Protect Your Garden from the Blazing Sun This Summer

Summer can be the perfect time to get outdoors and do some gardening. However, it can also be a tough time to take care of your garden. When it gets hotter, your plants and your lawn can start to struggle. You need to get the balance right between letting your garden get enough sun, water, and nutrients. Try to avoid overcompensating because you’re trying to protect it.

Before you start planning what to do in your garden this summer, there are some important things you can make sure you do to protect it. Take a look at the advice below to keep your garden flourishing in the warmer weather.

Avoid Overwatering

Making sure your garden gets enough water during the summer is probably one of your top priorities. But you also need to make sure that it doesn’t get too much water.

Firstly, it could be bad for your plants if you water them too much. It’s also not particularly eco-friendly to constantly water your garden. You should first take into account how much water your garden might get naturally. During a drought, they won’t get much, but many places have summer storms in between hotter days. Make sure your watering is most effective by watering early or late in the day before it gets too hot. You don’t need to water every day, but it’s best to water so that the water gets deep into the soil.

Keep Applying Mulch

Mulch is an important part of plant care across the whole year. However, it becomes even more important during the summer. It helps to protect your plants by helping the soil retain moisture. It also helps to prevent weeds growing, which means you won’t have any unwanted plants stealing nutrients from your garden. You should make sure you apply a thick layer of mulch to your plant beds, but leave a small area around the base of each plant. Before you mulch, do some weeding, so you’re not encouraging the weeds to grow. Straw or sawdust can be good mulch options during the summer.

Carefully Control Fertilizer

Fertilizer helps your plants to grow by giving it more of the nutrients it needs.However, during the summer, you can accidentally give your plants too much fertilizer if you’re not careful. Your plants can get stressed, especially if they don’t have enough water, so it’s important not to use too much fertilizer. To help ensure you don’t go overboard, you can use a controlled release fertilizer that will slowly release its nutrients. Organic-based plant foods are also a good option if you want to feed your plants responsibly.

Take Care of Pests

Summer pests could destroy your garden if you’re not careful. The heat of summer can make more of them come out, though. If you want to control pests, a lot of the options seem to involve strong chemicals that you might not want in your garden, especially if you have kids or pets. However, there are options like Chem Free Organic Pest Control , which can allow you to control pests more naturally. There are lots of more natural ways to control pests and prevent them from killing off your garden. Prevention is often the best route to take for better protection.

Plant Delicate Plants in the Shade

If you’re planning on planting some new plants for the summer, you need to make sure you know how much light and heat they can handle. Remembering where the more shaded spots are in your garden during the summer is a big help. Hopefully, you’ll have some spaces that are shady all year, so you don’t have to try to remember the best places to plant. Some plants do well out in the sun, while others need full shade, and some are better getting a bit of both.

If you know it’s going to be a hot summer, you might want to take special care when you select and plant anything new.

Don’t Mow As Much

Summer might seem like the best time to mow your lawn. In fact, one of the things you probably think of during the summer is the smell of freshly cut grass. But it could actually be better for your lawn not to mow it too much when it’s hot. Longer grass can help to protect your lawn by helping the soil to retain moisture. It will also help to keep your garden cooler during the hot weather. On top of the benefits for your garden, it also means you have to spend less time mowing. You can let your grass grow around half an inch longer than normal. Mowing in the evening or morning, when it’s cooler, is best as it helps to protect the grass.

Create a Sun Barrier During Heat Waves

When it gets really hot, you might worry that the blazing sun could damage your garden. An unexpected heat wave could mean you’re not prepared But you can help to protect your plants and lawn by creating a barrier between your garden and the sun. There are lots of things you can use as protections, from sheets and beach umbrellas to awnings. Just make sure it’s not a fire hazard. Not all of your plants will need to be protected, and native plants, in particular, will probably be fine. But anything that’s newly planted or not designed for the hotter conditions might need some extra help.

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Weed More and Prune Less

Weeds in your garden will steal nutrients and moisture from your plants.That can be annoying at the best of times, but it’s worse during the summer when your garden might need all the help that it can get. You might also be interested in How To Use Weeds, surprising ways to use weeds to benefit your garden. Pruning, on the other hand, is something that you should do less of, not more. When you prune, you stimulate growth, and the new shoots and leaves can often be too delicate to survive. Protect your garden during the summer and it will continue to look beautiful through the hotter weather.