Top Tips for a Gorgeous Summer Landscape

We’re smack-dab in the middle of summer, and I don’t know about you, but I’m loving it! Greenery everywhere, the first veggie crops are about ready for the table, and even though it’s been stinkin’ hot and humid in Southern Ontario, it feels good to sit on the patio with a cold drink and soak in the sights. However, for many folks (especially newer gardeners), this is also a bit of an awkward phase for the garden. The spring bloomers have long faded, and a lot of yards are adopting the all-green look. If you’re itching to bring that colour back, read on!

“Pretty” Needs Planning!

During the winter, we tend to dream about summertime and picture bright colours and lush greenery. In a sense, we take colour for granted as soon as the spring arrives. However, what many of us learn years into our gardening adventure is that gardens require planning to stay vibrant throughout the season. Flowering periods come and go, so the trick is to be strategic about what you plant and where you put it. 

The first question on so many people’s minds is whether it’s too late to fix a colour-poor landscape with new plants. The good news is that you can absolutely keep planting! In fact, this is the year to do it—most of us are still spending way more time at home than usual, so there are plenty of opportunities to keep those new plantings well-watered.

If you’re the spontaneous type and the word “planning” makes you nervous, don’t worry—you don’t need to draw up a spreadsheet or anything. The best thing you can do is keep an eye out and keep visiting the garden centre, at least once per season. If you looked around your yard this morning and noticed a few dull spots that could use perking up, take a mental note of where they are and what kind of sun exposure they get and head over for a visit. When you walk through the door, there will be plenty of colourful perennials and shrubs around to help you brighten up those spaces for years to come.

Tips for Extending the Season

In some cases, you can also revive the beauty of your plants and extend the season a bit with a little TLC.

• Deadheading some blooming perennials, like coneflowers, lupines, and delphiniums, before they set seed, will encourage them to bloom again. You can get several more weeks of summer colour just by pinching off those spent blooms as soon as you spot them!
• A light shearing of shrubs like spireas and barberries can also help extend their season. Shape them up with a trim, and they’ll respond with some fresh new growth.
• Keep annuals well-fed and watered to keep containers looking colourful as long as possible. If your annual flowers have kicked the bucket, mix things up and replace them with some new ones! 
• Some flowers, like marigolds and zinnias, grow super fast from seed. Planting new seeds every week can keep the waves of colour coming up until the mercury drops.

Planting Shrubs for Summer Colour

I’m a big fan of shrubs for reliable summer interest, and there are so many awesome options for our region that look beautiful at this time of year. A few of my favourites include:

• Barberry: This drought-tolerant shrub is a low-maintenance staple. Their gorgeous foliage is their crowning feature, with colours ranging from variegated green to rich burgundy.
• Weigela: While this flowering shrub is at its best in the spring, it will continue to produce cute and colourful flowers in shades of white, pink, red, or yellow through summer and into fall if well-maintained. The foliage is also highly ornamental, with some varieties featuring yellow, chartreuse, gold, red, or variegated leaves.
• Ninebark: A fun shrub for all-season interest! Ninebarks are known for their interesting peeling bark, spring flowers, and bird-friendly summer berries. Available in purple and yellow varieties, the foliage is beautiful all year, though some varieties boast better fall colour than others.
• Hydrangeas: One of the most beloved flowering shrubs of all time! Hydrangeas are a crowd-pleaser, with large, romantic flowerheads and a wide variety of colour options. Some of the more popular varieties are cultivars of bigleaf hydrangeas (or Hydrangea macrophylla), which are known for their flowers that turn blue in acidic soil and pink in alkaline conditions. Smooth hydrangea (Hydrangea arborescens) cultivars, like Annabella and IncrediBall, are also wildly popular for their massive globe-shaped flowerheads.

Mid-to-Late-Summer Blooming Perennials

Of course, a yard full of gorgeous perennials is your other best bet for summer colour. Look for these on your next trip to Royal City Nursery:

For Sun

• Daylilies
• Ornamental sage (also known as salvia)
• Daisies
• Blanketflower
• Bee Balm
• Zinnias
• Butterfly Weed
• Coreopsis
• Blue Fescue

For Shade

• Hostas
• Perennial cranesbill
• Coral Bells
• Ferns

It bears noting that the right plants can jazz up just about any yard, but it certainly helps to start with a beautiful canvas. If you feel that your yard needs a bigger overhaul than plantings alone, we also offer full-service landscape design services! Get in touch to book a consultation, and we can help you create the outdoor space you’ve always dreamed of.