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.
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.
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.
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!)
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.
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.
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deadheading of flowers is always something i forget to do, but important, thanks for the tips
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.
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!)
I’m definitely with you on the therapeutic flower tidying, it’s quite addictive!
What kind of container could I use to make a bird bath? Love the idea of that 🙂
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!
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
Very happy to oblige!
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
I spend so much less time watering now I do it this way – it’s also perfect for heavy-handed watering by the kids 😉
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!
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!
A timely reminder for some deadheading. It’s quite therapeutic too, I do love a good potter around the garden! #happyandhome
It’s the garden equivalent of de-cluttering isn’t it – so satisfying!
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
Oh I’m just too soft to get tough on them, even though I always moan when they help themselves to my seedlings!
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