We will hit the summer solstice at 10:42 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Friday evening June 20 in 2025. Happy summer! I need that extra daylight to finish planting a few annuals. Long days help the birds capture enough moths and caterpillars to feed their babies, too.
This spring I started seeds of alyssum, a low groundcover that supports pollinators, and now I have more plants than I do space. I will find places to tuck the plants, but it takes time. I guess I have more planting to do after work this week. Luckily, I will have the most daylight available in 2025. As it turns out, the cool of the evening is a great time to plant and causes less stress on plants. I’m brilliant!
Photograph your gardens in the morning when light is less severe and dew drops add atmosphere and freshness.
Retail nurseries will still have many annual plants to offer on the first day of summer, but they will likely be larger and not necessarily less expensive since annuals by definition grow to maturity in one summer season. However, a full hanging basket is a quick way to add pop to a thin part of the garden.
Wake up with your vegetable garden each morning and inspect for insect infestations—early detection means less work later. I found larvae of asparagus beetles devouring the ferning asparagus foliage, so I applied organic pesticides and gently gripped the bottom of the fern and drew my (gloved!) hand up the stalk smooshing the pests as I go. Fast and effective!
Check for potato beetles hatching soon. They may also affect tomatoes, eggplants, and peppers. Pick them off plants and drop in soapy water solution. Squish the orange egg masses found under leaves.
Spittle bugs have been creating frothy foam on hundreds of my perennials and annual weeds. By feeding on the sap of fresh plant growth, these larvae create a froth which they use to hide from predators. Unless you have a particular ornamental specimen engulfed in spittle, you can ignore these creatures and appreciate them for their peculiar niche in the garden. If plants coated in pseudo-phlegm will ruin your garden photos, you can spray them off with a direct shot of water.
Yew shrubs and other evergreens have new bright-green foliage. When pruning these common hedge plants, only cut back to green. Too far and you’ll have brown gaps that may take a few seasons to fill in. Prune your hedges narrower at the top than bottom to avoid shading lower branches.
Speaking of pruning, in the next week I need to prune viburnums that have finished flowering. I will thin the shrubs by taking out a third of the branches that emerge from the crown. I also want to trim or mow back invasive tendrils of Chinese bittersweet before they wrap around my shrubs and perennials.
Deer and rabbits will help you prune. Use scare tape, repellents, or radios on timers to keep mammal pests away. Use bird or exclusion netting to keep birds and insect pests off your fruit. Creatures of convenience, deer will eat whatever meets their mouths when hungry and then move on. In the woods, I discovered some common spotted touch-me-not Impatiens capensis missing the top eight inches of stem. Deer had grazed on this particular clump without eating it all. They will be back! Later I found a few summer phlox stems in my garden had been snapped off about three feet up from the ground in just the same way.
I am a lazy and impatient gardener. I do not usually wait for shell peas and typically grow sugar snap peas instead. I planted some sugar magnolia peas with purple pods this year to help my tired eyes. What a difference! The pea pods taste delicious and stand out against the green foliage. That color will make it easier to pick peas every two to three days, extend the harvest, and avoid the monster pods that get lost in the foliage.
I am beginning to reap what I sowed in my garden: good-sized lettuce and spinach leaves, cilantro, arugula, and peas. I do not have empty spots yet, but once I pull the garlic next month, I will plant buckwheat as a summer cover crop to restore the organics into that soil. The seeds germinate and grow, then frost kills the flowers (and seeds) before you turn in the vegetative growth. It composts over the winter and enriches your soil by spring. Or if your early attempts at seed planting fail, you can still plant seeds of lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts for a fall crop.
Pinch back tips of thyme, basil, and oregano, especially when flower buds appear to maintain sweet-tasting herbs. Pinch back to just above a leaf junction. Pinching also makes a bushier plant.
And here is a lazy gardener win: Don’t mulch herbs. They prefer dry conditions! One less thing on the to-do list.
I call myself the Lazy Berkshire Gardener because I don’t want to work too hard in my gardens. I want to enjoy them. I find it easier to observe my landscape and let the compost happen, the water pool up, or daisies to self-sow. I look for ways to do the minimum task for the biggest impact. For example, mulching is better than spraying and much better than weeding all season. I look for beautiful, low-maintenance plants that thrive in or at least tolerate my garden conditions. Plus, I am willing to live with the consequences if I miss something.
