SerpApi.Org
Life is busy, time is short and the weather is hot; three reasons why any jobs we do in the garden now need to be simple, quick and extremely effective. I don’t want to be spending ages undertaking something (anything) in the blazing heat that isn’t worth my while and makes very little difference to the appearance of my yard.
That is why in order to maintain a tidy garden at this time of year, I have narrowed down my ‘summer must-do’ jobs list to five quick actions that keep the garden tidy and looking much more presentable.
Each one must take no more than 10 minutes, create an instant, lasting result, and make a difference on its own as well as when combined with all or any of the others. (The key is the right tools, just like this heavy duty stand-up weeder from Amazon, which I love). This way, not only do I have a presentable yard ready for summer visitors, but I have plenty of time left to relax and hang out with family and friends.
1. Keeping Lawn Edges Neat
Clean lines instantly make a sharp visual difference and transform a messy yard into something more ordered and tidy. So grab your tools and give your lawn a neat edge.
Not only will this create a sharp impression, it removes long, straggly grass that steals water and nutrients from cultivated plants and provides a breeding ground for pests and diseases.
Edging is a quick job and there are several great ideas for getting it done. You can trim the overhanging grass using a pair of long-handled edging shears like this Spear and Jackson pair at Amazon that do the job without you needing to bend down.
Alternatively, you can take a half-moon edging tool. I like this Colwelt edger at Walmart, and cut around the edges of the turf, creating a sharp, clean division.
A third option for edging between a lawn and garden border, is the three-inch edging rule, which I think is the most effective. Take your border spade - this Berry and Bird spade at Amazon is just the job - and create a gap between the lawn and bed. I shake out any uprooted weeds and pile the soil on the bed as a mulch.
This method gives a clear definition to both the lawn and the border, as the mounded soil acts a* a handy mulch.
A final option, which creates a softer effect, is to add suitable edging plants at the front of your borders.
2. Deadheading And Cutting Back
Deadheading is one of the quickest and surest ways of improving the appearance of your yard.
Simply remove the dead flowers and the long stems on plants such as geums and cone flowers, leaving just beautiful blooms and emerging buds. This quick, satisfying task transforms a potentially sad and tangled border into something neat and tidy and brimming with hope and possibility.
Before starting, you need to choose your tools. Robust gardening gloves like this cowhide pair at Amazon are a must if you are dealing with thorny or hairy plants that can scratch and irritate.
I also use lighter gloves like these at Amazon for deadheading more delicate plants - and also for preventing sticky sap from getting all over my fingers, especially when I'm cutting back petunias.
I use garden snips such as these compact snipping shears from Walmart for smaller stems, and these comfortable-to-hold Fiskars bypass pruning shears at Amazon for cutting back heavier-duty perennials. Both are always cleaned and sharpened after each use to prevent the spread of diseases and to stop them rusting.
This sturdy, colorful plastic trug at Amazon is the perfect receptacle for collecting all the deadheads for making your own compost, but I never compost any plant material that looks diseased; a key composting mistake. This goes straight into the trash.
As well as deadheading individual flower heads, run your hedging shears like this nifty foldable Workpro set at Amazon over low-growing, clump forming varieties such as lady's mantle and rock garden plants like aubretia. By now, they may have finished their first flush of flowers and can start to look unkempt and straggly.
Shearing off the dead flowerheads and any old stems encourages more flowers and new shoots, keeping plants looking healthy and more likely to produce a second flush of flowers later in summer.
3. Removing Tired And Floppy Growth
Once everything really gets going in the garden, I tend to take a step back and let it get on with the important task of growing.
This is fine for the first few weeks but then plants can sometimes get a little over-ambitious and start to lose their pizazz.
Maybe their stems have become top-heavy and have started to flop outwards over other plants. Or perhaps pests have been nibbling, or the sun has scorched the leaves.
The quick and easy solution is to add cutting back early-flowering perennials to your summer garden checklist.
