Summer is the time to kick back and enjoy lazy days in your garden…………

openingdoorsnyc
Jul 25, 2017 · 6 min read

July is that wonderful summer month to step back and enjoy your garden. It’s the time of the year when your outdoor space should be flourishing and you should be spending as much time as possible enjoying your outdoor living with friends and family.

Wendy Story of Story Garden & Rooftop Design is back to help you make your garden smile from the roots up! This is the second of our seasonal garden blogs from Wendy, who despite being off on her travels has taken the time to bring her expert tips to all of us on what we should all be doing now to get the most out of whatever outdoor space we have.

“The early flowers of summer are a memory”, says Wendy, “and now it’s time to add splashes of annual color, to jazz up your outdoor seating to make the most of the sun or the shade and to do some minimal summer maintenance to keep plants blooming all summer. It’s also a great time to go visit gardens when they are looking their best to get inspiration for next season.”

Here are Wendy’s summertime steps to creating beautiful outdoor features…….

Step 1. Maintenance

Yes, you knew she was going to start with that one!

Snip off faded or dead flowers to keep more blooms coming along.

Replenish the nutrients in your soil by adding liquid feed to your watering every two weeks; flowers will bloom for longer if they are fed!

Gardening is a process and even great gardens take time. Ongoing maintenance throughout the growing season, such as lots of reshuffling, care and attention, can really help.

Top Tip- Use an organic liquid fertilizer and Wendy recommends Neptunes Harvest Fish Seaweed Blend. It may smell a bit fishy but your plants will love you for it!

Step 2. Plant more color

The heat of the summer can take the edge off the color of your garden. Late July and August is the time to add a pop of color with long flowering perennials or annuals.

Hot sunny gardens versus cooler shadier gardens lead to different plant choices. Here are the ones Wendy recommends you try….

· Coreopsis gives lasting summer color, in many shades (look for the Big Bang Series; Cosmic Evolution can grow up to 24inches!) and they won’t quit despite heat or lack of water!

· Salvia is another annual that loves sunshine and one every gardener should try growing. The Azurea variety, produces wonderful, late blooming, bright blue flowers.

· Shasta daisies from the Aster family provide long lasting summer bloom and are a mainstay of a perennial border. Known as the Leucanthemum x superbum, it is a clump forming plant with dark green foliage and white daisy flowers. The Aglaia variety is a good one to try.

· Good old fashioned Lobelia and native forget-me-not; both love the shadier cooler spots and will act as ground cover or fillers for containers, blooming right through October.

Top Tip- Buy your new plants mid-morning at nurseries and early in the day from farmers’ markets; that is when the fresh crops are put out! Look for plants with unopened buds, foliage that is green and fresh and soil that is slightly moist.

Step 3. Seating

“When I consider the design of a garden, it is key to discuss what the garden will actually be used for,” says Wendy.

Are you looking to sit and relax or read in a shady corner?

Are you going to entertain? Dinner parties, drink soirées, BBQs?

Ideally you want a minimum of two seating areas. A larger area for dining and a small bench or seat that offers a more intimate area to escape to. Think about where the sun moves during the day. It’s lovely to have a corner to catch the morning sun. Often people are happy to bask in the morning or evening sun but want to eat in the shade during the heat of the day.

In terms of style of outdoor furniture, it is usually a good idea to go with the style of your home. Let that lead your choices. Crate and Barrel has a great clearance sale on now for sectional furniture and on their fab Sunbrella products.

If you intend to use your garden during the evening hours you will need good lighting. Most people cannot easily incorporate uplighters or wall lights in an existing space but you can easily add fairy lights to create atmosphere and/or tea lights in pretty glass jars or lanterns. Restoration Hardware has some beautiful outdoor string lights called Party Globe String Lights that would look great hanging on a pergola or alongside a fence.

Top Tip- Invest in weatherproof, hardwearing outdoor furniture, even if it is just one piece! It is a waste of money to buy something that will only last one season and this time of year there are deals to be had!

Step 4. Get inspiration by visiting gardens.

Now is the time to visit the many beautiful gardens and parks in and around New York.

New York Botanical Garden Chihuly Exhibition

“The New York Botanical Garden is in full bloom right now, go visit the perennial garden which is my favorite area once the peonies have bloomed”, says Wendy. The Chihuly exhibition continues at the garden all through summer, presenting Dale Chihuly’s amazing glass sculptures nestled in amongst the landscape. Check out https://www.nybg.org to find out what’s on week by week. Of course, right on our own doorstep is the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, another great place for activities and inspiration and right now take one of their Seasonal Highlights Tours to see all the summer burgeoning blossoms at their best. https://www.bbg.org.

If you are a fan of native plants take a wander along the Highline which has an amazing array of beautiful naturalistic planting in the middle of urban New York (www.thehighline.org to find out what’s on). Further uptown in Manhattan is Wave Hill, www.wavehill.org, which by mid summer is a landscape of beautiful blooms.

Top Tip- Taking a walk or sitting a while in other people’s garden is a great way to discover what inspires you. Whatever you do, enjoy your garden this summer!

Wendy spent several weeks this summer back in her birthplace, the United Kingdom, and was inspired by the naturalistic planting of the English countryside, she says

“The cliff walks of Dorset with their beautiful native plantings will encourage me to experiment with more native plants in my garden in Brooklyn and the formal large container planting I found in local country pubs, will make me rethink my approach to containers next year for sure. Keeping them simple, larger plants and create stunning focal points.”

storygardendesigns@gmail.com #containergardens #beautifulbrooklyn #summergardens #storygardenandrooftopdesign

This is the second of our quarterly city gardening features from Wendy, come back soon to see our fall feature.

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