Basics on Late Summer Deadheading
Summers in Utah are long, particularly the last several summers, and this means areas of your landscaping and lawn care will run in stages. Different parts of the summer bring different priorities, and as we enter the final stages of the major plant season headed into fall, there’s a whole new set of areas to look at.
At Greenside, we’re here to help. Our landscaping services include everything from lawn cleanup to weed control, plus the kind of seasonal and in-season variations that you need to keep your landscaping looking beautiful year-round. One late summer area we can be of help with? A process called deadheading, which works to freshen up areas of the garden and prepare the plants for the winter. Let’s go over all the basics of deadheading.
What is Deadheading?
Deadheading refers to the process of removing all the spent flower blossoms and even stems that have run their course already over the summer. This limits seed production from flowers that are done producing, allowing new blooms to grow on plants that can indeed bring new flowers in. It lets those spent flowers begin storing more energy in their roots, rather than producing and ripening more seeds right away.
“Training” Plants
Deadheading is good for your garden in multiple ways, in particular for how it prioritizes certain plant’s growth cycles within your desired garden scheme. In essence, you’re “training” these plants to perform in a manner that lines up with your plans for the garden, plus stays in lockstep with the visual plan you had for the entire landscape. And not only that, but it makes the garden look fresher and cleaner within just a couple hours.
Too Many Pollinators?
If you have a lively garden and you don’t spend time deadheading during the late summer, you could run into issues where you have a few too many pollinators on your hands. If all your plants continue producing fruits, seeds and nuts at high rates even when they aren’t needed, you’ll see lots of bugs and holes in leaves as a result.
Various wildlife will feed on these plant outputs, increasing the damage you have to deal with in your garden. Some gardeners are fine with this, but those who prioritize a clean aesthetic will want to limit it well in advance by deadheading.
A Balance
There’s no set goal here – you can deadhead as much or as little as you want, and this can even change between summers. Not every season is the same as the last. Some landscapers try a few different deadheading formats in consecutive years to see which best suits their garden, while others have a different design plan every year that dictates different deadheading requirements.
For more on deadheading, or to learn about any of our landscaping services, speak to the pros at Greenside today.
