Summer gardening tips for a beautiful garden

Pinch out tomatoes: Side shoots, which form in the “armpit” between the main stem and petiole, should be removed. Then all the plant’s energy will go into the formation of juicy fruits.

Thin out fruit: Pome fruit trees, such as apple and pear trees, often produce more fruit than they can actually supply. At the beginning of June, the tree drops these fruits on its own during the June fruit drop. If there are still too many fruits hanging from an individual cluster, the smallest fruits should be cut off. This can be done using STIHL’s high-quality garden and pruning shears. After thinning out, the remaining fruits should lie far apart with a finger width between them.

Remove withered flowers: To prevent the plants from running out of steam during the summer and only forming seeds but no flowers, withered flowers should be cleaned out regularly, i.e. broken or cut off.

Fertilise: Long-term grass fertiliser works for a good three months. If you have fertilised your lawn in spring, you should give it a second treatment now and fertilise it with the slow-release fertiliser.

Fight caterpillars: Offer codling moths an artificial hiding place to pupate – with 10cm wide strips of coarse corrugated board. Tie them around the apple stem and check them weekly for caterpillars. After eating apples for four weeks until they are full, the pests leave them at the beginning of July and look for a hiding place under the bark – and the corrugated board. By removing them, you counteract a new infestation.

Propagate strawberries: Strawberries form long tendrils with leafy offshoots well suited for propagation. Raise the offshoot that grows closest to the mother plant, bury a small clay pot underneath, and plant the offshoot in it. The connection to the mother plant is maintained for the time being, and only the tendril behind the pot is removed so that the strawberry doesn’t have to supply any more plants. Let the cuttings root until autumn, then you can cut off the tendril from the mother plant.

Thin out fruit trees: Vertical water sprouts formed in the trees only cost the tree energy. Now cut as close to the branch as possible – we recommend using STIHL pruning shears.

Water: Water less often but abundantly. This allows the water to seep deep into the soil and reach the plant roots. Clay soil should be watered once a week, but sandy soil every 2-3 days. Water in the morning.

Mow the lawn: When mowing, always make sure that the blades are sharp. The correct cutting height depends on the amount of sunlight: in sunny locations, the optimum height is 4 to 5cm, but for shady lawns, this is 5 to 7cm. To avoid unattractive flaws in the lawn, no more than a third of the length should be shortened during each mowing. When dry, the stalks should remain 1-2cm longer. If you use a mulch mower, you will have to work once or twice a week, otherwise the grass clippings will be too long to be easily absorbed so will just sit on the turf. 

Hoe the soil: Regular hoeing saves water. The hoe creates hair-thin holes in the soil through which soil water evaporates. After hoeing, the upper centimetres of the soil dry out, but it remains moist underneath.

Cut off flowers: Even though it might be difficult, cut off all new tomato and pepper flowers from August with garden shears. The resulting fruit from the flowers would not ripen by autumn anyway, and the plant wastes energy which it could instead put into the existing fruit.

Harvest potatoes: The potato harvest starts in June with the first new potatoes and ends in October with the late varieties for storage.

Use a digging fork to harvest them. It may spear some tubers, but spades or shovels would cause greater damage under the tubers.

Take cuttings: Material for cuttings accumulates abundantly during pruning. The best time for cuttings is from spring to August. Cuttings are generally placed in nutrient-poor soil. This puts the rooted plants on a diet and forces them to develop more roots.

Collect seeds: Anyone who harvests seeds will recognise this problem: fine grains can hardly be separated from flower remains. A fan can help. Let the plant material fall into the wind created by the fan and the heavy seeds will drop in front of the fan while the rest will blow away.

Separate perennials: Apart from taking cuttings, separation is the fastest propagation method. Dig out the plant, shake off the soil and use a spade to divide it into several pieces, which must have at least one shoot bud and enough roots. Then replant for twice the number of plants!

Blackberries

Sweet Cherries

Thin skin, short shelf life

Very good shelf life

End of May to mid-June

Winter Cauliflower

May to July

When the caterpillars appear in spring, spray infested plants with gentle Bacillus thuringiensis preparations.

Black Spot

Cut off affected leaves immediately, disinfect tools, collect leaves from the ground. Use fungicides in the event of heavy infestation.

Cuttings are parts – usually 5-10cm long shoot tips – of a mother plant rooted in moist sowing soil. Cuttings generally root within a few weeks and can then be planted out as young plants. Flowering plants such as roses or hydrangeas and useful plants such as raspberries and herbs such as lavender can be propagated using the cuttings method.

Herbs such as thyme, rosemary or lavender can become very woody at their base over the years. Regular pruning in early spring helps to avoid them going bare.

Thyme, lavender, rosemary and sage can be planted together since they are well-suited to similar conditions. 

Parsley and basil can be planted together, but we recommend planting them away from chervil, dill or celery.

Coriander, dill and sweet fennel thrive well between savory, nasturtium and chamomile.

All herbs should be harvested regularly as this will mean they grow better and bushier. 

The right harvest time makes the herbs taste good: they contain the most essential oils shortly before flowering.

When harvesting, you should wait until the night dew has disappeared.

If you have an abundant harvest, there are various ways of preserving herbs. Robust herbs can be bundled and hung upside down to dry. Finer herbs can be preserved in oil or turned into pesto.