Late Summer Maintenance for Your Garden
The signs of late summer are all around us, meaning your garden needs extra maintenance in this transitional time. Back-to-school advertisements are flooding your feed, football fields are filling up, and evening comes a little earlier every day. By now, the beautiful blooms that brightened your backyard are losing their luster. More drooping deadheads seem to pop up every day! You can still enjoy your garden in August, though. If you maintain it properly, they’ll be plenty of color to come in fall. Just be sure to extend your garden’s greatness this year with these five tips.
Weeding
Tis the season for weeding! If left unattended, weeds will seed in your garden and wreak havoc on the next season’s sprouts. Plus, removing those weeds will let your favorite flora soak up more sunlight, water, and nutrients for the rest of summer. While you’re at it, remove deadheads, or spent flowers. This not only tidies up your outdoor areas, but also encourages new bud growth to keep your garden colorful into autumn.
Composting
After a summer of tending to the garden and mowing the lawn, you likely have a lot of excess organic material on your hands. Why not use this to start a compost pile? With grass clippings, leaves, plant material, and rotten vegetables, you can create a strong fertilizer for your garden. If left unattended, nature will take its course and you’ll have fresh mulch in time for planting next year’s blooms.
Watering
Summer may be coming to a close, but the hot temperatures aren’t going away just yet. Warm weather takes a toll on any garden, so make sure your plants get plenty of water. Early mornings are optimal for watering to ensure roots receive moisture before the sun’s scorching rays have their way.
Shopping
Savvy shoppers may find deep discounts as many stores clear out summer inventory in preparation for cooler fall and winter months. Lawn furnishings, garden benches, and statues can all add appeal to your flower beds. Especially when you score them for fifty percent off! This is also the perfect season for garden fence installation. A white picket fence or scrolled metal garden fence are two options that will easily add beauty and charm to your yard. If your goal is more practical, then putting up pest or deer fences can keep your garden safe from hungry critters.
Preparing
It’s never too early to prepare for next year, so start sifting through seed catalogues to plan next year’s planting. And if you’re not ready for your garden to end, we suggest hearty fall planting seeds like lettuce, spinach, turnips, radishes and kale. These crops can keep your garden growing even into winter and they taste great in salads!
Do you know what would go great with your garden? How about a new deck or patio? Excel Fencing & Decking can introduce you to the newest and most exciting trends in outdoor living. Or if you prefer a custom design, our experts can help with that, too. Give us a call for a free estimate in the Greater Baltimore area and throughout central Maryland.