How to Manage Your Landscape in the Late Summer
Introduction
All outdoor enthusiasts appreciate a well-landscaped yard and garden that makes their property look like a million dollars. However, very few like the hard work that goes into it. You can easily avoid the grueling hours of labor by outsourcing landscaping tasks to a professional by searching for “landscape companies near me”. If you want to do it yourself, here are some tips to manage your landscape in the late summer:
The Management
- Water smart – Depending on the local climate, watering your lawn and garden can be a daunting task. You need to keep an eye on the moisture level of your plants. If the leaves are dry and wilting, it shows a lack of moisture while wet and wilting leaves are a sign of high levels of moisture.
You can test the soil moisture by probing a stick into it. It’s also important to conserve water by watering your plants and lawn at the right time. You can install a timer to your garden hose and sprinkler system and set it off early in the morning. This allows your plants to absorb most of the moisture without losing anything from evaporation due to the summer heat.
It’s also important to water deeply and less frequently. Your turf should feel spongy and springy after a deep watering session. This allows the roots to grow deeper into the soil. When you water deeply, it’s also protected from the sun, and you can reduce moisture loss to the heat.
- Lightly prune your plants and trees – Pruning seasons are usually around mid-winter and early spring. However, late summer is the perfect time for some light pruning. Trimming certain plants like roses, helps you to get more blooms. Moreover, trees and small flowering shrubs also benefit from light pruning during this time.
Make sure that your pruning tools are sharp and maintained properly. A blunt tool does more damage to the plant. You should also clean your pruning tools thoroughly after each use. This gets rid of any disease-causing fungus or micro-organisms the tools may have collected from a diseased tree. It also keeps the blade and teeth sharp and free from rust.
- Deadhead and harvest – Late summer is also the perfect time to encourage growth and preserve the neat appearance of your plants by deadheading flowers. You can deadhead petunias, pansies, and other such annuals within minutes while perennials require you to cut flowers. The inferior cut flowers can spread a refreshing fragrance in your home while the tree can direct its resources towards healthier growth.
This is also the time of harvesting plenty of veggies from your garden. Harvest the early crops as quickly as possible and make room for corn, squash, pumpkin, and other vegetables that can be harvested at a later date. You may as well pickle these vegetables and preserve them for the winter season.
- Repair the mess made by your pets – Pets can leave a trail of destruction on your landscape. They can expose the protective outer shell by chewing on plants, mark their territory by digging up the ground, and even knock down the plant or seed containers. Late summer is the best time to repair that damage. Fill up the holes with topsoil, patch up the turf and secure your containers, garden structures, and outdoor furniture.
The time is also ripe for building a new fence or fixing an existing one. Late summer is downtime with low revenue streams for contractors. That’s why most of them would have a free schedule to take your job and may even offer attractive discounts. Talk to a local fence contractor to fix or replace broken and worn-off sections of the fence, secure gates, replace hinges, or book routine maintenance.
- Service your power tools – A landscape is as good as the owner and his power tools. Since you don’t have a lot of landscaping duties during the late summer, it’s the best time to service your electric or gas-powered garden tools. Grass growth also slows down during this time and gives you the perfect opportunity to service your lawnmower. It includes everything from oil checks and blade sharpening to spark plug and gasket inspections.
To service your trimmers, you should check the condition of the string and wire and get them replaced so that you can chop down pesky weeds during the busy season. Disinfect the blades on your pruners and check the smoothness of the oil joints. Also, check the joints on your shovel and clean it thoroughly.
- Overseed – Since late summer is the period of slow growth bare patches become more prominent. Fix those areas with a grass repair kit or by overseeding. The repair kits usually come with a mixture of sand, grass seed, and fertilizer that is released slowly. They are an easy and hassle-free way of fixing up dead spots.
You may also find dead spots on places that had temporary furniture. For instance, spots that were used for placing a temporary gazebo or a kiddy pool would have killed the underneath grass. Oversee these areas and keep the ground moist to kickstart the growth of the new turf.
- Look out for pests – Pests usually invade your landscape during early spring and are killed off in the summer heat. However, pesky pests enjoy summer and sunshine as much as you and can destroy your carefully maintained lawn during this season if you’re not too careful.
Fortunately, you can control grub and other pests with safe and organic pesticides. Pest control this year leads to fewer pests in the upcoming year. So, even if the organic pesticide is expensive, you should think in the long term.
Conclusion
Now that you know how to manage your landscape, you can pick up the right tools and use that elbow grease to make your property look amazing. Otherwise, you can leave the difficult task to the pros. You can easily hire them by searching for “landscape companies near me”.