How to keep your flower beds fizzing
Prune stragglers, remove spent blooms and banish those pests to rejuvenate your fading plot
WE ALL want our gardens to turn heads in summer, but all too often they fail to deliver. Maybe it’s because your perennials are tired or shrubs afflicted by disease. Or perhaps you haven’t planted any seasonal stars. If any of this strikes a chord, don’t worry. There’s still time to inject some life into a disappointing summer plot.
As far as I’m concerned, a spot of judicious pruning, keeping surfaces clean and tidy, and tackling problems head-on will make an immediate difference and ensure your space remains in good shape until early autumn.
At the same time, it’s possible to fill gaps with established plants that will provide a blast of colour.
Start to breathe new life into your summer garden by dealing with weary perennials. At this time of year, clump forming types, like
Fill gaps with established plants to provide a blast of colour until autumn
hardy geraniums, nepeta and alchemilla, might be looking straggly. Restore order by pruning back by half, creating a tidy mound shape. Plants will respond with fresh leaves and flowers.
As soon as their flowers begin to fade, remove spent spikes from lupins, foxgloves and delphiniums. Rather than using their energy to set seed, plants may respond with a second flush of flowers in late summer. Encourage them to do so by giving them a good soaking and feeding with a high-potash fertilizer.
Next, turn your attention to unkempt boundary hedges. To retain a neat shape, trim formal types every 4-6 weeks in summer. Cut informal ones to size once they have finished flowering or produced fruit. A pair of hand shears is perfect for maintaining a short hedge while longer ones are easier with a powered trimmer.
Apart from slugs and snails, many pests are active in summer and the key to preventing cherished plants from being devastated is to be vigilant. Check plants daily for rosemary beetles, aphids, caterpillars and others – remove by hand or treat with organic pesticide. Never spray plants in flower to avoid harming pollinators.
Lily beetles are the scourge of anyone who grows lilies. Instantly recognisable due to their shiny scarlet bodies and black heads, they can defoliate plants to give them a tatty appearance. Check leaves, stems and flowers for adult beetles, their red eggs and larvae, which are encased in their own black, jelly-like excrement.
Take the same cautious approach to diseases, preventing problems from getting out of hand. Look out for powdery mildew on asters, blackspot on roses and rust attacking hollyhocks. Spray diseased plants with a suitable fungicide, such as FungusClear Ultra, or nip them off by hand if only a few leaves are affected.
If your plot is looking dull, give it an injection of colour with some late-flowering plants. Many garden centres offer good-sized specimens of echinaceas, herbaceous sedums, heleniums and salvias that will provide instant impact. There might even be some summer bedding plants left, perhaps at a bargain price.
Of course, you might already have bedding plants. They have the potential to flower until the first frosts, so make sure they don’t fizzle out prematurely by watering regularly and feeding weekly with a fertiliser that’s high in potash. Remove fading flowers to keep plants tidy and to prevent them producing seed pods.
A great way of adding some drama is to create a container display of late-flowering exotics. Snap up canna lilies, dahlias and agapanthus in full flight, setting them in pots filled with a mixture of John Innes No3 and multi-purpose compost. Use pots of different shapes and sizes, and play around with the arrangement. Finish off your revamp by smartening up hard surfaces. Tidy up clutter and, if you have any random nursery buys knocking about, plant them now. Sweep patios, decks and paths to remove dust and debris. If they are really dirty, blast with a pressure washer to leave surfaces sparkling until the end of the season.