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For most people who love gardening, the summertime is truly where it’s at; the garden is in full swing, spring has come and gone, the fall and winter seasons are still yet to come, and everything is looking so green and lovely.
The best part is you get to start harvesting some of the crops during the summer. With the best summer gardening hacks, you’ll grow healthier plants, harvest at the correct time, optimize yields, and more.
Read on below and discover seven of the very best summer gardening hacks to try this year!
Best 7 Hacks for Summer Gardening
Summer gardening is definitely the best of it, isn’t it? Tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, flowers, fruit, and all sorts of goodies are ripening and nearly ready to harvest.
The summertime is also the trickiest time of the year for gardening because of the massive amount of heat and fluctuations in weather that comes with it.
These 7 gardening hacks below will help your summer garden thrive:
1. Water Plants Extra, and Water Deeply
During the summer, watering correctly is more important than ever. That’s because plants use more water during the hot summer months than at any other time of the year.
When you water during the summer, make sure you are watering extra thoroughly, and extra deep. Your plants will respond by staying happy and growing.
2. Provide Shade to Sun Sensitive Plants
If you are planting seasonly, most of your summer plants will thrive in the full sun of this time of the year. However, some plants are much more sensitive to the sun than others.
These sun-sensitive plants will need netting, shade from a nearby tree, placed in a greenhouse, or even taken inside during the hottest parts of the summer day.
3. Fertilize and Re-pot Plants During Cool Periods
Avoid adding fertilizer or major soil amendments of any sort for that matter while the sun is blazing overhead. Not only are you liable to catch a sunstroke doing so… but the heat from the sun may actually damage the garden plants you’re fertilizing.
Set aside some time, early in the morning, or late at night, to fertilize the garden. Likewise, re-pot your plants when it’s cool as well. Trying to re-pot plants during the mid-day heat is a great way to kill your plants.
4. Skip Pruning Unless Absolutely Necessary
By the time summer arrives, it’s probably past the time to prune your trees, shrubs, or perennials that require it. So, the best thing to do is wait until the fall or next spring in most cases.
The last thing you want to do is prune your fruit trees in the middle of August. Doing so is a sure way to stress them out.
Sometimes, it’s not such a bad thing to prune a tree in the late summer though, particularly if you’re setting up a fruit tree for the next year.
5. Don’t Let Weeds Dominat Your Daily Routine
There are all sorts of ways to deal with weeds, besides breaking your back and busting your knees picking them one by one.
One of the best ways to deal with weeds is to smother them. Whether smothering them with other weeds you’ve picked or by laying down some sort of barrier. Cardboard, trash bags, and tarps work great for this job.
6. Use Organic Pest Control Methods Frequently
Organic pest control methods are cheap, efficient, and, for the most part, you can use them over and over again. Chemical-based pest control methods are harsh on your plants, crops, and the surrounding environment.
Apple-cider vinegar, cinnamon, and lemon juice are some of the most effective natural pest control techniques there are.
Want to learn more? Read our original article about 24 easy organic pest control methods.
7. Recognize the Signs of a Stressed Plant
The signs of a stressed plant vary from species to species, environment to environment, and from season to season. That’s why knowing your plants, and how they should and shouldn’t react to things is part of gardening mastery.
One stressed plant may drop its leaves, curl up its roots, or change the color of its foliage, while another one may barely seem to change at all.
What is Your Favorite Summer Gardening Hack?
From pruning in order to double production, to air-layering vines and fruit trees and cloning tomato plants and marigolds, there are loads of summer gardening hacks to keep your gardening looking its best and pumping out the biggest and healthiest yields possible.
Which hack is your favorite for summer gardening, and is it one from our list? If not, what is it?
Feel free to share with our audience in the comments sections below!
We’d love to hear from you, and so would they!
Suggested Reading: 16 BEST SPRING GARDENING HACKS TO TRY THIS YEAR
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