As the weather gears up for the summer months, you might be wondering what to do with your garden at the end of the summer season. The end of the summer season leads to a dry spell. It’s one of the hottest time of the year so it pays to prep your garden to combat the excessive heat and the lack of rain. But where to start?
Excessive heat affects yard work at this time of the year. It’s hard to motivate one’s self to complete his or her garden tasks when it’s dry and hot outside. Thankfully, there are ways to beat the summer slump! Here are some end-of-the-summer garden ideas you should consider to maintain the health and lushness of your garden:
Remove the Weeds
Weeds grow the fastest at the end of the summer season because the conditions are just right. Once the summer season sets in, the weed seeds become established and they flourish despite the dry, hot climate. If you leave the weeds to grow uncontrollably in the garden, your vegetables and flowers will be competing for nutrients in the soil and this can lead to die-offs. Take this time to do your daily weeding.
Weeding is not fun but it is definitely an essential gardening task that you should never skip. Removing the weeds ensure that your plants are taking full advantage of the soil nutrients. Since the weeds are still growing at this point, they are much easier to track and remove. Keeping an eye out for weeds will reduce your future gardening loads.
Deadheading
Apart from eliminating the weeds in the garden, you should be on top of your deadheading tasks at this point too. This goes regardless if your garden is full of perennial or annual plants. Deadheading, which involves removing the dead, wilting, or spent flowers, promote new growths that lead to more buds to form.
This gardening task forces flowering plants to produce more blossoms. Regular deadheading helps retain the beauty of the garden. For gardens teeming with perennial plants, deadheading is a great way to maintain the size of the plants while also reducing the competition between plants.
Harvest Your Crops
The end of the summer season signals the start of harvest time for vegetable growers. At this point, you should be enjoying the bounty of the garden so roll up your sleeves and get to work! Harvest ripened vegetables like carrots, cabbages, brocks, cucumber, tomatoes, and squash. As you collect the literal fruits of your labor, some crops could be producing flowers, ready to be pollinated by friendly garden critters. This is also the best time to thin your root vegetables so plants beside them will grow much bigger throughout the growing season.
Clear Out Your Yard
Browning plants, falling leaves, and wilting flowers are aplenty in the garden during the last few weeks of the summer season. All these garden wastes could ruin the look of your garden so take this time to clean your yard.
Clearing out your yard later in the fall season helps prep your outdoor space for the cold months while also promoting new growths. Existing plants may yield more flowers one last time before the winter season sets in. After clearing your yard, do not leave the ground bare. This could increase the risk of weed growth and infestations. Use mulch and cover-ups to protect the soil and the plants from the elements.
Planting Fall-Season Crops
Some zones are suitable for fall gardening and if you are lucky enough to live in such a place, the end of the summer season is the best time to start planting new crops. Check the local climate to see if the days are getting cooler and plant crops that thrive in mild weather such as kale, lettuce, arugula, mustard greens, and spinach. These crops tend to grow quickly so you’ll have loads of greens to harvest just before the winter season hits.
If you live in a hardier zone where the warm climate lingers, try sowing beets, radishes, broccoli, and cabbage from seeds. Once the seedlings are ready, plant these crops in-ground and protect the crops with a cover-crop to keep the soil loose and moist.
Using Mulch and Compost
Keeping the soil loose, insulated, and nutrient-dense must be a priority once the cooler days set in. Making your own compost using garden and kitchen scraps is always a great idea. Composting allows you to reuse wastes so you are not contributing to the world’s worsening trash problem. Even better, by the time your compost is ready, you have organic fertilizer to enrich your soil.
To create a mulch pile, mix a variety of brown and green wastes like rotted vegetables, plant scraps, and fallen leaves. Layer the organic materials and give them a mix every now and then. Sprinkle water to help with the breakdown of the organic compounds. By the last days of the harvest, your compost should be ready to use! You can also spread a layer of mulch to the soil to retain the quality of your garden soil for next year.
Caring for Trees and Shrubs
Do not leave your shrubs, trees, and other perennials neglected, the end of the summer should signal the beginning of the pruning season so get ready! Pruning the trees, shrubs, and other perennials help encourage new growth while also keeping your plants healthy enough to last through the winter season. Be gentle with the pruning, though! Prune the shrubs and trees only as needed and water them regularly because moisture tends to evaporate quickly during this period.
Water Deeply and Regularly
The last days of the summer season tend to be hard on most plants so it’s important to water your garden deeply and regularly. Water your plants deeply once a week as opposed to making several small waterings to keep your garden well hydrated. Watering your plants deeply also helps strengthen their root systems, giving your garden the best chances of surviving the winter cold. For extraordinarily hot weather, you may have to deep water your plants every 5 days!
Don’t let the hot and dry weather destroy your garden. Keep all these end-of-the-summer gardening ideas in mind to retain the beauty and health of your garden all season long!
This educational blog is a series of informative articles from the Penn State Master Gardeners volunteers plus news concerning the group and their activities. For more information, click here.
