Summertime… and the living is easy. The hard work drops away and you have time to relax and enjoy the beautiful garden you’ve created. There are a few small jobs you can be getting on with, though:
General tasks:
- Edge lawns with edging shears to keep them sharp and neat: lawn edges grow faster than surrounding grass so need trimming more regularly.
- Clip hedges now that the birds have finished nesting, aiming for an A shape so the sun can reach all parts equally.
Ornamental gardens
- Feed roses with a specialist rose fertiliser after regular dead-heading to encourage more flowers to form.
- Deadhead bedding to keep the show going for longer, pinching out fading blooms to encourage new flower buds to form.
- Apply slow release fertiliser granules to containers and hanging baskets to boost growth for the rest of the season.
Kitchen garden:
- Pinch out broad bean shoots to encourage the pods to swell and deter blackfly infestations.
- Harvest and store garlic as soon as the foliage starts yellowing, drying bulbs carefully for two weeks before plaiting them into strings.
- Sow late summer salads in large containers so you can start picking them in as little as six weeks’ time.