It’s the middle of the summer and temperatures are starting to rise and hopefully all your plants are growing as well. It is important to maintain your garden and not let all your efforts of planting and weeding go to waste. Below are some tips to keep your garden in full bloom during July and into the fall.

Water: Water thoroughly once or twice a week rather than every day for only a few minutes. This encourages plants to put down roots in search of water rather than coming up to the surface. Don’t forget about your containers and hanging baskets, which do need watering every day and sometimes twice a day if it is hot and windy.

Harvest vegetables: Pick your vegetables during peak/harvest time rather than leaving them to become bitter tasting and turn bad. Also you can recycle excess vegetation you do not want to eat or store in your compost heap. You can limit tomato growth by pinching out the growing tip of your cordon tomato plant. If you are planning on planting more vegetables in July, we recommend carrots, lettuce, radishes and runner beans.

jones-topsoil-1Maintain flowers: Trim down early-flowering perennials to the ground and they will produce new leaves and maybe even surprise you with some late-summer flowers. Give them a lift after pruning with a good watering and some tomato feed. Don’t forget your plants in containers! These plants rely on you for water and they’ll get little benefit from the rain. Water your plants at least once a day, while its sunny.

Control pests: Pests love warm weather. Caterpillar and aphid infestations can be dealt with by hand if caught early enough, but should the insects demand to stay you can use insecticides to get rid of them. Greenfly and blackfly particularly love the heat, as well as aphids and other sap-sucking insects can spread viruses. Try to attract beneficial insects by growing a wide variety of plants – ladybirds and their larvae are consummate aphid predators, as are lacewings and even wasps.

Screen Shot 2014-07-11 at 3.30.33 PMWe understand the time and diligence it takes to maintain a beautiful landscaped home. We want to provide you with all the materials you need. Rather it’s soil, mulch, sand or even gravel we got you covered. For more information about our products give us a call at 1-800-Topsoil or fill out our contact form! We would love to answer any questions you may have.
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