• Home
  • ABOUT
  • VIDEOS
  • Contact
  • SHOP

The Impatient Gardener

Garden

5 GARDEN TASKS TO DO NOW

July 12, 2017

It’s more or less the middle of the gardening season here in my zone 5 garden. It’s the point at which some areas of the garden are cruising along and others, neglected still, are looking worse than ever. They’ll be dealt with when time, temperature and the mosquito population allows. The urge is to sit back, relax and enjoy the garden.

And you should, but don’t rest on your gardening laurels for too long as suddenly the good parts of the garden will start to look like the neglected bits.

So in the spirit of doing a little something in the garden—but not too much—here are five things you can do in your garden now.

Prune roses but cutting back to a set of five leaves.
1. DEADHEAD

Stay on top of the deadheading or else the flowers that just faded may be your last. In my garden right now I’m mostly going after spent roses (cut back to a set of five leaves) and just starting to keep a close eye on the dahlias. Here’s a quick video I did on deadheading dahlias if you’re not sure how.

2. SPOT WEED

If you’ve gotten all the big weeding out of the way, you’ll just have to worry about the little guys that poke up. Oxalis is a common one in my garden. The good news about this kind of weeding is that you can usually do it with just your fingers and you can definitely do it one handed, leaving the other one free to hold a cup of coffee, a glass of wine or a gin and tonic.

3. WATER

It’s a drag, I know, but this is high season for watering. The good news is that watering can be kind of cathartic, so consider it a bit of a mental break. Don’t forget to fertilize containers regularly. Even if you added time release fertilizer when you planted, most container plants are getting big enough by this point in the year that they need more nourishment.

Prune Spireas right after blooming.
This Spirea is still looking pretty good but about half the blooms are spent  and it’s time to prune. Cutting it back deadheads it and allows me to shape it for next year. 

4. PRUNE

For a lot of shrubs, the time to prune is right after the flower. Many shrubs bloom on the previous year’s growth, so pruning right after they finish blooming allows time for them to put on new growth and next year’s flower buds.  I’ve pruned most of my Spireas in the past couple weeks to keep them a little in check without sacrificing next year’s flowers.

5. MAKE MENTAL NOTES

Odds are your garden is nearing its peak. If something isn’t looking just right, make a note about what you could change for the long term to get it there.

Check off that list and then get back to that first thing we talked about: sitting back and enjoying your garden. You deserve it.

5 jobs to be doing in your garden now

deadhead garden jobs pruning
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
5 Comments

About Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

View all posts by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

Related Posts

  • Do I dare to dream of spring?
  • Ripen tomatoes on the windowsill.It’s time to cut your tomato losses
  • harvesting herbsGearing up for fall gardening
  • THE WORST-CASE SCENARIO GUIDE TO PRUNING
previous post: THE BEST CLEMATIS YOU’VE NEVER HEARD OF
next post: LEAVING THE GARDEN

Comments

  1. Lisa Greenbow says: July 12, 2017 at 11:21 am

    Good idea about the pruning the spirea. Watering is all I seem to get done.

    Reply
  2. Marylou Bowen says: July 12, 2017 at 11:35 am

    Dont forget time to put another application of Preen weed preventer down. It works good for about 3 months preventing a giant weed infestation, especially after all the rain we've had plus hot temps. I swear by it.

    Reply
  3. Kristin says: July 12, 2017 at 12:42 pm

    Thanks for the reminder that I meant to cut back my mums one more time before it hits 99 degrees today!

    Reply
  4. LINDA from Each Little World says: July 12, 2017 at 9:51 pm

    Can't keep up with the weeds this summer and getting behind on deadheading. Almost 6 inches of rain since Sunday night. Ugh.

    Reply
    • Mary says: July 11, 2018 at 12:18 pm

      Where do you live? We’re in West Michigan and haven’t had rain in several weeks! Between that and the heat, we’re watering everything every morning and evening. Send some of that rain our way, please!?

      Reply

Leave Your Comments Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About

The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

Here's some more about me.

CONNECT

Awards

Garden Comm award

MY FAVORITE GEAR

https://www.amazon.com/shop/impatientgardener

Instagram

impatientgardener

Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
I fell in love with gardening through container de I fell in love with gardening through container design and it’s probably still my favorite type of gardening. My trip to Philadelphia area gardens was full of so many excellent ideas. For several years I’ve been enamored with clustered pots, but in my opinion they work best when they are able to stand alone in a space. And you probably know me well enough by now to know that as far as I’m concerned, the bigger the pot, the better. Feast your eyes on these beauties and use your zooming fingers to really get into those nooks and crannies. 