This has several benefits; it returns the plant a neat appearance and keeps it in its allotted space, removes old, weak and potentially diseased growth that could cause problems further down the line, and if you are lucky it might also encourage the plant to produce fresh flowering growth later in summer.
When plants that form dense clumps of slender stems, such as catmint and Salvia varieties, start to collapse outwards I lessen their weight by removing the top third of the plant using my Fiskars extendable hedge shears from Amazon.
This helps keep plants compact and healthy and after fertilizing and watering, they soon put on lush new growth carrying plenty of flower buds.
Once you have finished cutting back, feed and water your plant with a general purpose fertilizer such as Bloom City Seaweed and Kelp Fertilizer at Amazon, and mulch around the base of the plant with well-rotted homemade compost or manure to help the soil retain moisture and block weeds.
In my garden, the plants that I treat like this now include hardy geraniums, lavender, globe thistles, knapweed, and shasta daisies, which will keep on producing new flowers until well into November.
4. Mulching
I always mulch my garden in winter to protect and insulate the plants and soil, but I also mulch in summer for other reasons.
Mulching after watering is an important summer habit to get into because it helps the soil to retain the moisture you have given it.
From an aesthetic point of view, a deep brown layer of fresh bark chippings, compost or much (either homemade or commercial like this Back to the Roots Organic Mulch at Amazon) will highlight the flourishing foliage and flowers of your plants, and looks more attractive than cracked and dry soil.
However, mulching doesn't begin and end with organic matter and many other more attractive materials can be used to enhance or alter the style and atmosphere of your yard.
Gravel, like these mini marble chips at Home Depot are easy to include in your garden landscaping ideas. It is an incredibly versatile material, great for mulching and pathways, and well suited to many types of garden design.
Slate is another natural material that makes an attractive garden mulch and I like these landscaping chips I found on Amazon.
If you have a rooftop or terrace garden, or prefer to grow plants in containers, glass pebbles like these beautiful blue beads at Home Depot make an attractive alternative and look particularly eye-catching at night in the light of garden illuminations, like these 'firefly' stemmed lights at Amazon or, for something more quirky, these multicolored solar mushroom lights at Walmart.
Always remember to water before mulching as it can block moisture getting through if piled directly onto dry earth or potting soil.
5. Supporting Plants
I grow lots of tall, graceful plants that add height and movement across the garden and draw the eye upwards.
They are a brilliant way of adding an extra dimension and making the space look larger, and I thoroughly recommend architectural plants as a way of making small spaces and courtyard gardens look larger.
Ornamental grasses, hollyhocks, echinacea, geum, shasta daisies and sea hollies are just some of the varieties thriving in our chalky soil and they look spectacular.
However, by midsummer they often start to go floppy, falling outwards to smother other plants and looking rather messy, sometimes exposing their bare hearts.
You have two options - either cut them back to keep them neat and encourage late summer growth, or add supports to keep stems upright. Both are simple and speedy and will instantly give your yard more structure and a neater appearance.
Although supports can be added now, it’s worth bearing in mind that many clump-forming varieties such as helenium and peonies will benefit from being staked just as they start growing again in spring.
This is an easier way of adding structure because you don’t have to wrestle with tall stems, and the plants are supported from the outset.
I like to use natural supports such as bamboo canes, twiggy prunings from our serviceberry tree and stems from our hazel, which we coppice in the fall.
When you give your perennials their fall cut-back this year, mark where they are and remember to add their supports next spring when they start to grow again.
Attractive options include obelisks for clematis and annual climbers, like this antique-effect metal one at Home Depot or this attractive wooden support at Amazon.
Gardening is not all about making big changes to alter the appearance of your yard. Small but important tasks add up to something remarkably effective - and when we're in the height of summer and it's too hot to do too much, just 10 minutes here and there can make the world of difference.
Love inspiring garden ideas, outdoor advice, and the latest news? Sign up for our newsletter and get the latest features delivered straight to your inbox.
Like this article? For more stories like this, follow us on MSN by clicking the +Follow button at the top of this page.
