This year many of us are finding ourselves spending a lot more time at home and in our yards than we have in the past. When you are sitting in the garden contemplating life, you may want to take a few moments to contemplate your garden. Now is an excellent time for a mid-season check-up of the landscape.
Hits and Misses
By mid-summer your garden is either (A) thriving, (B) surviving, or (C) none of the above. And all of these answers may be a call to action.
Thriving
If your garden is doing well, things may get overcrowded. In that case, pruning, dividing, transplanting, or removal of plants may be in order. This editing of the garden is often needed as a garden matures to keep things looking their best. Sometimes trees that were little saplings to start, can grow to shade out large portions of the landscape. When this happens, you may have to edit your plant list to include shade plants instead of sun loving flora. The opposite can also be true with the loss of a large tree in the yard, or even in a neighbor’s property. This may be an opportunity for a whole new palette of plants!
Surviving
If your plants are merely surviving, now is a time to address issues that may be causing them to struggle. Water- too much or too little, is often the cause of plant distress. Examining your drainage and irrigation system (or lack thereof) can be key to helping your plants thrive. If you can’t alter your water, you may need to alter your plants. Some plants do well in drier conditions, while others thrive in wet sites. As always, picking the right plant for the right spot is key. We can help advise you on what plant will do best for your situation.
None of the above
If you have had plants that have gone to the great garden in the sky your landscape might look like a smile with missing teeth. (You don’t notice the nice teeth, only the missing one!) In this case, a fill-in planting may be in order. The challenge here is adding plants that are size-appropriate so they work with the existing landscape. Sometimes it is necessary to start with a clean slate and redesign an entire area of the yard. This gives you the opportunity to correct past mistakes in the garden and reinvent your landscape. I have found in many of these scenarios an outsider’s view can be greatly beneficial since it is often hard to see past what is currently there when you are used to living with it. Hicks Landscapes’ design team can provide that new set of eyes to re-evaluate your garden.
Maintenance
Another matter to evaluate is your garden’s maintenance. By this time of the year many gardens have begun to run amok. Weeds, overgrown plants, dead flowers, tend to get away from you as the summer heat makes it less appealing to be spending time working in the garden. This may be a time to call in the professionals before it is too late and permanent and irreversible damage is done. A visit from Hicks Extended Care Services might be the solution to your problem.
By Ken Muellers, Lifetime CNLP
Additional Information:
Watering the Right Way