Zebra Misc
Summer gardening? It’s not too late!

Here’s what to do right now!
By Ray Greenstreet
Summer can be a time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the rewards of the well-maintained garden—but if your garden isn’t quite where you want it to be, it is not too late.
The best part about visiting your local garden centers in summer is the variety of options in full bloom. This is particularly true of perennials, with the biggest overlap in different species’ bloom time and the strongest flowering of many garden must-haves. The options extend far beyond traditional cone flowers and coreopsis, and these options gradually change as early summer goes to mid and late summer.
This provides a consistently strong selection of plants to choose from to add color to your garden. So, if you see gaps to fill in or don’t have as many flowers as you would like, come in and check out the options.
It is widely repeated that summer is not a great time to be planting, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. This myth mainly stems from the fact that summer is typically dryer than spring, so plants will need to be watered more.
Planting typically involves putting the roots in the ground (or a large pot) where they will have more soil to absorb water than they did in their pots at the store. By planting in the summer, you are making the plants happier than they were in their original pots. Watering after planting is important, but the plants will immediately be better protected from the stress of heat and drought than they were before transplanting. The main take-away here is that if a plant looks good and happy at the store, it will be even happier once you plant it, even in the summer.
It is also not too late to add nutrients for stronger plants and better blooms. If you fertilized in the spring, you’re probably set, but you didn’t, fertilizing now will help provide an extra boost to summer and fall flowers and it will help your spring blooming plants store the energy they will need to flower their best next year.
