A Beautiful Summer Garden.

Gardening in Summer

Our tips will turn your summer garden into a blossoming paradise, and you can look forward to a rich harvest.

 

 

Gardening in Summer: What should be done in each month?

Summer time is gardening time. There’s a lot to do and many more opportunities to use your garden in summer. Our checklists for the summer months of June to August will tell you what needs to be done in each month.

 

 

Your Garden in June

Summer is the season for garden lovers. The flowering of the summer lime tree in June is also the starting whistle for important summer gardening work. Here is the June checklist of work to be done.

Kitchen Garden

Pinch out tomatoes: Side shoots, which form in the “armpit” between the stem and petiole, should be removed. Then all the plant’s energy will go into the formation of juicy fruits.

Thin out fruit: Pome fruit trees often produce more fruit than they can actually supply. At the beginning of June, the tree drops these fruits on its own during the June fruit drop. If there are still too many fruits hanging from an individual cluster, the smallest fruits should be cut off. For example, this can be done using STIHL’s high-quality secateurs. After having been thinned out, the remaining fruits should lie far apart with a finger width between them.

Flower Garden

Remove withered flowers: To prevent the plants from running out of steam during the summer and only forming seeds but no flowers, withered flowers should be cleaned out regularly, i.e. broken or cut off.

Fertilize: Long-term grass fertilizer works for a good three months. If you have fertilized your lawn in spring, you should give it a second coat now and fertilize it with the slow-release fertilizer.

 

 

Your Garden in July

Watering is a top priority for every gardener in July – especially when you are dealing with sandy soil. Look forward to warm evenings and an enchanting floral display. The July checklist shows you how to do just that.

Kitchen Garden

Fight caterpillars: Offer codling moths an artificial hiding place in which to pupate – with 10cm wide strips of coarse corrugated board. Tie them around the apple stem and check them weekly for caterpillars. After eating apples for four weeks until they are full, the pests leave them at the beginning of July and look for a hiding place under the bark – and the corrugated board. By removing them, you counteract a new infestation.

Propagate strawberries: Strawberries form long tendrils with leafy offshoots that are well suited for propagation. Raise the offshoot that grows closest to the mother plant, bury a small clay pot underneath, and plant the offshoot in it. The connection to the mother plant is maintained for the time being, and only the tendril behind the pot is removed so that the strawberry doesn’t have to supply any more plants. The cuttings root until autumn, then you can cut off the tendril from the mother plant.

Thin out fruit trees: Vertical water sprouts that have formed in the trees only cost the tree energy. Now cut as close to the branch as possible – we recommend using STIHL pruning shears.

Flower Garden

Water: Water less often, but abundantly. This allows the water to seep deep into the soil and reach the plant roots. A clay soil should be watered once a week, but a sandy soil every 2-3 days. Water in the morning.

Mow the lawn: When mowing, always make sure that the blades are sharp. The correct cutting height depends on the amount of sunlight: in sunny locations, the optimum height is 4 to 5cm, but for shady lawns this is 5 to 7cm. To avoid unattractive flaws in the lawn, no more than a third of the length should be shortened during each mowing. When dry, the stalks should remain 1-2cm longer. If you use a mulch mower, you will have to work once or twice a week, as otherwise too many lawn cuttings will fall onto the turf at once and create felt.

Hoe the soil: Regular hoeing saves water. The hoe creates hair-thin holes in the soil through which soil water evaporates. After hoeing, the upper centimetres of the soil dry out, but it remains moist underneath.

 

 

Your Garden in August

Watering and weeding are part of every summer garden programme. Many stone and pome fruits ripen and are harvested in the kitchen garden in August. Welcome to the August checklist for your summer garden.

Kitchen Garden

Plant kale: If you grow kale and other winter vegetables in August, you can harvest them in winter. Place 6 pieces per square metre at a distance of 45x45cm. Now the soil mustn’t dry out anymore.

Cut off flowers: Even though it might be difficult, cut off all new tomato and pepper flowers from August with secateurs. The resulting fruit would not ripen by autumn anyway and the plant wastes energy which it could instead put into the existing fruit.

Harvest potatoes: The potato harvest starts in June with the first new potatoes and ends in October with the late varieties for storage. Use a digging fork for this. It may spear some tubers, but spades or shovels would cause greater damage under the tubers.

Flower Garden

Take cuttings: Material for cuttings accumulates abundantly during pruning. The best time for cuttings is from spring to August. Cuttings are generally placed in a nutrient-poor soil. This puts the rooted plants on a diet and forces them to develop more roots.

Collect seeds: Anyone who harvests seeds will recognise this problem: fine grains can hardly be separated from flower remains. A fan can help. Let the plant material fall into the gust of wind and the heavy seeds will drop in front of the fan while the rest will blow away.

Separate perennials: Apart from taking cuttings, separation is the fastest method of propagation. Dig out the plant, shake off the soil and use a spade to divide it into several pieces, which must have at least one shoot bud and enough roots.

 

 

Your Garden in Summer: STIHL Tips.

