When summer rolls by, it’s time to hit the beach and show some skin to cool down. Your garden also needs some amount of care so it more or less stays cool during the season. These garden maintenance steps you need to take during the summer season are:
* Check all hoses and watering systems to ensure that they are working. All worn fittings should be replaced immediately.
* Get soil wetters and apply them to garden beds.
* Remove all competing weeds. Then spread out new mulch over the garden beds. When doing the latter, make sure the mulch layer isn’t so dense and so thick that it prevents water penetration.
* Make sure that your plants stay moist and are well fed.
* Assess the plants themselves, making sure to find out if taking some out to be replaced with heat-hardy variants is worth it.
* However, never forget that each plant requires supplementary water during the first weeks. It is essential that you apply rainwater that was stored in a large rainwater tank at the plants’ bases, so it reaches the present root system.
Avoid letting the soil dry out
Soil, being the foundation of the garden, is key to the garden’s success or failure. In the event that heat is high, soil nutrients can fizzle out, leaving it less life-nourishing than before. In case soil nutrients fizzle out, there are products that can be used to revitalize soil so as to make it healthy again for your plants to grow on. It’s also worth mentioning that it keeps the soil healthy so each plant is able to draw from it when under stress, among other benefits such as:
* It helps hold nutrients and water in soil
* Feeds earthworms, which help make soil healthy
* Helps in soil aeration and drainage for deeper nutrient and water penetration, not to mention additional room for root expansion
* Feeds plants gently when fertilizers will cause additional stress under heat-hard
* Provides support to plant health when the plant is under heat-induced stress with the addition of seaweeds
The best drought-hardy plants you can choose from
- Mediterranean plants.These types of plants, like lavender, have evolved to become capable of handling dry conditions.
If you’ve chosen to plant lavender in your garden, for example, know that there are many variants that you can choose from, all with flowers with different colours. And regardless of whatever lavender variant you have chosen to plant, they respond best to light pruning done regularly.
The same rule—choose a variant of a certain plant and know how to best take care of it—applies when you’ve determined you should be planting another Mediterranean plant.
- Natives.Natives, particularly those considered as low water users, can add a beautiful touch to your garden. One of the best examples is the correa. There are many variants of correa, but the best variant to plant is the hybrid that is known for its pink tubular blooms. This variant is known as Dusky Bells.
If you’ve decided on the correa, know that they do not need much in the way of care, and they do well as an understorey plant in dappled shade.
- Native shrubs.Amazing native shrubs to plant are bottlebrush, banksias, and grevilleas. All these plants can survive with not much supplementary watering.
- Structural plants.Those which are grown to be shaped are considered as structural plants. They don’t require much in the way of extra watering. Some examples are cycads, lomandras, and yuccas.
- Succulents. These plants, which have evolved to be capable of storing water, are known for hardiness. There is a wide range of these plants available these days, and not all take on the appearance of cacti.
Leave A Comment