Bloom Big with FTD’s Top 10 Summer Garden Tips

Sweltering heat can discourage even the most passionate of garden lovers. After all, maintaining a summer garden is not an easy feat. It involves more than just inspiration to maintain a pristine patch of soil with colorful blooms and vegetables you love. But with the right tools, some experience and expert tips under your sleeves, you can have that lush garden you always wanted. We’ve collected some top summer garden tips tried and tested by plant lovers. Below, you will find ideas and inspiration to level up your love for gardening this season.

FTD’s Top 10 Summer Garden Tips

You can apply these tips to gardens of all sizes and types. Feel free to tweak them or throw in a few more hacks of your own, depending on what you grow.

Mulch, if you Haven't Already

Are you one of those savvy lawn care enthusiasts? Then you probably know why mulching is so important. It is like the framework to get your garden ready for the season. This little technique can do wonders for the slice of Arcadia living in your backyard. Land mowers are great for mulching an extensive grass bed. But if not, you can do this manually too. From manure to tree bark and dry leaves, you can mulch with anything that works for you and provides the best results. Why should you mulch the soil?

• Increases moisture retention within the soil. Since heat can be harsh on the soil if not for mulching, your greens can dry sooner than you think.

• Protects the plants and avoids unwanted weed growth. This means you can cut down on the tedious task of weed removal.

• Provides a generous dose of nutrients to the soil so plants can stay healthy and lush for long.

It’s best to begin mulching by mid or late spring and do it again at the beginning of fall to prepare the soil for winter. Prepping up the soil by mulching it early in the summer ensures it gets the time to absorb the nutrients. Also, since the germination of weeds happens later during the season, early mulching can keep your garden weed-proof for a little longer.

It May Sound Dreary, but Deadhead Your Flowers

Deadheading flowers is a step closer to plant care. The process includes removing the dead flower heads from your plants. FTD recommends you do this often to spruce up a plant’s appearance and enable them to grow thicker and fuller than before. If you haven’t got a green thumb, don’t worry. Deadheading should be easy! You only need to keep an eye for flowers that seem spent and make more room for blooms that have the potential to grow. For those with a bigger lawn and dread the process, we recommend splitting it into sections and deadheading a little bit at a time.

The most important thing here is to choose a cutting point for deadheading. Cut too close to the bottom of the bloom, and you may end up with a dry and unattractive stem. Where to prune a plant will depend a lot on the species but to encourage healthy foliage, deadhead spent flowers and stems back to ¼ inch above a new lateral flower, leaf or bud.

Harvest, Before it's Too Late

The greatest joys of a homegrown summer garden are veggies picked right outside your back door to go directly in the stew or on the grill. But with the advantage of having a home garden comes a bunch of hard work. Just like deadheading spent flowers and leaves, vegetable growers need to spend time checking if or not the plants are ready to harvest. Timely harvests can have several benefits. For one, your plants get more room and capacity to nurture fresh growth. Besides, you save your vegetables from over-maturating. Letting your vegetables sit there long will only slow its production. While harvesting your garden, make sure to be gentle with the foliage. Be careful not to break or nick them. Also, the less you handle your vegetables after harvesting, the longer they stay fresh.

Tackle Pesky Pests, All at Once

It’s distressing for your vegetables and flower beds to get withered by unwanted pests and critters. The most persistent bugs tend to feed on bright flowers and leaves early in the season, while others that pick on vegetable harvests may start the invasion mid-summer. This does not mean your plants have to suffer all season long. The easiest way would be to tackle pests with a commercial pesticide sprayed intermittently. But being mindful that gardens also add up to the local ecosystem, this isn’t the best option. The alternate way to minimize the invasion is to keep the soil healthy and fertilized with organic products or DIY solutions. Another great thing that eliminates pests is crop rotation. Ensuring planting does not happen in the same pot twice, you can reduce the amount you attract each season.

Mow, While the Sun Shines

Mowing may not sound fun, but it is essential for lawn maintenance. Besides, mowing offers several benefits worthy of your time and hard work under the sun:

• Regularly mowing the grass keeps it short and clean.

• It levels up your lawn and makes it look more beautiful.

• Cutting off the unwanted grass ensures only the best shoots survive.

• The fallen shoots add up to revitalize the soil by acting as a fertilizer.

How often should you mow? Despite the benefits of mowing, doing it in excess can damage growth. During summer, grass grows by an inch every three to five days. So, if you want to mow your grass and keep it at about three inches, we recommend mowing your land every three days. This interval will help the grass maintain its ideal length and stay healthy and hydrated throughout the summers. You may also want to keep the grass longer than its usual length. This will ensure grass survives excessive heat or dry weather should you miss watering it.

Grow, Season's Top Favorites

Once you have tackled the basics of getting your garden summer-ready, it’s time to look into what you’d like to cultivate. While there could be many different plants and vegetables you’d want to grow, not all can survive the season. To help you get started, we’ve jotted down a list of greens you should probably begin planting around mid-spring.

Fertilize to Flourish your Summer Garden

Fertilizing at regular intervals helps them reach their full potential. As plants grow heavy with fruits and veggies, they feed heavily from the soil and deplete the soil nutrients. With that in mind, you can try fertilizing them and see if these ideas work for your garden.

• Establish firmly: Fertilizing too early in the season can burn the roots. As a best practice, always fertilize your plants 7-10 after they are firmly rooted in the soil.

• Add fertilizers early morning: Plants are at their highest levels of stress mid-day and are less likely to soak up the nutrients.

• Choose wisely: Provide your plants with a good burst of nutrients by choosing a good fertilizer. Nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus are the main nutrients to boost growth. You can also rely on non-conventional options such as compost tea or all-purpose liquid organic fertilizers.

Water, then Repeat

We cannot stress enough the importance of watering your greens more often during the peak summer months. This does not mean you over soak your lawn or unnecessary water pots that can survive with less moisture. While watering may not seem like a big thing, there are right and wrong ways of doing it. Garden plants usually need an inch of water. But experts say to water them from the ground rather than wetting them from above with a sprinkling hose. Also, the best time to water is in the cool of the day. If you water later during the day, allow the foliage to dry before sunset. The moisture in the soil attracts fungi, mosquitoes and other insects. If you have too many pots in the backyard and water feels like a task, consider investing in self-watering plants that keep up with the moisture level. Lastly, own a good soil thermometer to eliminate guesswork from your watering schedule.

Do it Right with the Right Tools

Summer or no summer, it’s never too late to invest in a bunch of gardening tools. If your land is big enough, you probably have a lawn mower, but how about those little fancy things that can go in your toolkit? For instance, a pair of bonsai tool sets never hurts if you are a bonsai lover. So get started with essentials like garden spades and shovels, gardening gloves, forks, rakes and trowels that are must-have items for any lawn. Starting with the basics, you can look into more accessories, like watering hoses, cans, and hand tools.

Kiss Goodbye with Care

The last thing you’d want to do is leave your garden under the sun while you are away on vacation. Just like you’d invest in gardening tools, it is best to look into options that can prep up your space when the sun shines hard. Before leaving for summer, check if you need to re-mulch, prune the leaves, or add a dose of fertilizers. Plan to set up an automated watering system or tie some shade cloth tents to reduce the risk of sunburning.

Beautify your Summer Garden with FTD

Now that you know the best ways to care for a summer garden, it’s time to start shopping! Take time to go through our extensive offerings of long-lasting flowers and plants to add some color to your space this season. Too excited? Try FTD’s same-day delivery to get started sooner.