Growing Family

UK home and garden blog sharing ideas, inspiration and tips for busy family life, written by Catherine Hughes

  • Home
  • About
    • About Me – Catherine Hughes
    • Contact / PR
    • Disclosure
    • Privacy Policy
  • Garden
    • What to Plant Now
    • Garden Jobs this Month
    • Container Gardening
    • Growing Guides
    • Grow Your Own
    • Gardening with Children
    • Garden Tips
    • Garden Design
    • Houseplants
    • In Season Now
    • Birth Month Flowers
  • Interiors
    • Interior Design Tips
    • Living Room
    • Kitchen & Dining
    • Bedroom
    • Bathroom
    • Family Home
  • Nature
    • Exploring Nature
    • Days Out
    • Travel
  • Craft
    • Nature Craft
    • Kids Craft
    • Crafts for Adults
  • Family Fun
    • Jokes & Puns
    • Inspiring Quotes

7. The 10 minute gardener: quick summer gardening jobs

June 27, 2019 by Catherine 18 Comments

Welcome to the latest post in this series, looking at quick gardening jobs you can fit into a busy schedule.  This time I’m looking at ways to stay on top of your summer garden.

Things have certainly warmed up in the last couple of weeks, and I’m really enjoying my garden now the summer plants are bursting into life.  I think the ‘little and often’ approach is best for gardening at this time of year; keeping on top of the garden through little jobs seems to keep everything looking good much more effectively than carving out a few hours to blitz it.  It’s an added bonus that gardening this way is perfectly suited to being short on time.

Here are some ideas for ten minute summer gardening jobs you can tackle now to keep your garden looking great this summer.

summer bedding plants

Plant summer bedding

This is the perfect time to give your garden a shot of colour with summer flowering bedding plants in containers, borders and hanging baskets.  Supermarkets, garden centres and DIY stores are overflowing with bedding plants at this time of year, so there’s lots of choice.  If you’re planting in containers and baskets, try to use good quality compost, and remember to feed your plants with suitable outdoor plant food, because they will quickly exhaust the nutrients in their soil.

st anns allotments

Get your watering right

Don’t waste time watering little and often; this encourages weeds and can also cause plants to make roots near the surface, which makes them vulnerable.  Instead, water the soil around plants really thoroughly, making little ponds around them so the water can really soak in.  Watering this way supports plants for much longer, so you need to water less often – giving you more time to sit back and enjoy your garden.  For more tips on effective garden watering in summer check out this post.

to keep a summer garden looking good you need to consider protecting young plants from slugs and snails

Protect plants from slugs & snails

Poor old slugs and snails, they really don’t get much love from us gardeners do they?!  Just a couple of them can destroy a batch of seedlings or salad overnight, and it can be really difficult to keep on top of them.  There are lots of ways you can try and control slugs and snails in your garden or allotment; broken eggshells, beer traps, copper barriers, slug pellets to name but a few.  I’ve found one of the best ways is to regularly check pots and vulnerable plants, moving any culprits far away to another part of the garden (or, if you’re feeling merciless, out in an open space for the birds to snack on – I can never bring myself to do this though!)

summer garden plants

Deadhead your flowers

Having spent precious time and money coaxing your plants to thrive, it’s well worth encouraging them to produce as many flowers as possible.  Deadheading involves removing any flowers that are drooping, dead or forming seed heads; doing this prevents the plant setting seed, so it produces more flowers.  This is the sort of summer gardening job you can potter away at whenever you have a spare minute, and it’s a great one to get the kids involved with too.

wildlife gardening bird feeder

Look after wild bird visitors

Don’t assume wild birds don’t need your support in the garden during the summer months.  Birds breed in spring and early summer, so by this time of year they are feeding their young and very glad of any extra food  you can provide.  You’re also giving them a great start on building their energy resources for the colder weather later in the year.  And if you can provide a bird bath this is a real lifeline during hot weather – just remember to keep topping it up.

What summer gardening jobs are you managing this month?  Let me know in the comments.

Pin this for later:

Only got 10 minutes to spare for gardening? Keep your garden looking great with these quick ten minute summer gardening jobs.

Disclaimer: this post contains affiliate links.  This means that if you click through and make a purchase, I may receive a small commission from that sale.

Tweet
Share
Share
Pin1
1 Shares

Filed Under: Garden jobs this month Tagged With: 10 minute gardener, Bedding plants, Birds, Flowers, Garden, Garden tips, July, June, Maintenance, Pests, Plants, Summer, Top Tips, watering, Wildlife

« Six clever uses for your garden gazebo
Plant care tips for containers »

Comments

  1. chickenruby says

    June 22, 2015 at 11:01 am

    deadheading of flowers is always something i forget to do, but important, thanks for the tips

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      June 23, 2015 at 8:44 am

      Me too – last year I bought a tiny pair of ‘snips’ online, they make deadheading so much quicker and easier and I’ve been better at keeping on top of it since then.

