Ideas and tips to keep your yard and garden looking good through the heat including watering, harvesting, and garden tasks. Plus download a free printable version of the guide to see you through the summer!
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This Summer Gardening Guide is a part of this week’s Tuesdays In The Garden, with a theme of Planning for Summer. At the end of this guide, you’ll find links for how to grow leeks, have a garden that thrives, grow beautiful vegetable gardens, fight weeds, and more. Enjoy!
There's a gardening scenario I've experienced and that I've seen others go through, as well:
- You've worked hard all spring, setting up your garden for easy care, maybe starting vegetable seeds, planting transplants and even a few blueberry bushes and blackberry canes (because you've all gotten on the Triple Crown Thornless blackberry wagon, right?).
- Your borders are finally all covered with paper and mulch and you've planted containers to last through the season for both sun and shade.
Everything is looking green and growing well. Now it's time to sit back and just enjoy it, right?
Well…sort of.
You should definitely enjoy the fruit of your labors. I think we gardeners don't do that near enough. For goodness sake, sit in that bench under the tree every once in a while with a cup of tea. Take a book out onto the porch. Invite friends for a BBQ and serve them a salad made from your harvest.
But you'll also need to keep maintaining your yard and garden so all your hard work doesn't wither in the heat of summer. I know I've been tempted to give up when the hot weather seems to go on and on and the watering doesn't seem to end.
I've known people who've let their vegetable patch go to weeds because they can't face spending time in the dry hot garden anymore (although if they had prepared the garden like this, there would be very few weeds to deal with…).
So how can you keep up and still be able to enjoy your yard? Look through these tips and ideas that can help you have summer gardening success including watering tips, the garden tasks you can be completing, how to keep pests away, and preparing for fall. Here's to loving our summer gardens!
NEW: Subscribe and download a printable version of the summer gardening guide! Fill out the form below and look in your email for directions to access the Subscriber VIP Library:
Subscribe & Help Your Garden Thrive Through Summer
Keep your garden looking good through the hot weather with AOC's 10-page Summer Gardening Guide eBook. You'll also receive the popular Weekly Newsletter full of useful information and behind-the-scenes happenings, plus occasional offers. Never any spam - read our Privacy Policy here.
Summer Gardening Guide
Watering
1. Five easy watering techniques that save water AND the time it takes to water your garden.
2. Use soaker hoses like these, which are especially easy for flower and shrubs beds, and repair them easily when needed:
3. Add quick-connect ends to your soaker hoses. This makes it much easier to hook the garden hose to the soaker with just a snap (I can’t believe I watered for years before someone told me about these…).
4. Set up an irrigation system for vegetables: How to build an easy drip/soaker irrigation system to save water and time - one of the most thorough, yet clear how-tos I've seen for setting up an inexpensive watering system from The Denver Post.
I want to set up a system like this in our next garden, and I'll use a drip irrigation kit like this one, adding soaker hoses for closely planted vegetables like lettuce and carrots, and set it up for automation with a garden timer. Sounds lovely, doesn't it? #goals
Summer To-Dos
1. Enjoy your summer garden harvests - flowers, fruits, and vegetables. In this article you'll find simple flower arranging tips for backyard clippings, fresh eating recipe ideas and ways to easily store your harvests for later.
2. Keep up with basic maintenance. Wondering what you should be doing in your yard through the summer months? Check out these monthly task lists for July, August and September to help keep up on your garden. Just remember, you don't need to do everything on the lists - just prioritize depending on your property and schedule and do what you can. But being educated about what you could be doing is always a good idea!
3. Use this year-around garden checklist for specifically for your vegetable garden. Again, I don't do everything on it, just what works for me that particular year. I find it's a great way to record and remember what I did do, though!
Keep the Pests Away
1. Keep bugs from your edible plants with this easy, all natural DIY garlic-mint insect spray that really works! It repels the insects enough to give your plants the start they need to grow lush, but doesn't kill them or beneficial bugs. If you're interested in this, you'll want to check out the Garlic-Mint Bug Spray Testimonials & FAQ page, too - you won't believe some of the results gardeners have seen with this!
Also, our accompanying garden bug spray video has more information, too, including an update on how it worked against cucumber beetles:
2. Scare the birds aways from berries with these Dollar Store finds. They aren't foolproof, but really did work so we could harvest most of our berries without building netted structures or dealing with annoying netting.
3. How to keep voles out of raised beds:
Looking Towards Fall
1. Prune and deadhead your garden in the summer for refreshed beds and fall color.
2. Boost your curb appeal in late summer with these 3 easy ways and be ready for fall.
3. If you'd like a fall and winter vegetable garden, summer is time to plan and plant. I particularly like Territorial Seed for their excellent catalogs full of information on planting for fall and winter.
NEW! Become an AOC VIP subscriber and download a printable version of this summer gardening guide that you can find in the subscriber library along with many other garden, recipe, and DIY printables! Complete the form below and look in your email for directions to access the library:
Subscribe & Help Your Garden Thrive Through Summer
Keep your garden looking good through the hot weather with AOC's 10-page Summer Gardening Guide eBook. You'll also receive the popular Weekly Newsletter full of useful information and behind-the-scenes happenings, plus occasional offers. Never any spam - read our Privacy Policy here.
I'd love to know any tips or tasks you have for summer gardening success - leave a comment below or chime in on Facebook or Instagram!
I hope you enjoyed this guide to summer gardening! Here are more summer planning tips from our Tuesdays in the Garden friends:
Tips for a Thriving Summer Garden at Frugal Family Home
Tips to Tackle Garden Weeds at Hearth and Vine
Tips for Beautiful Vegetable Gardens at Simplify Live Love
Growing Healthy Leeks at Homemade Food Junkie
June Garden Tour at The Freckled Rose
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