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Summer Perk Up

© Keith Muraoka

The dog days of summer are here with a vengeance, and your garden may be showing the wear and tear of hot weather. But that's no reason why your garden shouldn't be a riot of color. Consider a late summer perk-up in a number of ways.

First of all, consider second crops. Thanks to our mild winter climate, flowers and vegetables planted now will last all the way until Thanksgiving in most cases. That means your tired petunias or tomatoes can be replaced with new second crops. Short of replacement, you can also try pruning to give your flowers and veggies a second wind.

I always prune my petunias way back this time of year to encourage re-blooming. Remember, a plant's job in life is to go to seed. They go to seed by blooming. If you let the old blooms lie on their stems and die, your plant will put its energy into going to seed. By cutting back the plant or deadheading the old flowers, the plant will put forth energy into blooming again. Pruning back will also sometimes work with vegetable plants, such as tomatoes.

If you want to plant anew, you can still run the gamut of summer flowers like impatiens, petunias, geraniums, marigolds and more. For vegetables, you're more limited to row crops, such as lettuce, carrots, spinach, peas and beans. It's too late to plant new tomatoes or squash because they won't ripen before our heavy frosts hit in November.

Your entire garden will get a pick-me-up if you spread organic compost or other types of top dressing as a mulch. Bare dirt in the garden not only looks bad, but it's a magnet for water-sapping weeds. By spreading a two to three-inch layer of mulch over bare dirt, you'll not only beautify your garden, but help prevent weeds from sprouting. Yet another plus, is that mulch saves water by preventing evaporation.

Speaking of water, make sure to form new dirt basins around individual plants. By this time every year, my basins around plants are starting to disintegrate. I spread organic compost around plants, building the compost up into basins to hold water. That way when I water, plants get a deep soaking rather than a sprinkling.

Keep things looking tidy in your garden by deadheading old flowers, constantly harvesting your veggies and pruning. Yes, even though it's not the right time of season for major pruning, you certainly will keep your garden looking better by pruning to keep growth under control.