At this point in the summer, it may seem like we’ll be either baking or roasting forever, but in fact relief, in the form of fall, is not very far away. We‘ve heard from many of our customers that their interest in a well-tended landscape extends to gardening. Since the ideal time to plan and establish a fall garden is almost here, we thought we’d take a break from our usual subject, organic lawn care, and talk about the tasks you can do during August to get that garden off to the best possible start.
Keeping Up with Weeding: Weeds love our region’s hot, humid summers and seize the opportunity to grow and spread. Despite the heat, your best bet is sticking to an aggressive schedule of hand-pulling before they can go to seed and start generating next year’s weeds. Every weed you pull today represents time you’ll save in the future.
Pruning: Removing dead and dying blooms from flowering plants will quickly improve both the appearance of your garden and its overall health. The same is true for stems, branches, and limbs on ornamental trees and shrubs. Pruning too early can be harmful as plants channel their energy into new growth that’s vulnerable as temperatures drop. Do a little research to make sure your interventions are appropriately timed.
Setting Up a New Composting Area: If you start layering excess grass clippings, dried leaves from last fall, and your unwanted fruits and vegetables and the scraps left over from preparing them in early August, your new compost should be ready to spread by the time you complete your fall harvesting. You can add volume by stirring in shredded paper, which will break down along with everything else.
Planting: The most important factor in fall planting is getting seeds and bulbs into the ground and giving them time to get established before the first frost. So you have a comfortable window to make your selections and map out your design.
We consulted several commercial and academic sources to get their recommendations for plants that do well in Georgia’s fall climate. The resulting list could produce a wide variety of delicious dishes for fall menus: asparagus, beets, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, kale, onions, radishes, romaine, salad greens, spinach, strawberries, Swiss chard, and turnips.
Add some color to your garden with pansies, snapdragons, and violas.
Simply Organic specializes in the use of organic products to keep your grass and ornamental trees and shrubs healthy. The expertise that our highly trained technicians have amassed over years in the industry is, as you would expect, mostly about turf, but much of that knowledge applies to other types of plants as well. If you have a question, whether it’s about Atlanta lawn care or your garden, we’ll do our best to help.