Guide to Gardening in the Summer

Summer heat can hurt the plans you've made for your garden. Join Spring Hill Nursery's gardening expert Debbie as she discusses the essential tasks to cover during summer to ensure your garden's long-term health. You'll glean valuable tips on lawn care and birding activities, watering, disease prevention and much more.

Hi. I'm Debbie with Spring Hill and today we're going to talk about some summer reminders for the garden. Now the first has to do with your birds, make sure that you have a bird bath that always has nice, clean water in it. You don't want to just keep coming out and filling it. You want to make sure you give them clean water, coz the thing about birds, is that they are great multi-taskers. They like to come into your bird bath, have a little drink, have a little bath and then, maybe do a little something else. So, just like you don't like bathing in your toilet, neither do the birds. So, make sure you keep it clean. Also, try and keep it in the shade so that you're giving them a nice cool oasis. You put your bird bath right in the middle of the sun, it's not going to be refreshing for them and you might just have boiled birds. Now take a look around at all of your flowering plants and make sure once they finish blooming, you just deadhead those old blooms right off. This will keep your plants looking nice and tidy throughout the summer. Now speaking of flowers, I'll bet in the heat of summer, you're not thinking about daffodils or tulips, are you? But actually, now is the perfect time to order your spring flowering bulbs for fall planting. Now another component of your garden that needs attention in the summer time is your lawn. Now make sure, as temperatures increase, you're giving them more water, you're giving your turf at least one to two deep soakings a week. And you also want to make sure that your lawn mower is set to three inches or higher because if you cut your grass too short in the heat, it's going to send it into shock. And, as temperatures rise, naturally, you want to be thinking about watering. Now make sure all of your established plants get a nice, deep soaking of water once, or maybe twice a week. Now your container plants and your new plantings will get more than that, maybe even once a day. But this is not the time to fertilize. You don't want to send your plants into shock. Now, if at all possible, try and water first thing in the morning. This will encourage the most health for your plants. And also, when you talk about where to water, you want to keep in mind you're not watering the foliage. So, you don't want to spray on the top of your plant like this. This isn't going to do you much good and, in fact, what it might do is contribute to fungal disease. If at all possible, you want to get to the base of the plant because it's those roots that really need a good soaking. So, just reach under there, try and get maybe a wand or a hose and get to those roots. And, for crying out loud, save those honey bees! If you need to spray any kind of chemical in your garden, try and do it early in the morning or late in the evening when bee activity is minimal. So, there you have it, just a few tips on how you can stay cool during the summer months and keep your garden looking beautiful. !