Summer garden cleanup is the midseason tidy that keeps a garden productive rather than letting it slide into a tangle. By midsummer, the first crops have finished, weeds have grown fast in the heat, spent flowers need deadheading, and the beds that were neat in spring are now crowded, overgrown and hard to work in. A garden cleaned up in summer — spent crops cleared, weeds pulled, paths cleared, tools cleaned — is a garden with room for the fall crops, air moving through the plants, and fewer places for pests and disease to hide. It is also a garden that is far more pleasant to work in, and the work itself is lighter than it looks if it is done little and often. This guide covers the summer cleanup in order, from clearing spent crops to preparing beds for what comes next. For local advice, check your local extension service.
Clearing spent crops
The first summer cleanup job is to clear the crops that have finished. Peas that have stopped producing, early lettuce that has bolted, spring brassicas that have gone to seed, and the first flush of beans that has slowed down should all be pulled out, roots and all, so they do not take up space, water and light that a new crop could use. Do not leave a finished crop in the bed hoping it will produce a little more — it rarely does, and it harbours pests and disease while it sits there. Compost healthy material, and put diseased material in the green waste bin, not the compost heap.
Clear the bed the same day you sow or plant its replacement, so the ground is never left bare in the sun. A bed cleared and replanted on the same day loses no time, and the new crop — a succession sowing of beans or lettuce, or a fall crop of brassicas or kale — gets the best of the season. If you are not ready to replant, cover the cleared bed with a mulch or a green manure, so the soil is shaded and fed rather than left to bake. For what to plant next, see our summer planting guide and summer seed starting guides.
Weeding in summer
Weeds grow fastest in summer, and a bed left unweeded for a fortnight in July can be a weedy mess by August. Weed little and often, pulling weeds when they are small and the soil is moist after watering or rain, so they come out by the roots. A hoe run lightly over the surface of a bed on a dry day will kill young weed seedlings before they establish, and it is far quicker than pulling them one by one. Do not let weeds set seed — one weed allowed to seed in summer becomes a hundred weeds by autumn — and compost weeds before they seed, putting seeded weeds in the green waste bin instead.
Mulch is the best weed control in summer: a thick layer over bare soil blocks the light that weed seeds need to germinate, and a bed that is mulched well will need far less weeding than a bare one. Keep paths clear too, because weeds in paths spread seed into beds, and a path kept clear is a path that is easy to walk on with a watering can or a barrow. Our summer mulching guide covers mulch in detail, and the mulch calculator can help you work out how much you need.
Deadheading, pruning and tidying plants
Deadhead flowers regularly through summer, removing spent heads so plants keep flowering instead of setting seed. Roses, dahlias, zinnias, marigolds, cosmos and petunias all respond well to deadheading once or twice a week, and sweet peas need it every few days. Cut back perennials that have finished flowering, such as hardy geraniums and delphiniums, and many will produce a second flush of flowers and fresh foliage. Remove dead, diseased or damaged growth as soon as you see it, and prune summer-fruiting raspberries after harvest, cutting the fruited canes down to the ground.
Light summer pruning — removing water shoots from fruit trees, pinching out tomato side shoots, and cutting back leggy herbs — keeps plants productive and lets air move through them, which reduces disease. Do not carry out heavy pruning in summer, and do not prune a plant that is stressed by drought until it has been watered and has recovered. Clean your tools as you go, wiping secateur blades between plants if you have been cutting diseased material. Our summer pruning guide and summer flower care guide cover the detail.
Paths, structures, tools and the greenhouse
Summer is the time to keep paths clear, because a path overgrown with weeds is a path that is hard to use and a source of weed seed for the beds. Sweep paths regularly, pull weeds from between paving, and top up gravel or bark paths where they have thinned. Check plant supports, ties and trellises after wind or heavy rain, re-tying stems that have slipped and replacing any support that has broken, because a plant that flops in summer rarely recovers its shape.
Clean tools regularly in summer, not just in spring: scrub soil off spades and forks, sharpen secateurs, and oil wooden handles so they do not dry out and split. In a greenhouse, ventilate well in summer — open doors and vents during the day, shade the glass if it gets too hot, and water the floor to raise humidity — because a greenhouse that overheats will damage the plants inside it far faster than a cold greenhouse in winter. Damp down the greenhouse floor in the morning, and check plants daily for pests, which build up fast in warm, still air.
Preparing for fall while you tidy
A summer cleanup is also the moment to prepare for fall. As you clear beds, fork in compost, level the surface and water well, so the bed is ready for the fall crop that follows. Sow green manures on any bed that will be empty over winter, so the soil is covered and fed, and order seed for the fall garden if you have not already done so. Take notes on what worked and what did not — which crops produced a glut, which ran out, where the weeds were worst, and which bed dried out first — because those notes are the plan for next year's garden.
A garden cleaned up in summer is a garden that is ready for the second half of the season, and the work you do now will pay off in autumn, when the fall crops you planted into clean, fed beds are growing strongly while a neglected garden is still a tangle. For the spring version of this routine, see our spring garden cleanup guide, and browse the guides hub and the planting calendar for the full seasonal series.
Frequently asked questions
When should I do a summer garden cleanup?
Little and often through the season, with a bigger tidy in midsummer when the first crops have finished. Clear spent crops promptly, weed regularly, deadhead weekly, and keep paths and tools clean — a garden tidied a little every week is far easier than one left until autumn.
What do I do with spent summer crops?
Pull them out, roots and all, and compost healthy material. Put diseased material and weeds that have set seed in the green waste bin, not the compost heap, because a home heap rarely gets hot enough to kill disease or seeds. Replant the bed the same day, or cover it with mulch or a green manure.
How do I keep weeds down in summer?
Weed little and often when weeds are small, hoe the surface on a dry day, do not let weeds set seed, and mulch bare soil thickly so weed seeds cannot germinate. Keep paths clear too, because weeds in paths spread seed into beds.
Should I prune in summer?
Light pruning only — deadheading, removing dead or diseased wood, pinching out tomato side shoots, and cutting back leggy herbs. Heavy structural pruning belongs to the dormant season, and a drought-stressed plant should not be pruned until it has recovered.
How do I prepare beds for fall during a summer cleanup?
Clear the spent crop, fork in compost, level the surface and water well, then sow or plant the fall crop. Sow green manures on beds that will be empty over winter, and check your local extension service for fall sowing dates in your area.