General Landscaping
- Irrigation – Unless you know your garden very well which is the case if you have been tending to it for many years it is always a good idea to gauge your water usage. You can use a water meter – or soil core sampler in less rock areas in addition to water gauge. Best time is early in the morning unless using drip irrigation.
- Suppress weeds, as they will use precious water and nutrients. Hand pulling cultivating or mulching and combinations of these are the most environmentally sensitive controls.
- Keep the compost pile turning. Add additional organic matter and turn the compost pile to aerate it and encourage aerobic bacteria to become active.
- Staking and tying – keep an eye out for leggy plants like delphiniums and stake them before they flop over and bend their stems. Also build supports for fruits like trailing blackberries and raspberries to keep the branches and fruit off the ground.
- Continue to prune hedges. Evergreens main growth spurt will be ending this month so this will be the last major prune for the season. Remember to taper shrubs so that the base is slightly wider than the top.
- Feed water plants like water lilies and monitor the water for pond weeds and algae.