Summer gardening tips

Summer is almost here! Your lawn is probably growing like crazy already, and staying on top of maintenance at this time of year can be time-consuming. Here are some tips to help make Summer gardening a breeze.

Water your garden efficiently

In most regions of Australia, our Summers are a little on the warm side. Heat and evaporation rates are at their peak during the middle of the day, which can cause your plants to stress and wilt. It’s best to water your plants and lawn either first thing in the morning, or later in the afternoon. This way, the water will have a better chance to soak into the ground, instead of evaporating straight away. Giving your thirsty garden a decent drink at cooler times of the day is also an efficient use of water.

Source: Homestructions

Bee-friendly summer gardening

A lot of fruit and vegetables in your garden probably require bee pollination. This Summer, attract bees to your garden to pollinate your fruit and vegetables by refraining from using harmful pesticides, and by planting bee-friendly flowering plants – this will help bulk their food supply up. Not only will your crops grow, but you’ll help save the bees!

Set up an irrigation system

Setting up an irrigation system is a great afternoon project, and can be very cost effective when you do it yourself.  You can tailor your design and materials to best suit your garden needs; options include sprayers, sprinklers, drippers and more. The very brief version of the instructions is that you would start by measuring out your garden and map out your irrigation system design. You’d then choose your materials, measure out your water flow and start assembling. To make your irrigation system easy and water efficient, you could add an automated timer attachment to your tap so you don’t miss (or forget) the optimal watering timeslot.

Bunnings have some great tutorials for planning your irrigation system, and installing your irrigation system. If you’d rather not spend your weekend installing polytube, there are plenty of Airtasker garden maintenance professionals available who would be happy to do this for you.

Source: Gardener’s Supply Company

Weeding the pavers around the patio and pool area

How frustrating is it when the pavers around your patio or pool area get overgrown with weeds in the warmer months? Most people put gap sand between pavers to prevent this (and set pavers in place), but after a while, weather can wash it away and weeds creep back up. Environbond suggests a step-by-step way to resolve this issue when it occurs:

1. Start by removing any large weeds by hand.
2. Use a rough broom or pressure washer to brush or blast the smaller weeds out.
3. Follow up by applying a solution of white vinegar and boiling water to help kill any remaining roots.
4. Allow the area to dry then fill the gaps in-between the pavers with sand to prevent weeds from re-sprouting.

Source: manoswelt

Cut your lawn a little longer

Grass grows at a much faster rate in Summer and you may be tempted to mow it as short as possible to avoid having to do it so regularly, but your lawn will keep in much better condition if cut a bit longer. Having your lawn a little longer will actually suppress weeds and bindi growth (Coleby-Williams, J.).

We hope you enjoy these summer gardening tips. Once you’ve got your garden in its Summer prime, you’ll want to have guests over, so have a look at these summer outdoor entertaining ideas.