If you want to make the best use of your garden in summer, you should be thoroughly informed beforehand. We will introduce you to the basics here.

Harvesting summer fruit

Your garden has plenty to offer in summer – but every garden lover is particularly looking forward to home-grown, sun-ripened summer fruit. We have summarised the harvest times for selected fruit varieties for you in the following table:

June JulyAugust
Apples x
Pears x
Blackberries xx
Strawberries x x
Raspberries xx
Nectarines x
Peaches x
Rhubarb x
Sweet Cherries x x

 

 

Harvesting Potatoes

If you have potatoes in your garden, you can harvest them in summer. The perfect harvest time for potatoes depends entirely on the variety. The following table gives you a good overview.

Variety Harvest Time Shelf Life
Christa / Atica June / July as new potatoes Thin skin, poor shelf life
Cilena / Sieglinde July / August Stronger skin, limited shelf life
Nicola / Linda End of August Very good shelf life

 

 

Planting Kale

You can lay the foundations for vegetable harvesting in your garden as early as the summer, for example by growing kale. The following table will give you an insight into different kale varieties, their planting time and harvesting time:

Variety Sowing/Planting Time Harvest Time
Kohlrabi March to July Depends on planting time, 6-8 weeks
Broccoli End of May to mid-June Late summer to October
Chinese Kale June to August October and November
Winter Cauliflower July May of the following year
Kale May to July October to February

 

 

Pest Control

Unfortunately, pests can also attack your plants in summer. The following table gives you an insight into effective, immediate pest control measures:

Pest Measures
Winter Moth When the caterpillars appear in spring, spray infested plants with gentle Bacillus thuringiensis preparations.
Cicadas and lice on roses In the event of a light infestation, spray the pests off the plants with water. Otherwise, garlic brew can help fight against aphids. For this, boil down 10 cloves in 5 litres of water for 20 minutes.
Black Spot Cut off affected leaves immediately, disinfect tools, collect leaves from the ground. Use fungicides in the event of heavy infestation.
Mildew Mix buttermilk with water in a ratio of 1:9 and spray several times a week onto the affected plants. Cut off shoots in the event of extreme infestation.

 

 

Propagate Plants Yourself

Mass production or fast growth in the garden: those who wish to propagate their favourite plants in summer have different possibilities depending on the plant. The following table gives you an overview of the advantages of four propagation methods.

Cuttings

Cuttings are parts – usually 5-10cm long shoot tips – of a mother plant, which is rooted in moist sowing soil. Advantage: the cuttings have all the characteristics of the mother plant. Cuttings root within a few weeks and can then be planted out as young plants. Flowering plants such as roses or hydrangeas, but also useful plants such as raspberries and herbs such as lavender can be propagated using the cuttings method.

Offshoots

When propagating with offshoots, the part of the plant to be propagated remains connected to the mother plant. This is done by pressing the shoots of the plant into the soil – when the roots are broken, the connection to the mother plant can be severed. Propagation with offshoots is labour-intensive and suitable for plants with long tendrils.

Seeds

Whether vegetables or flowering plants – sowing takes longer than growing young plants, but far exceeds the variety found in specialist shops. Moreover, a bag of seeds is cheaper than a young plant – not forgetting the fun factor and the anticipation of growing. Harvesting seeds yourself and multiplying plants in this way is a sustainable method of constantly filling the garden with exactly the plants you like.

Separation

By dividing the rootstock, several root balls are made from an ever larger root ball. Separation rejuvenates overaged, overgrown and rotten perennials, thus saving money and ensuring more greenery in the garden. Perennials that are divided in late summer or autumn grow quickly and are immediately complete plants.

 

 

Harvesting and Caring for Herbs

Herbs should also grow in every garden in summer. The most important tips and tricks for herb care and harvesting can be found here:

Caring for Herbs

Subshrubs such as thyme, rosemary or lavender can lignify at their base over the years. Regular pruning in early spring helps to avoid them going bare.

Thyme, lavender, rosemary and sage can be planted together in one place since they have the same location requirements.

Parsley and basil can be planted together in one place, but not next to chervil, dill or celery.

Coriander, dill and sweet fennel thrive well between savoury, nasturtium and chamomile.

All herbs should be harvested constantly – so they simply grow better and bushier. 

Harvesting Herbs

The right harvest time makes the herbs taste good: they contain the highest concentration of essential oils shortly before flowering.

When harvesting, you should wait until the night dew has disappeared.

There are various methods for preserving herbs: robust herbs are bundled and hung upside down to dry. Finer herbs can be preserved in oil or turned into pesto.

 

 

A Summary of the Garden in Summer

  • There are a variety of useful and decorative plants that make a summer garden perfect.  
  • If you want to create a green oasis in your summer garden, there’s a lot you need to know.
  • Very important for summer gardens: don’t forget to water regularly!

 

 

When to Water the Garden in Summer

The water requirement varies from plant to plant – but as a rule of thumb, it is better to water in the morning than in the evening in summer.