How to Deadhead, Prune and Cutback to Improve Your Summer Garden

Proper garden maintenance is the key to keep it blooming all summer long. Deadheading, pinching and cutting back are the keys to maintaining a healthy summer flower garden. When done regularly it will ensure fuller plants as well as bigger and more numerous blooms.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• pruning shears

1. Deadhead. Identify the old, dying buds on your flowering plant. If allowed to remain on the plant, they will go to seed. And while the bud goes through this process, no other flowers will grow there. Furthermore, seeding takes up vital energy that your plant will otherwise direct to existing blooms.With pruning shears, remove only the spent bud with a diagonal cut. Do not remove the stem, this is where subsequent buds will bloom. However, if your flowering plant only features one bloom per stem, remove the entire stem, cutting near the base of the plant.

2. Pinching. This method should be used on the leafing plants in your garden. Identify the brittle thin stems on these plants and remove them using your fingers. This method of deadheading encourages leafing plants to become bushier and more full.

3. Cutting Back. This method should be employed on flowering plants that feature buds that are very near one another. Once the majority of the buds have bloomed, cut the plant back by 1/3 to 2/3s. Soon your plant will come back fuller than ever.

Resources

• eHow Home and Garden Topic Guide