The Expert Landscaping Tricks That Keep Fast-Growing Gardens Balanced, Beautiful, and Low-Maintenance
Discover how to gently take back control of your garden in summer
In the summer garden there's a fine line between colorful and abundant and overgrown and blousy. After long days of sunshine and plenty of summer showers, if your backyard is growing too fast you're not alone. Both sun and rain can quickly send your garden plants into overdrive, leaving your roses flopping, perennials overtaking pathways and border specimens competing for space. It can soon feel that everything you've worked so hard for in spring has taken on a life of its own and your backyard is looking past its best.
Fear not, however, as all is not lost. There's still plenty of time to remedy that frustrating fast-growing garden situation. And our speedy, low-effort fixes will have your backyard back to its glowing, colorful, elevated best in next to no time. We've asked the experts to share their professional tips and tricks so you can benefit from their years of expertise.
The key techniques here align with low-maintenance backyard ideas that are at once impressive and full of color. After all, high summer is a time for enjoying your outdoor space, not spending hours toiling in the sun to keep it looking good.
Cut Back Wisely
Cutting back, pruning and maintaining a tidy garden in midsummer is about subtlety and holding back. It's not the time for hard pruning – rather regaining control in the garden without losing that gorgeous feeling of abundance.
Take it too far and your plants will suffer, as pruning inevitably causes moisture loss to the plant, which can have serious consequences if the weather's really dry.
George Whalley, founder and director of Esme Developments in Berkshire, UK, agrees: 'Naturally, people think reaching straight for the hedge trimmer and cutting everything back is going to solve the problem of an overcrowded garden.
'But in most cases, that's not necessary and can actually spoil the natural shape of plants just as they're entering their best season. If a feature shrub, ornamental tree or designer pot has become hidden by surrounding overgrowth, for example, carefully revealing it again can make the entire garden feel more intentional again.'
You can create airflow in borders by selective cutting back of anything that is creating too much 'visual noise': rambling roses, early-flowering perennials such as catmint (Nepeta), hardy geraniums, mint, hyssop (Agastache), for example.
And it's good to know when to prune shrubs such as late-spring/early summer flowering ones that have finished blooming – mock orange (Philadelphus), weigela and deutzia for example are good to prune now (though these shrubs can take more of an all-over prune, removing first and dead, damaged or diseased branches then cutting back to keep them within their allotted boundaries).
Gene Caballero, co-founder of GreenPal advises a similar approach: 'Instead of cutting everything back dramatically, I would selectively remove a few of the tallest or oldest stems on any plants that are getting too big for their space. This helps to open up the plant, improve the airflow, and will help to keep a natural shape. It also makes the garden look more organized.'
A good sharp pair of secateurs like these from Fiskars bypass pruners from Ace Hardware, and Ace carbon steel loppers from Ace Hardware are your friends here for quick and easy pruning.
Remove Spent Flower Spikes
Another key area to focus on in your summer garden edit are the spent flower spikes of those late-spring/early summer uprights – here we're talking foxgloves, lupins, delphiniums and so on.
First know which plants never to deadhead, but when a plant like a foxglove has done its thing and won't bloom again this season, then it can be snipped back to the ground.
Again, George advises restraint: 'I recommend editing planting. You can start by removing spent flower spikes and any stems that are flopping over pathways or into neighbouring plants. This immediately begins to make the garden feel more tidy without losing the beautiful new growth.'
In this category I'm including oriental poppies too, as the foliage simply frizzles up and turns brown once the flowers have bloomed, so you can shear everything off right back to the ground once they've flowered. Look, too, at the spent flower spires of euphorbias.
Once zingy and a beautiful acid green, they're brown and uninspiring by early to midsummer, and likely taking up space needed by other neighboring perennials. Snip these spent stems back to ground level and you'll immediately notice the difference.
Carry Out Some Gentle Deadheading
This is perhaps the simplest and definitely one of the most immediately satisfying jobs in the garden, and it will transform the space. But what is deadheading and why is it important?
Deadheading of individual blooms is something you should do first and foremost with repeat-flowering roses, cosmos, sweet peas, phlox, peonies and salvias (with salvias, snip back individual stems once they're around 70 per cent over).
Not only will it redirect a plant's energy into producing more flowers, but it will instantly neaten up your garden with very little effort on your part.
The general rule here, and that includes when learning how to deadhead roses, is to cut the flowering stem back to where it reaches the main plant. Use your fingers to pinch off the spent flowers – or a pair of snippers like these by Fiskars from Home Depot are a neat little tool for tougher customers, or anything in hard to reach places.
For roses with sharp thorns, invest in a pair of long gauntlet gloves from Amazon to save your hands and arms from scratches.
Reclaim Your Edges
'Redefining your bed edges is one of the fastest ways to make an overgrown garden look its best. A clean lawn edge will provide structure and make everything look lush and tidy,' says Gene.
Use a half-moon edging tool (and a line of twine tied between two pieces of bamboo cane if your beds have straight edges and you want a pro-level finish) to create a crisp line around flower beds and borders, to cut out grass that's straying over stepping stones through a lawn and to redefine the edges of pathways.
A quick word on wildflower lawns here. It's one of the best wildflower garden ideas around, boosting biodiversity and giving your garden a romantic elegance that's hard to beat.
If you've been doing 'no-mow May' or have a wildflower lawn that's starting to look bedraggled and past its best, instead of cutting it all down and being left with a brown, ragged-looking lawn, why not a path through it to create definition and intent? Sometimes a change is as good as a rest.
Try this steel landscaping edger from Home Depot.
Midsummer is a busy time in the garden, so it's easy just to leave things be, with the result a flopping and undefined backyard that's a bit sad to look at and not great for your plants either.
Do tackle your overgrown plants, but remember that at this time of year, the key is to edit rather than hack or go in with too much vigor. Your garden (and the wildlife within your outdoor space) will thank you for it.
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