      Reply
  2. Alex says

    June 20, 2016 at 9:19 pm

    I never knew that about watering/roots not going deep! Thanks!
    As for dead heading; it makes walks around the garden so therapeutic (the equivalent of picking the fluff balls from underneath your armpit on your favourite jumper!)

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      June 21, 2016 at 1:40 pm

      I’m definitely with you on the therapeutic flower tidying, it’s quite addictive!

      Reply
  3. Pam Nwelih says

    June 21, 2016 at 10:29 am

    What kind of container could I use to make a bird bath? Love the idea of that 🙂

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      June 21, 2016 at 1:44 pm

      Anything really – as long as it doesn’t have holes in the bottom and is quite shallow, to prevent small birds getting into trouble. An upturned terracotta pot with a plant saucer balanced on the top looks really nice, and I think old saucers from charity shops are brilliant for this too!

      Reply
  4. Jaime Oliver says

    June 21, 2016 at 5:51 pm

    I am ashamed to say i have not spent as much time in the garden as I would have liked so far … this has given me the kick up the bum

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      June 21, 2016 at 5:57 pm

      Very happy to oblige!

      Reply
  5. Penny says

    June 21, 2016 at 11:23 pm

    Such fab and achieveable tips, I really need to deadhead and watering like this suits me as I always forget to water things. Thanks for joining #happyandhome

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      June 22, 2016 at 8:32 am

      I spend so much less time watering now I do it this way – it’s also perfect for heavy-handed watering by the kids 😉

      Reply
  6. Helen says

    June 23, 2016 at 10:46 am

    Oh your foxgloves look amazing! My garden is purely functional, because I see all the weeding and watering as a chore, and we have a ton of clay and rock in our beds. The one thing that does thrive is roses, and I keep meaning to make more effort. Apart from anything else, spending a bit of time in the garden would no doubt feel so relaxing, and that’s got to be a plus!

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      June 23, 2016 at 1:18 pm

      Clay soil is tough isn’t it, some of my allotment is full of it and it really puts me off digging. Maybe I should plant some roses!

      Reply
  7. Stephanie says

    June 27, 2016 at 9:35 pm

    A timely reminder for some deadheading. It’s quite therapeutic too, I do love a good potter around the garden! #happyandhome

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      June 28, 2016 at 8:42 am

      It’s the garden equivalent of de-cluttering isn’t it – so satisfying!

      Reply
  8. Margaret Gallagher says

    June 29, 2016 at 2:06 pm

    Slugs and snails are a nightmare
    You are certainly more humane than me
    I do a slug watch every night before going to bed and I catch loads this way

    Reply
    • Catherine says

      June 29, 2016 at 9:25 pm

      Oh I’m just too soft to get tough on them, even though I always moan when they help themselves to my seedlings!

      Reply
  9. Ahmed Hamdy says

    June 23, 2017 at 5:49 pm

    Slugs and snails are indeed a nightmare, Tho I like to focus on giving wild birds the good treat they need during the hot summer days

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. 6 inspiring garden blogs | Blog at Thompson & Morgan says:
    February 10, 2018 at 3:56 pm

    […] Make every minute in the garden countImage: Growing family […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Hi, I’m Catherine. Welcome to Growing Family, a top UK home & garden blog sharing ideas, inspiration and tips for making the most of busy family life, indoors and out.
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Search

ORDER MY BOOKS

Popular Posts

  • 73 inspirational gardening quotes and garden sayings

    73 inspirational gardening quotes and garden sayings

  • Growing sunflowers in pots: easy step-by-step guide

    Growing sunflowers in pots: easy step-by-step guide

  • How to grow garlic: easy step-by-step guide

    How to grow garlic: easy step-by-step guide

  • 20 of the best trailing plants for hanging baskets and pots

    20 of the best trailing plants for hanging baskets and pots

  • Best winter plants for pots: 25 stunning low maintenance plants

    Best winter plants for pots: 25 stunning low maintenance plants

  • The best low maintenance plants for outdoor pots, and how to take care of them

    The best low maintenance plants for outdoor pots, and how to take care of them

VuelioTop10Badge2020

BRAMBLECREST GARDEN FURNITURE

Connect

Catherine Hughes is a home & garden blogger sharing ideas, inspiration & tips for making the most of busy family life, indoors and out.
Learn More

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Copyright Growing Family 2023