrient boost
Because of the harsh summer elements, your plants can do with a nutrient boost! This can help increase the nutrients and vitamins that your plants need to sustain growing and continue thriving. We recommend adding potash, a potassium-rich salt, to your watering as it can benefit fruit trees and even enhance the flavour of fruits. Additionally, potash helps keep plants healthy while helping ward off fungi.
Magnesium is particularly beneficial to roses, gardenias, and cymbidium orchids. Epsom salts mixed with water can make the soil acidic and provide iron which facilitates healthy growth. If you are using a fertiliser, be careful to read the instructions carefully and not overdo it!
Monitor for pests
The summer is when pests thrive! The combination of moisture and warmth of the soil facilitates the increase of activity from pests, so it’s important to keep an eye on any insects emerging in your garden. It’s always better to act early, otherwise the pests can spread throughout your garden and wreak havoc.
Look after your lawn
The hotter months can be incredibly tough on your lawn! Caring for your lawn in the summer will prevent it from dying and from any unattractive brown patches occurring.
It’s important to avoid mowing the lawn too short as allowing the grass to grow longer makes your lawn more resilient to foot traffic and weeds. You can also leave the grass clippings behind after each mowing session as they provide much needed nutrients to the turf.
Use a professional gardening service
The best way to ensure your garden survives the summer heat is to hire the experts! By using a gardening service, professional gardeners will assess your garden’s unique needs and perform any required maintenance such as pruning, mulching, watering, planting and more! Trust the experts to look after your garden and watch it thrive in the summer.
