We all love to garden, but sometimes we just don’t have the time to maintain it the way we would like. Nor do we have the budget to outsource the work. Here are some quick summer gardening tips that will ensure your summer gardening is as time efficient and productive as possible. Here you will find out what jobs you need to spend the time on, and what you can do to save yourself some trouble and time down the road.
• Pruning. This is one job you can not avoid. Trim your trees and shrubs as necessary, and failing to prune is one of the most common gardening mistakes people make. Even if you have your yards landscaped by professionals, you still need to maintain proper pruning.
• Watering. With summer comes high humidex temperatures. Humidity that is high for extended periods can create a huge problem with your plants. The important thing to note here is to avoid watering before it gets dark. I know, this is one of the most common times to do it as this is when people are home from work and doing their daily maintenance. Keep your flowers and plants as dry as possible before nightfall as this will cut down your chances of fungus.
• It is not just your plants, but your grass should be dry at night as well. Again this is all due to fungus factor which likes to grow in dark humid timeframes. Sometimes you can see this appear overnight, it will look like white cotton is laying over the top of your grass. To prevent this, you want to water as early as you can in your day.
• Fire Blight. Fire Blight is a problem that likes to flare up during the summer months. This problem attacks varieties such as Pyracantha, Apple trees, Cotoneasters, and Crabapple trees among others. You will know you have this problem if one of your branches simply dies and turns red, leaving the leaves a reddish brown. At this point, there is not much you can do but prune the branch back as far as you can and as quickly as you can as it tends to be very contagious as well. Ensure you wash your shears in rubbing alcohol after you have made each cut so that you don’t spread this fungus.
• Mulch fungus. Mulch comes in wide range of choices, and with that comes a wide range of fungi that likes to live in it. The most common is known as ‘Shotgun Fungus’ as it explodes and will smatter your home with a bunch of tiny brown spots. These can fly as high as 8 feet, and once they are there, they are hard to remove. The only thing you can do to prevent mulch fungus is to keep moving the mulch around so that it is nice and loose. This will circulate air and make the mulch a much less friendly place for fungi. Don’t add mulch on top of mulch each year, skip every other year and loosen as much as you can as often as you can. Loosen the mulch and rake it to circulate the air. Packed down mulch is fungi’s best friend.