Summer garden activities
What to focus on over summer
Summer is about maintenance, not big changes. Between December and February, the focus is keeping plants healthy through heat, pests and dry soil, while stopping problems from building up for autumn.
Most of the work is weeding, pest management and tidying. Some pruning is needed, but take care with lemonwood borer. Watering and soil health are key.
Weeding
Summer weeds move quickly. Deal with the invasive ones and use the rest to your advantage.
Remove invasive weeds completely or black bag them.
Benign, non-invasive weeds can be laid in a weed pile and used as mulch. The worms will take them down into the soil.
On unstable banks, clip flowers and seed heads to stop them seeding and spreading.
Pest management
Pests ramp up over summer, especially when plants are stressed. The goal is control, not perfection.
Spray pests with neem as required. We use Naturally Neem.
We mix neem with EM, but you can use any natural foliar feed such as seaweed to help plants cope with summer stress.
Spray plants showing disease or pest damage, fruit trees, roses and recently trimmed shrubs.
Slugs and snails
Deal with slugs and snails early. Some of their favourites include rengas, succulents and seedlings.
Lemonwood borer
Lemonwood borer larvae tunnel into living hardwood trees.
Signs to look for:
Leaves wilting on individual branches or sudden branch death
Small 2–3mm round holes in branches
Clumps of sawdust or frass around entry holes
Treatment:
Remove affected branches
Poke wire into visible holes
Apply pruning paste to seal cuts
Pruning and trimming
You can always remove dead, diseased or damaged branches.
Prune karaka berry branches that you can safely reach. Rake up berries and remove them as green waste. Apart from creating a roller rink, they are poisonous to dogs.
Clip up to a third of foliage from hedges and shrubs to remove spent flowers. Do not cut back to bare branches — leave some green growth. Once shrubs become leggy, it’s hard to restore shape and lushness.
Prune up to a third from woody evergreen herbs such as oregano, marjoram and thyme to encourage fresh growth.
Deadhead roses and other flowering plants to encourage repeat flowering. Leave large rosehips on the plant.
Trim or cut back annuals and perennials once flowering has finished. Let desirable annuals go to seed so they can naturalise and help keep the soil covered.
Thin feijoas once fruiting has finished.
Feeding
Feed flowering and fruiting plants, and bulbs or rhizomes that are dying down (for example dahlias).
Apply feed around the dripline, not at the base of the plant.
We use Fodda Fertiliser, which gives us consistently good results.
Mulch as much as you can with whatever materials are available. Mulch helps regulate soil temperature, retain moisture, improve soil structure and suppress weeds.
Watering
Watering well matters more than watering often.
Create shallow troughs at the highest part of garden beds to hold water on the land.
Another option is to remove the bottom from plastic drink bottles and upend them into the soil to allow deep watering.
Before watering, check soil moisture down to at least 10cm.
If water is needed, apply a slow, deep water at the plant’s dripline.
Need help prioritising your summer garden jobs?
Every garden is different. If you’d like practical, seasonal advice tailored to your space, we offer seasonal garden consults.
