Tackle these tasks to keep your summer garden thriving
Summer in the garden is not just about watering, though that is often a top priority. Here are six things that will make a dramatic difference in keeping your flowers and vegetables happier and healthier so you can enjoy the season in your garden too!
1. Pinch back leggy petunias
When first planted, petunias (Petunia spp. and hybrids) grow and bloom vigorously. But when summer temperatures rise, stems stretch and flowering tapers off as blossoms fade and plants focus on producing seed.
What to do
Once blooming slows and plants get leggy, you can revive petunias by trimming off up to one-third of the length of the stems. The photo above shows how to use your thumb and forefinger to pinch the end of each branch just above a leaf node. Pinching back removes some of the spent blossoms so the plant doesn’t waste energy producing seed. This encourages it to set more flower buds. Also, it forces growth of side shoots, which keeps the plant full. Watch our helpful video on deadheading and pinching back petunias at the test garden to see how it's done.
If you pinch a couple of branches on each plant every week, your petunia will always have fresh growth and more flowers, and the job won’t seem so overwhelming. Don’t like getting sticky hands while pinching? Use scissors or garden snips for the job.
2. Provide shade for vegetables during extreme heat
Though they need full sun, plants like tomatoes and peppers may suffer in extremely hot conditions, resulting in wilted plants, scorched leaves or fruit with sunscald. Flowering and fruiting also stalls above 80 degrees F.
What to do
When temperatures rise above 90 degrees F for more than a few days, erect temporary shade above vegetable plants to protect them from intense, hot sun that causes damage such as leaf scorch or sunscald. Shading also cools the soil and conserves moisture.
Good shading materials include shade cloths or row covers. Hang the shading material over PVC hoops, bamboo stakes, or any kind of structure that can withstand some wind. Position the shade where it will protect the whole plant when the sun is at its highest and hottest and at least 2 to 3 feet above the top leaves. White shade cloth or row cover reflects light and heat, providing a cool space underneath. Black shade cloth blocks light, but absorbs heat, so it may still be hot beneath the shade. Lattice structures, a little umbrella or even a patio shade sail can be used to cool your plants as well.
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3. Trim asters midsummer to keep them from flopping
Some fall-blooming asters (Symphyotrichum spp. and hybrids) can get really tall and have a tendency to flop over in the garden.
What to do
To get a fuller, bushier plant that won’t flop, trim asters by just a few leaves with a pinch midsummer. Or give them a harder cut using garden snips or pruners to remove one-third to one-half of the stem, as shown above. Cut stems at different heights — shorter in front and gradually taller in back, or in a mounded shape — so you can see more of the flowers when they bloom in the fall. Within a few weeks, side branches will fill in.
Be careful not to cut back asters too late in the summer when plants start setting flower buds, or you might cut off the season’s flowers. If you have missed the window to pinch back plants, you can still easily add support to asters if they flop in the garden with half hoop stakes.
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4. Keep lettuce from bolting
Cool-season vegetables often bolt due to high temperatures, longer summer days and dry conditions, focusing their energy on flowering and setting seed.
What to do
Once temps rise and bolting starts, spinach and lettuce become bitter tasting as the plants elongate and form flowers. Other cold-loving crops, such as kohlrabi or radish, develop pithy, woody roots. At this point, it is best to pull up the plants and compost them. Before your plants reach that point, however, there are tricks to extend the season and hold off bolting.
- Choose bolt-resistant varieties, which is often noted on seed packets.
- Water plants regularly and mulch the soil to avoid stress by keeping the roots moist and cool.
- Shade the plants as temperatures rise — the air temperature under a shade can be up to 10 degrees F cooler and slow the bolting process.
- If you see flowers forming, pinch them off to gain a couple more weeks of harvesting.
Harvesting tip
Peas, beans and zucchini don’t bolt but will stop producing if you let fruit stay on the plant and ripen.
5. Manage garden weeds in summer
Annual weeds compete for water and soil nutrients. Remove them to allow garden plants to thrive.
What to do
If you can eliminate annual weeds, such as crabgrass, lambsquarters or ragweed, before they set seed, you can reduce problems in the future. Pulling is easiest when unwanted plants are small and the soil is moist. But tugging out mature weeds with extensive roots disturbs the soil, which can cause moisture loss and may even bring buried weed seeds to the surface, where they could germinate. You can also adjust your mower to cut the lawn higher as taller grass shades the soil, inhibiting weeds and helping to conserve moisture.
Try the chop-and-drop method
When weeds get too big and the soil is dry and hard, an alternative to pulling is to cut them off at or just below ground level. Cutting won’t disturb the soil like pulling does. Since these plants are annuals, they may regrow a bit but won’t come back next year. If they aren’t diseased or haven’t developed a seedhead, you can simply drop the cut-off tops (the chop-and-drop method) back where you cut them to serve as a mulch, cooling the soil and conserving moisture. They’ll even compost in place and help improve your soil.
6. Keep garden containers happy while you’re on summer vacation
Heading out of town for a week or two? Don’t let your container plants suffer while you’re away! If a garden sitter isn’t an option, try one (or a combination) of these tricks to keep them hydrated until you return.
- Water all pots until it runs out the drainage hole before you leave.
- Move containers to a shady spot out of the wind so they won’t dry out.
- Cover any exposed potting mix with 1 to 2 inches of mulch to reduce evaporation.
- Fill a clean soda bottle with water and flip it upside down, burying the opening (without the lid) in the potting mix, where it will slowly release water into the pot over time.
- Set up a drip irrigation line on a timer to water pots once a day. Or get a smart timer for your phone to monitor irrigation from a distance.
- Plant in self-watering containers and fill reservoirs before leaving.