Don’t forget to save your favorites because you know you’re going to be looking for them come next spring. 😀

Photos 1 & 2: Amazing container cluster at @longwoodgardens  that works particularly well because of the restraint used in the design. Also how many different ways is the universe going to tell me I need to grow agave before I actually listen?

Photo 3: This was probably favorite display I saw the whole time and of course it’s from the masters at @chanticleergarden This is a master class in texture. It’s also probably not attainable for the average home gardener because it relies heavily on tropicals that need proper overwintering in order to reach a good size. But there’s no reason why I (or you) couldn’t use this as inspiration to create a similar feel with other plants. 

Photo 4: Strappy foliage, bright orange and colorful pots create such a good doorway collection at @chanticleergarden 

Photo 5, 6 & 7: Similar colors were used at a patio doorway at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm home garden. A pot is perfectly framed by an arbor off a side patio. The front entrance has a pink theme (and an amazing feature pot that I couldn’t show here because all my shots are vertical). 

Photo 8: Back to @chanticleergarden where I could have studied this container planting for an hour just to soak up all the detail. 

Photo 9: And while I love a pot with a lot going on, never underestimate the power of a simply planted, gorgeous pot, like this one at @abunting64 garden Belvidere. 

#gbfling2023
I think every garden probably needs a little bit o I think every garden probably needs a little bit of water, even if it’s just a bird bath. All of the fabulous gardens I saw recently in the Philadelphia area incorporated water into them. Here are just a few examples of how lovely these water features were. 

@paxsonhillfarm @northviewgarden @brandywinecottage @longwoodgardens #gbfling2023
Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the vi Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the view even though we all know that most of us rarely take the opportunity to use them. The seating I saw in gardens in the Philadelphia area reflected their gardens and all were special. 

Make sure to share your favorite!

Photo 1:  I adored these perfectly lichen-covered chairs at @brandywinecottage

Photo 2: Great lichen game on this bench at Wayne Guymon’s mind-blowing garden WynEden. 

Photo 3: Perhaps my favorite seating moment of the whole trip was this chair in @jennyrosecarey @northviewgarden . Not only was it perfectly lichen covered (are you sensing a theme here?) but a volunteer cleome was growing right up through the middle of it. Unfortunately this photo of it isn’t grata because by this point in the trip my phone (I didn’t want to use my DSLR in the middle of the tropical storm so I switched to my phone) was getting very grumpy about the rain. 

Photo 4: I’d be happy to hang out on these chairs in @abunting64 ‘s gorgeous garden Belvidere. I loved this space. 

Photo 5: Color was the name of the game on this patio at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm. 

Photo 6: The most original table and benches I saw were at @abunting64 garden. This was a portion of the garden that was actually on the neighbors’ property adjacent to Andrew’s. It had been a vegetable garden but is getting a bit too shady so it will soon have a new life. 

Photo 7: We visited Barbara Tiffany’s Mill Fleurs in a deluge, which is a shame, and dotted throughout the property are examples of her husband Tiff’s amazing furniture. This was, called the Centipede was upholstered and quite different from the others. All were amazing works of art. 

Photos 8 and 9: The @scott_arboretum at @swarthmorecollege had some excellent seating, from brand new @deebenarc chairs to more lichen-covered charmers.

#gbfling2023
*** I can already see that some people do not unde *** I can already see that some people do not understand humor so let me just say this: 1. I was fully aware of the escaped convict situation (I’m an avid follower of the news, which is common for us journalists). 2. It’s ok to laugh about the fact that I’ve missed the Longwood meadow twice through weird circumstances while being a rational adult and realizing that I’m not making light of the situation that led to the meadow being mown. ***

I missed seeing @longwoodgardens beautiful meadow the first time I visited so I was excited to see it the second time. Not so fast! Turns out it had to be mown down during the search for an escaped convict who was hiding out there (at least that’s what I was told was the reason for the mowing). He’ll never see goldenrod the same way again! 😀

That whole situation was really unfortunate for @longwoodgardens (not to mention everyone who lives in the area), which had to be closed for about a week while the hunt was on!
Load More Follow on Instagram

SEARCH

Popular posts

  • HOW TO MAKE A HOLIDAY WINDOW BOX
  • Three ways to grow annual poppies
  • GARDEN TOUR: WHERE CONIFERS AND TEXTURE RULE
  • Slip slidin’ away to trash organization heaven

Find us on Facebook

Archives

  • ABOUT
  • TALK TO ME
  • TERMS & DISCLAIMERS
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • Home

Copyright © 2023 · Prima Donna theme by Georgia Lou Studios

Copyright 2009-2021 ©The Impatient Gardener