Most people are very busy during the summer. Family activities, holidays, and social functions all demand our attention, and sometimes the garden is the unfortunate one left behind. Even if you are only gardening for 15 minutes a day in summer, you can keep your outdoor space looking good.
To help you put together an achievable summer gardening checklist for when you are short of time, I consulted some experts. They picked their top summer jobs for a homeowner who can commit to gardening for 15 minutes a day in their busy lives. These focused jobs can keep a garden looking pleasant and full of blooms without exhaustive effort.
It is all about figuring out the high-priority tasks for each 15-minute block. Abandon any dreams of clearing the whole garden, but focus on what needs to be done each day. Key jobs like weeding, watering (you can get a soil moisture meter from Amazon), deadheading, feeding, supporting plants, propagating and more can all be done in small windows.
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Stop Weeds From Seeding
(Image credit: Future/Ruth Hayes)
It may never be the most glamorous or enjoyable task (though I do know some gardeners who love spending time getting rid of weeds), but weeding is always essential in summer.
The adage goes ‘one year of seeds, seven years of weeds’, and it is true that letting weeds set seed creates a snowball effect of issues. To stop future you having to deal with even more weeds, set aside some 15-minute blocks for this task.
‘Pulling weeds before they produce seeds can help prevent thousands of weed seeds from landing in your garden,’ says Justin Hancock, Horticulturist for Costa Farms. ‘And the younger a weed is, the smaller the root system and the easier it is to pull. So even if you just pull a couple of weeds every day, it can make a difference.’
Smaller weeds can be removed quickly with a garden hoe, but older or tap-rooted weeds need a more thorough approach. You need to use a type of weeder that guarantees you remove the entire plant and its roots to prevent it from resprouting. This can be a fork or a hand weeding tool like this at Walmart to lever weeds out of the soil.
As you are only gardening for 15 minutes a day, set realistic goals for weeding. Your borders or raised beds may be weedy, but remain focused on weeding quickly. ‘I would not worry about making every bed spotless, but I would absolutely pull anything that is about to seed,’ adds Alex Wright, the Founder of YardCalc.
Justin is Costa Farms Horticulturist with 25+ years in the industry. A plant enthusiast and educator, he has a degree in horticultural science and has worked in garden centers and botanical gardens, as a garden designer, and in garden publishing. He has experience gardening across the country, from Minnesota to Oregon to Miami. Hancock is also co-host of the Costa Farms podcast Plant Rx.
Water to Keep Plants Alive
(Image credit: Getty Images/mtreasure)
There is no escaping that if you are gardening for 15 minutes a day in summer, much of that time may be taken up by watering plants in hot weather. However, be selective about what you focus on, as some plants need more watering in a heatwave than others.
‘Focus on keeping plants, especially this year’s additions, alive,’ recommends Marian Keith, Horticulturist at Newfields in Indianapolis, Indiana. Also, seedlings and plants growing in pots in container gardens need to be at the top of your watering hit-list.
Water deeply to deliver the moisture to the roots. You should ideally water the garden in the morning, so plants have time to hydrate before temperatures rise. You can water in the evening, but take extra care to water the base of the plant, not the foliage.
Alex Wright advocates for proactive planning. He recommends using watering tools or a timer, so this time-consuming task doesn’t take up your 15 minutes of gardening time.
‘Drip irrigation or even a basic hose timer changes the whole equation,’ he says. ‘Watering is super important, especially for containers, raised beds, and new plantings, but it is also one of the easiest garden jobs to automate.
‘If you only have a few minutes a week, I would rather use that time on the things a timer cannot do.’
You can get an automatic timer at Garden in Minutes that has a simple dial for set-up and two outlets – perfect for attaching to drip irrigation, soaker hoses, sprinklers, or just a garden hose.
Alex Wright is a real estate investor, software engineer, and founder of YardCalc, a free collection of material calculators for homeowners, contractors, and landscapers. He writes about landscaping materials, property improvement projects, and practical ways homeowners can plan outdoor work.
Marian Keith is a Horticulturist at Newfields, a 152-acre cultural destination in Indianapolis, Indiana, that houses gardens, greenhouses, museums, and historic properties. She is currently working on developing the garden design and planting for The Flower & Vegetable Garden, the garden’s largest development in the past decade.
Deadhead to Extend the Show
(Image credit: Future)
Flower beds and container displays may start to look past their best as the first blooms go over. If you can commit time to deadheading flowers during summer, you can extend your display of blooms and keep the garden full of color.
Christina Stembel, founder and CEO of Farmgirl Flowers, admits she often has 15 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening to garden. She picks tasks according to what needs most attention each day.
‘One day it’s deadheading because the blooms are literally dead and failing to remove them will probably prevent a second flush. The next day it’s weeding because the weeds are gobbling up all the resources,’ says Christina.
‘Right now, my 15 minutes in the morning is usually spent deadheading to keep our flowers flowering through August and into September.’
Removing the old flowers tidies borders and stops plants putting energy into producing seeds. That energy goes back into developing buds and opening new flowers. If you can find time to deadhead flowers in August, your garden will keep putting on a glorious show for longer.
A pair of pruning snips (such as these Japanese pruning snips on Amazon) or shears is a perfect tool for deadheading. You can snap some blooms off between your fingers and thumb, but you must be careful not to damage any stems or unopened flowers.
Christina Stembel launched Farmgirl Flowers in San Francisco in 2010. She has grown it into a wildly successful national brand and the only large-scale, woman-owned and predominantly women-led D2C e-commerce flower company.
Farmgirl ships signature burlap-wrapped bouquets, centerpieces, and plants to recipients from coast to coast. Every arrangement is filled with the best-of-the-best, freshest, seasonal flowers and not only does Farmgirl combat the floral industry’s plastic waste issue by wrapping bouquets in upcycled burlap from coffee roasters, but this sustainable style is a bestseller too.
