Guide to Summer Gardening Success Through the Heat + Free Ebook!

Here’s the summer gardening guide you need with 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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There’s a common gardening storyline I’ve experienced 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, so 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.

But I’ve learned that a little planning – and basic regular, doable tasks – the garden can survive through even the hottest months so that we can enjoy all the colors of fall.

So how can you keep up and still be able to enjoy your yard? By taking a bit of time through the summer to keep the garden going – whether it’s how to water pots on vacation, general watering tips, planting containers so they last through the season, or pruning to ensure fall color, or the ideas in this guide.

Then you’ll be thanking yourself when you are sitting outside in the cool of an autumn evening and enjoying the view.

Here’s to loving our summer gardens! 

Free Summer Garden Guide Ebook

Keep your garden looking good through the hot weather with this 10-page Summer Gardening Guide eBook!

Your Summer Gardening Guide

Watering Tips

1. These five easy watering techniques will 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 easy irrigation system for vegetables: how to build an easy pvc/soaker irrigation system to save water and time – the timer saved so much aggravation for me once we got this set up!

Summer Tasks

1. Enjoy your summer garden harvests – flowers, fruits, and vegetables with simple flower arranging 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 (FYI: you don’t need to do everything on the lists – just prioritize depending on your property and schedule and do what you can).

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.

You can find even more info on the accompanying garden bug spray video including an update on how it worked against cucumber beetles!

TIP: 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!

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. Keep voles, gophers, and moles out of raised beds with this hardware cloth how-to video.

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.

Don’t forget to grab your summer garden guide ebook!

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!

 This article has been updated – it was originally published in 2017.

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