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Summer is here, and with it comes a bounty of delicious produce! Summer gardening tips come in handy if you want to convert your kitchen garden into your personal mini-farm! You have to plant the flowers before it becomes too hot for them to grow, which may make summer gardening feel like a whirlwind of activity. But there is so much to do! For example, to prevent weeds from taking over, it is necessary to replenish the mulch. To extend the flowers' colouration beyond the initial flush, deadheading is required. Keeping up with everything in your garden throughout the summer may be a real challenge, but with this checklist of summer gardening tips, you can concentrate on the things that are critical. Your garden will look its best, and your plants will stay healthy if you do each of these things.
Summer gardening tips you should know
Conserve water
- One must pay close attention to timing: Reduce water loss due to evaporation by watering plants first thing in the morning or after the sun goes down. This technique allows the water to seep into the ground before the sun's rays become too intense.
- To minimise water waste, think about using a soaker hose or drip irrigation system to water your plants right at their roots.
- To save water, catch rainwater and use it in your garden whenever you can.
Mulch is much too important
- To prevent soil drying up, chill the roots, and prevent weeds from sprouting, mulch heavily around your plants.
- Decomposing mulch also contributes organic material to the soil, which is beneficial to plant health.
- Pick a mulch that works with your garden's design and what it requires; inorganic mulches include things like pebbles and rocks, while organic ones include things like straw, compost, and bark.
Make sure your soil is sublime
- Stay away from treading on the soil too much in your garden beds. Such behaviour is a major "no."
- Deep root penetration and nutrient uptake are both facilitated by loose, well-aerated soil.
- To make your soil healthier, you may add organic materials like compost or mulch to. These items will help with the soil's structure and nutritional content
Choosing the ideal vegetation
- Choose native or drought-tolerant plants that can withstand the scorching weather of India like tomatoes and cucumbers.
- In case you need maintenance assistance, there are several gardening tips and books on growing your produce that you can reference
Fertilise at the right time
- To ensure that your plants receive a consistent supply of nutrients all season long, use a slow-release fertiliser.
- Check the weather prediction before applying fertiliser to avoid over-fertilization! In order to avoid burning your plants, avoid fertilising on very hot days.
Get rid of waste
- You may increase the number of blooms you get from annuals and perennials by cutting back on wasted blossoms.
- Deadheading is a method by which plants are able to focus their energy on creating attractive flowers rather than seeds.
- Deadheading reduces the need to sow seeds in plants that produce their seeds.
Get rid of those bugs
- Bugs, including stink bugs, aphids, grasshoppers, fruit flies, mites, and caterpillars, are frequent in warmer temperatures.
- To organically manage pests, grow pest-repelling varietals such as marigolds, marjoram and oregano, lavender, garlic, basil, sage, rosemary, land cress, or any combination of these plants.
- You may reduce the number of pest insects in your garden by encouraging natural predators, such as lacewings and ladybird beetles.
- You may also protect your garden from pests using one of several organic options. If you insist on a more drastic measure, do your homework on environmentally safe insecticides that will get rid of pests without killing off the good bugs in your area.
Growing herbs in the summer- which ones to choose?
Dill
Traditional dill, also known as "dill," is characterised by tall plants that bloom profusely, particularly when the weather is warm. Among the breeds mentioned, mammoth is the most desirable. Pickles and bouquets made from it are endless, and you should always save a few plants to sow next year. For dill purists like myself, who crave copious amounts of leaves for dishes like potato salad and gravlax (quick-cured salmon), old-fashioned dill's limited foliage is a major drawback. Growing Fernleaf is another option. In transitioning from fronds to blooms, it takes its own time and is little in stature.
Borage
Borage, while being simple to cultivate, tasty because the leaves have a cucumber flavour, and prolific flowering, it has recently gone out of favour. The mild-flavored, sugary blossoms are versatile: you can use them to garnish custards and pastries, add a touch of colour to salads and fruit compotes, or even make beautiful lemonade by freezing them into cubes.
Parsley
Its sweet, sharp, and somewhat bitter flavour is less appreciated than its decorative value, which is a hidden gem. The fact that curly parsley is the most popular kind contributes to the problem. It may be more aesthetically pleasing and hold its shape better after being sliced, but it lacks the flavour of its flat-leaf Italian relatives. As a bonus, these plants also have delicious stems when they are young.
Best vegetables to plant in the summer
Cucumber
Summer is the ideal time to cultivate cucumbers in India; thus, they are a wonderful summer vegetable. Planting cucumber seeds in circular holes at strategic locations allows them to trail gracefully over pergolas, bowers, or even house roofs. You may plant these vegetable seeds straight into the ground.
Chillies
Are you interested in cultivating a spice plant alongside your vegetables? Indians love their chillies, and during the scorching summer months, they cultivate some of the world's spiciest types. The pungent types are more robust and resistant to illnesses, in contrast to the more sensitive non-pungent forms. The first step in cultivating chillies is to plant seeds.
Tomato
The sight of beautiful red tomatoes drooping from the main stem of a tomato plant is truly captivating. Sunlight and a clean sky are tomato plants' favourite conditions. These are excellent summer veggies to raise, but you can start them at any time of year with tomato seeds.
Brinjal
Although it is a warm-season crop, eggplants are really rather vulnerable to cold. It is often believed that eating brinjal throughout the summer protects children from measles. Absolutely wonderful, easy-to-grow summer veggies come in a rainbow of forms, sizes, and colours, and there are a plethora of ways to prepare them.