Fertilize Plants in Containers
(Image credit: Future/Jacky Hobbs)
Summer can be taxing for any plants in pots. The warm temperatures mean the limited moisture in the soil disappears quickly, and nutrients quickly leach from the containers. It can leave plants starved and looking past their best in summer.
‘When I have 15 minutes to spare, I turn my attention to my potted plants,’ says Tenielle Jordison, garden content editor at Homes & Gardens. ‘They can start to look a little tired after such a hot summer, so I give them some extra nourishment.’
It shouldn’t take long to rejuvenate container plants and help to keep annual flowers blooming for longer in pots.
‘If the potting mix is hard and compacted, I first gently loosen it with a hand fork. Then, a balanced all-purpose liquid fertilizer (like this TPS one on Amazon) gives my plants a quick boost,’ adds Tenielle.
‘A layer of compost or potting mix can also be helpful, replenishing nutrients and topping up soil that has depleted over time, whether from watering or decomposition.’
You can get a bag of organic potting mix at Burpee to top up containers and give them a late summer boost.
Tenielle is a Gardens Content Editor at Homes & Gardens. She holds a qualification in MA Magazine Journalism and has over six years of journalistic experience. Before coming to Homes & Gardens, Tenielle was in the editorial department at the Royal Horticultural Society and worked on The Garden magazine.
Check For Disease
(Image credit: Felco)
There can be many potential diseases around in the summer. Warm, humid weather, along with garden watering mistakes like soaking the foliage, leads to common diseases such as powdery mildew, rust, leaf spot, blight, and more, which trouble both ornamental and edible plants.
When it comes to diseases or summer garden pests, it is best to act fast and nip problems in the bud to stop them from spreading. As you are out gardening for 15 minutes a day, keep your eyes peeled for fungal coatings on leaves, yellowing foliage, or other markings.
‘Just like with weeds, diseases are easier to deal with if you catch them early,’ says Justin Hancock. ‘Removing an affected leaf at the start of an infection can help stop that infection from spreading further. And it keeps your garden looking better.’
Always clean your pruning tools with sanitizing sprays or wipes (available at Walmart) after removing any diseased leaves, to prevent spreading the issue to other plants.
Alternatively, you can get a ready-to-use copper fungicide at Amazon that gardeners can use to treat many diseases, including mildews, blight, black spot, and more.
Check Plants Are Supported
Christina Stembel adds that another of her regular 15-minute jobs is ‘adding more supports to the dahlias so they don’t topple over from the weight of the heads’. While out in the yard, gardeners should also take time to check their plant supports to ensure they are fully protected from wind damage or buckling under the weight of flowers or fruit.
Top-heavy flowers like dahlias, delphiniums, peonies, or phlox, or weighty fruit-bearing crops like tomatoes, cucumbers, or eggplant all need strong supports. Dry soil will contract in the summer and can loosen stakes like bamboo canes or wooden posts. Check that your plant supports are firm in the ground, and push them deeper as required.
These plants can also need new plant ties to keep them supported by the posts. Add any new ties as needed to stop stems snapping and ruining potential flowers or crops. Always use soft plant ties, such as these Velcro garden ties at The Home Depot, and never use wire or hard plastic as they can rub and even snap the stems.
Do Some Quick Propagation to Plug Gaps
(Image credit: Future)
Extreme summer heat can take its toll around the garden. If your garden has experienced losses, don’t just rue lost plants. There are new ones you can replace them with.
That list includes heat-tolerant perennials you can plant in August, like coneflowers or black-eyed Susan, to fill gaps and enjoy a fall display. And there are fast-growing flowers to sow in August, like calendula or sweet alyssum, that have time to give you late-season blooms.
Sedum ranks among the former, a low-maintenance perennial you can add for late-summer and fall blooms that will attract pollinators.
Rachel Bull, Head of Gardens at Homes & Gardens, suggests a quick and easy way to grow sedums without needing to head to the garden center and spend money on new plants.
‘I’ve lost quite a few annuals to the heatwave this year, so I’ve been filling gaps in my containers with a super quick propagation trick,’ she reveals.
‘I snip short, single stems off a lovely trailing sedum, which I love for its blue-grey foliage and tolerance of full sun. I immediately pop them into gaps and sprinkle with water, and within a week I can see new growth.
‘It is the easiest and most reliable plant I have ever multiplied, and it’s ideal for right now, when the temperatures are still high.’
You can also take plant cuttings of sedums and start them in pots, rather than place them in the garden. If you only have 15 minutes in the garden, getting new plants for free seems like a very effective use of your time.
Rachel is a gardening editor, floral designer, flower grower and gardener. Her journalism career began on Country Living magazine, sparking a love of container gardening and wild planting. After several years as editor of floral art magazine The Flower Arranger, Rachel became a floral designer and stylist, before joining Homes & Gardens in 2023. She writes and presents the brand’s bi-weekly gardening and floristry social series Petals & Roots.
What to Shop
American Gold Rush Black – Eyed Susan
A compact variety of black-eyed Susan that grows up to 1-3 feet tall and 2-4 feet wide. It has showy yellow blooms from late summer through fall.
This sedum variety grows to just 1-2 feet tall and wide. It has pink flowers in late summer, which turn burgundy in the fall. It is loved by pollinators and birds.
Carpet of Snow Alyssum Seeds
These alyssum seeds develop into mounded plants covered in small white blooms. The plants are ideal for filling gaps at the front of borders, pots, or window boxes.
If you prefer low-maintenance backyard ideas to intensive gardening, our guide to ‘the 10 minute garden’ might be perfect for you. It features inspirational ideas for a glorious garden that needs just 10 minutes of maintenance a week.
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