The summer heat isn’t always friendly to lawns and gardens. You may have dealt with pests, scorching, weeds and other issues in the past, and now you’re trying to avoid them. In this guide, we’ll address some common summer gardening problems and how to fix/prevent them.
1 – Weeds
Weeds are a pain throughout the growing season. They can quickly take over your garden beds and overwhelm other plants nearby.
The easiest way to prevent weeds is with a thick mulch bed. If your mulch is at least 4 inches thick, it will suffocate the weeds and still allow plant roots to grow.
Start by removing all the weeds currently in the garden, and then put a fresh, thick mulch bed in its place. Top off the mulch periodically because the bark will break down over time. This feeds the plants, but it does add a little work to your summer garden maintenance. Thankfully, the mulch will preserve moisture around the soil and block out harmful UV rays.
2 – Watering
Watering in the summer requires a delicate balance. You want to water at times that allow the plants and soil to absorb the water before the hot sun evaporates it. We recommend watering in the early morning or evening, and you may need to adjust watering plans to fit seasonal precipitation. Berns Landscaping can coordinate this as part of your year-long property maintenance plan.
3 – Pests
Different types of pests require different prevention techniques. For instance, you can keep mosquitos away by eliminating areas with standing water. If you have a bird feeder without a fountain or a dog bowl that rarely gets changed, those areas will turn into a breeding ground for mosquitos. Clogged gutters can also be a problem because water pools up in the debris.
For invasive pests that feed on plants, the best thing to do is to fortify the plants themselves. A Healthy plant will naturally fend off pests without chemicals. In the event that you need chemicals to get the pests under control, you need to choose something that targets the pests without hurting the plants. Our plant health experts and pest control specialists can personalize a plan for your property.
4 – Overgrown Plants
If your spring blossoms have turn into summer problems, you may be tempted to trim back overgrown plants. However, the summer may not be the right time to do this. Ideally, most plants should be pruned at the end of winter/early spring so they can flourish throughout the spring months. Prune them too late, and you may inadvertently kill the whole plant.
These stipulations change from one plant to the next, but we encourage you to be careful. You may simply deadhead flowering plants for now and do a more thorough plant renovation in the future. Berns Landscaping has a team of horticulturists on staff who can create a plan for your summer plants.
5 – Scorched Grass
Scorched grass is the result of extensive sun exposure, usually combined with underwatering. Some scorch marks in the summer may come from dog urine or using too much fertilizer on the lawn. Others come from intense summer sun on the lawn.
In the case of fertilizer scorching, removing the fertilizer or waiting a while to reapply should do the trick. For dog urine, try watering the urine spots when they happen. This will dilute the urine and reduce the risks. Having the right watering plan for summer should minimize the risks across the board, especially with the guidance of a professional landscaping company.
Contact Berns Landscaping at (586) 756-1145 to get your summer garden maintenance plan.