Summer is a great growing season for your outdoor landscape. The flowers, herbs, vegetables, and other plants blossom and give you gorgeous crops to harvest or just look at. But how can you elongate their lives past summer and into fall while maintaining their health and happiness? There are a few easy ways.
Proper pruning
One of the easiest ways to extend the life of your garden is with proper pruning. When you see a wilting or dead flower or leaf, be sure to snip it off. Doing a little bit at a time not only helps elongate your plant’s life, but it makes it easier at the end of the season to winterize your plants. You can also save the snipped plants for their seeds to plant next year.
Sprinkle topsoil or compost
Nutrient rich top soil and compost will give your plants a mid-season nutrient boost. This not only elongates their life, but will encourage new and healthier growth. Compost is super easy these days. They even make handy little bins that are airtight so if you have them in your kitchen they won’t stink up the place. You can find nutrient rich top soil at most garden centers or plant stores.
Add a greenhouse or cold frame
Greenhouses and cold frames work wonders on defying the growing season limits. Cold frames are like raised garden beds, but they have lids. Greenhouses come in a variety of sizes and can be very beneficial for a few reasons: protection from the elements, all season gardening, all-in-one gardening space, and many more. They also make it possible to grow things that might not be typical in your area, like exotic flowers, trees, and vegetables. Both greenhouses and cold frames will extend the life of your garden by weeks if not months!
Mulching
There are so many benefits to mulching. From regulating soil moisture to keeping weeds down, mulching is a great practice in your garden. One of the key benefits of mulching, however, is it keeps the soil warm. This keeps plants protected in warm weather so their roots can continue to provide nutrients. Mulching can expand your growing and harvesting time by several weeks if you add enough.
Use raised beds
Raised beds may seem like a pain when you have the ground right there, but they actually help extend the life of your garden significantly. There are several reasons a raised bed is beneficial. Since the soil gets more air from being out of the ground, the soil warms up sooner in spring. This will start you early, but they can also help you grow later in the year. A raised bed will get more air flow, allowing the roots to breathe and grow stronger. There is also less weeding, which is simply a bonus for you!
Although these are just five ways to extend the life of your garden, there is a wide variety of ways to keep your garden growing strong through the end of the season. Summer doesn’t have to end with the sun, it can keep going and growing for weeks after! With the help of your landscaper, all of these options are completely doable in a short amount of time. Contact us for a consultation at 503-449-9852.