Loading ...Using the words “‘dead” and “healthy” in the same sentence may seem counter intuitive, but trimming spent flowers from your garden shrubs and plants (deadheading) helps to ensure a healthy bloom next year. If you still have annuals in your garden, it’s usually possible to coax one last blast of blooms from them. As fall foliage color begins to emerge, keeping your ornamental gardens in good shape helps to highlight the fall season and display the benefits of your lawn care efforts.
photo credit:www.doityourself.com
Benefits of Good Grooming: Why Deadhead Your Garden?
Other than providing a neat appearance, deadheading spent blooms and cutting back dead and dying foliage can provide these benefits:
Deadheading just after flowers wilt can promote additional blooming as a flowering plant’s instinct is to distribute seed. Removing flowers before the seeds fall away causes the plant to produce more flowers in an attempt to complete seed distribution. In some cases, once a plant has completed its reproductive cycle by dropping seeds, the entire plant will die. Deadheading can help prolong the life and blooming cycles of some plants.
Avoid indiscriminate seeding: If you are vigilant abut deadheading, you can avoid unintentioanl seeding. Once flowers die and seeds mature, they drop or are blown away. This is nature’s way of ensuring next year’s crop, but if you don’t want a hodge-podge of plants sprouting next year, deadheading before blooms go to seed is your best bet. If you wish to harvest seeds for next year’s planting, you can wait until the sead heads are dry and store them for later planting.
Getting Started with Fall Garden ChoresOnce you’re out in the garden, you’ll notice other chores that need your attention. While deadheading, you’ll notice other things that need your attention: Trimming, pruning, mulching…
Garden gurus and lawn care warriors know that their work is never done!
