The Best Summer Planting Ideas To Try This Season
Summer is almost here, and it is the best time to get outside. With the longer days and warmer temperatures, there is no better time to start gardening, and we have some ideas to get you inspired.
This is a beautiful season, where many plants come into their own and produce vibrant flowers, lush foliage, and an array of beautiful colours. If you want to create an attractive and exciting garden, there is no better time to get started than now.
As leading landscape gardeners, TM Landscapes appreciates the beauty of every season but knows that summer can be one of the most exciting for nature lovers. In this post, we are sharing some of the best summer planting ideas to get you inspired so you can get outdoors and create a garden you love.
Celebrating The Vibrant Season: Best Summer Planting Ideas For Colourful Blooms
Summer is one of the most colourful times of the year with bright blue skies, warm sunshine and vibrant blooms. As many plants enter the height of their blooming cycles during this season, gardens can become full of bold shades, pastel hues, and attractive colours based on what you plant.
To celebrate the changing of seasons and welcome the sunshine, consider summer planting ideas to add colour to your outdoor space, such as:
- Annuals: When added to flower beds and containers, plants such as petunias, geraniums and marigolds come to life during the summer, offering bright flower heads and attractive border decoration.
- Perennials: For lasting appeal, perennials such as echinacea, rudbeckia, and crocosmia will return to your garden every year. They reach their peak during summer, offering the most vibrancy and attraction in this season.
- Flowering Shrubs: To add structure and colour to your summer garden, consider shrubs such as hydrangea, buddleia, and lavatera, which produce beautiful, vibrant flowers during the season alongside lush foliage throughout other seasons.
Summer Planting Ideas For Containers And Hanging Baskets
Whether you have a small garden or simply want to add some height or interest to your landscape, container planting is an ideal solution. Planting in containers and hanging baskets typically provides optimal soil conditions and drainage, making it easier for you to care for your plants throughout the season.
A vibrant combination of trailing and upright plants can create the most attractive displays and allow you to take advantage of the blooming cycles of the season. To create these attractive containers, consider the following summer planting ideas:
- Trailing Fuchsia: A popular option for hanging baskets, these plants produce vibrant pink and purple trailing flowers that hang beautifully and offer seasonal appeal.
- Calibrachoa: These compact, trailing annual flowers can be used across flower beds and containers as ground cover. Available in a range of bright colours, these small flowers offer seasonal blooms and add some interest to all corners of the garden.
- Bacopa: This plant produces stunning little flowers throughout summer and into the autumn. Available in pinks, whites, and blues, these are ideal summer planting ideas for both hanging baskets and containers as a filler flower.
- Surfinia Petunias: With their trailing stems and vibrant flowers in rich hues such as pinks, purples and reds, these are the ideal summer plants for hanging baskets and container planting.
To maintain the vibrancy of these summer planting ideas, water frequently throughout the season. It is best to water during the cooler times of the day, such as early morning or late evening, to ensure maximum absorption.
To help your plants thrive next season and ensure they produce stunning flowers again next summer, deadheading is required across your containers and hanging baskets. Deadheading should be done as soon as your plants start to fade for the best results.
Supporting Ecosystems With These Wildlife-Friendly Summer Planting Ideas
Summer is a vibrant season, not just for our plants but for other wildlife too. You can see your garden come to life with birds, insects, pollinators, and local creatures through the planting choices you make, such as:
- Pollinator-Friendly Plants: Attract bees, butterflies and birds to your garden this summer through plants such as lavender, echinops, and verbena bonariensis. Not only will this make your garden an interesting space and ensure it is always full of movement and colour, but it also plays an active role in local ecosystems by providing fuel to the essential pollination cycle.
- Herb Gardens: Not only are they useful for summer salads and meals outdoors, but herbs such as thyme, oregano, and chives can be highly attractive to local wildlife. They can be used to fill out flower beds or planted in containers to suit landscapes of all sizes.
- Native Plants: Plants and flowers that organically thrive in the region or local conditions are an ideal solution for an attractive, low-maintenance summer garden. As they thrive naturally in these areas, you do not need harmful chemicals or treatments to help them grow throughout the season. Watering may not be as frequently needed, allowing you to have an attractive garden without the effort. For homes across Hampshire, consider wildflowers such as Fly orchids, Sea campion, and Southern marsh orchid, as these are native to the region.
Beat The Heat With These Drought-Resistant Summer Planting Ideas
Whether you want to create a low-maintenance garden or are concerned about your water usage, drought-resistant planting is a great option this season. These plants can survive with little to no water and remain healthy throughout the summer, even in the highest temperatures:
- Sedum: With its dense pink flowers, sedum is an ideal plant for bordering or flower beds to offer seasonal blooms to your garden. It is a hardy perennial that will come back to life every year.
- Agapanthus: These plants are renowned for their large, drumstick-headed blue flowers which come alive during the summer, adding vibrancy to containers, plant pots and flower beds.
- Mediterranean Herbs: For sensory appeal, as well as practical additions, consider hardy herbs such as rosemary and sage, which can thrive in high temperatures and produce beautiful fragrances throughout the summer.
While these plants can thrive with little to no watering during the summer, you can support their growth with mulch. Organic mulch, such as wood chips or compost, can be layered over the soil of containers and flower beds to retain moisture and provide essential nutrients to flowers as the season progresses.
Late Summer Planting Ideas: Progress Into Autumn Colour
To prolong the appeal of your summer garden, consider late-blooming plants that can bridge the gap between the changing seasons. Consider flowers such as:
- Helenium: With bold orange and yellow petals, these flowers offer beautiful transitional colours that encapsulate the beauty of both late summer and early autumn.
- Japanese Anemone: These plants produce delicate flowers in whites and pinks that can survive throughout the summer and early autumn, and will return each year to mark the changing of the seasons.
- Dahlias: These bushy, tuberous perennials can become a staple within your garden design throughout the seasons and offer vibrant hues of reds, pinks, yellows and whites to add colour to flower beds, containers and ground cover.
These late summer blooms are renowned for their rich hues, which bloom in the late summer and can continue to thrive as the seasons change. This allows you to continue enjoying the warm weather and seasonal displays across your garden, and avoids the abrupt fading that usually comes with summer blooms.
Conclusion
With these summer planting ideas, you can make the most out of the season and create a garden that thrives. Adding colour, scent and height to your garden creates an interesting display that can support all occasions.
From al fresco dining to family get-togethers, you can create an outdoor space that is suitable for all summer events with these planting ideas.
Contact Us Today
For more inspiration for your summer garden or to request a quote for our landscaping services, please contact the team today.