9 Late-Summer Gardening Tasks Pros Always Recommend
Complete these chores now to set your garden up for success next spring.
Summer seems to pass so quickly, yet, by the end of the season, even the hardiest gardeners start to lose steam after dealing with months of heat, humidity, and bugs.
But it’s not the time to put away your gardening gloves. There are still plenty of late-summer chores to complete that will keep your garden producing and save you time and energy next spring.
Fortunately, there are a few tasks you can stop doing this time of year. For example, you shouldn’t be fertilizing perennials, shrubs, or trees anymore because the plants are going dormant. You don’t want to provide nutrients that will encourage them to put energy into producing leafy, new growth that could be damaged by the first frost.
In addition, you should stop pruning shrubs—though it’s always okay to take off a branch for safety or if it’s broken. By late summer, plants need to begin storing sugars for survival and not trying to recover from pruning. Pruning too late in the growing season also removes buds of spring-flowering shrubs such as lilacs and forsythia. Put the pruners away until late winter or early spring.
Ahead, here’s what you should consider doing in the late summer to keep your garden going and get a head start on next year.
Water Regularly
You may be tempted to slack off, but if it’s dry—and it’s often still quite hot in late summer—you need to keep watering. Container plants, hanging baskets, and window boxes are especially at risk because water evaporates more quickly from them than landscape plantings.
Deadhead
As long as your annuals are blooming, keep deadheading. This allows flowers to keep pushing new blooms because a plant’s ultimate goal is to reproduce by going to seed. If you keep snipping off faded blooms, most annuals will continue to bloom until the first frost.
Weed
It’s probably not your favorite garden chore, but every weed you pull now results in fewer weeds next year. Many weed seeds can stay dormant in the soil for years (yes, years!), so get them out of there so they aren’t hanging around and waiting to pop up again in subsequent growing seasons.
Clean Up
As your vegetable garden begins to fade, start pulling plants and disposing of them. Leaving plant debris or fallen fruit in place attracts pests or rodents. Many garden pests, such as squash bugs, also can overwinter in place, so getting rid of weeds, diseased plant material and rotten fruit reduces their hiding places.
Plant Fast-Growing Crops
Depending on where you live, there may still be time to plant fast-maturing crops such as arugula, lettuce, radishes, or beets. Read the seed package, count back from your area’s first expected frost date (plug your zip code in here), and seed no later than that date. For example, if your first frost date is November 1, and a crop takes 60 days to mature, you still can plant by September 1.
Plant New Perennials, Trees, and Shrubs
Believe it or not, late summer and early fall are ideal times to plant. The cooler temperatures and more plentiful rainfall make it less stressful for plants (and you!). Walk around your garden and look for bare spots in beds or for scraggly shrubs that need replaced.
Monitor for Pests
It’s likely not as crazy as it was in mid-summer, but some pests still can be active in your late summer vegetable garden. Depending on where you live, common garden pests such as aphids, stink bugs, and flea beetles can still be active.
Watch for signs of damage, such as chewed leaves or frass (bug waste) or droopy plants. Deal with them so they don’t destroy the rest of your season’s harvest.
Refresh Tired Containers
Chances are, your spring and summer annuals may be looking a little sad. Refresh planters by replacing faded plants with fall-bloomers such as asters, sedum, mums, and ornamental kale. Add some gourds, broom corn, and even dried hydrangea blooms for color and texture.
RELATED: The Secret to Gorgeous Fall Planters
Make Some Notes
You don’t have to write a novel, but you should pay attention to what did well in your garden—and what didn’t. Scribble down a few comments in a notebook, save the plant tags, or take a few pictures, because you won’t remember next spring what varieties did great and what’s not worth planting again.
Arricca Elin SanSone is a writer, editor, and content creator who specializes in lifestyle and gardening. With a background in health reporting, she applies these same research skills when writing about the science of growing things. She trials new plants in her expansive garden, and her houseplant collection consists of 60+ varieties. Arricca has written thousands of articles for publications such as Country Living, House Beautiful, Good Housekeeping, Prevention, VERANDA, Southern Living, and more. She’s happiest when digging in the dirt, baking, or spending time with the people and dogs she loves.
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