Mid-Summer Garden Tour: What’s Blooming and How I Handle Garden Pests Naturally

Take a look back at my 2019 summer garden tour with real pest and disease challenges and the natural methods I used to manage them.

One of my favorite things about looking back at old garden tours is seeing how much the garden changed from season to season and remembering the challenges that came along with it too.

This summer garden tour from my former New Jersey garden takes you back to July 2019, when the perennial borders were filling in beautifully, but pest and disease problems were also starting to show up with the heat and humidity of midsummer.

Over the years, I learned that simply walking the garden daily was one of the best ways to stay ahead of issues before they became overwhelming. During this particular stretch of summer, I spotted everything from insect damage to fungal disease and started addressing each problem using natural gardening methods I still rely on today.

In this garden tour, I’m sharing what I found, what the symptoms looked like, and the organic approaches I used at the time to help keep the garden healthy and thriving.

Then I would absolutely add an editor’s note near the top like:

Editor’s Note: This garden tour was originally photographed and published in 2019 from my former Zone 6b New Jersey garden and has been updated with additional gardening insights and organic growing tips.

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Early Summer Garden Tour

To give you an idea of the problems you might find, I am bringing you on a tour of my own garden to share what I see and how I’m addressing each issue.

Garden Pest Control for Deer Damage

While walking the gardens, I noticed deer damage to some of my plants. They ate almost all of the buds off of my roses about two weeks ago. This was my own fault though because I did nothing to protect them.

After noticing the damage, I sprayed all of my roses with Deer Out 40oz Ready-To-Use Deer Repellent and that seems to have kept them at bay.

There are fresh buds on them now, so hopefully, I’ll have some nice rose blooms in the next week. They also started nibbling on my Sedum ‘Autumn Joy‘ plants near the road. Although I’ve been spraying them with deer repellent, I sprayed them again to give them extra insurance and they have since left them alone.

Living in deer country, it is difficult to expect them not to browse. But, it is possible to minimize the damage. To learn more, see my blog Deer-Proofing Your Garden.

Garden Pest Control for Groundhog Damage

If you saw my Instagram stories, you know how extensive the damage is to the containers on my deck. The groundhog visits my deck and snacks on my plants yearly, but typically does most of the damage in late August. This year, he struck in June which is early. I’d like to enjoy these plants for at least half of the summer before he decimates them!

Heading into the gardening season, I wanted to experiment with some repellents. After trying some out, I can’t recommend anything at this time. They don’t work at all for this purpose at all.

My decks have multiple entrances, so gating it off would not help. The only real solution I have is to trap and relocate it.

Although I’d love to move this guy along, I am not a fan of trapping and relocating animals. For the relocation to be effective, it needs to be dropped over 10 miles away or it will return to home.

On its face, sending it off sounds like a great idea BUT when doing that, we are taking the animal out of its habitat and dropping it off in the middle of somewhere, where it has no home protection and predators are likely to get to it.

The chances of survival are slim, so I don’t really want to go this route. We did it once several years ago and I felt terrible about it. For now, I’m going to live with it.

And for the time being, I’m going to use my dogs’ fur that is left over after brushing them and put them in my pots to see if that will help.

If you have any suggestions aside from killing, trapping, and relocating, please let me know because I’m all ears!

Garden Pest Control for Fall Webworm

While walking around this early summer garden tour, I noticed a web around a few branches on one of my Blueberry Bushes.

Upon closer inspection, it was a fall webworm. The nest was not there a few days ago so that’s how quickly problems can arise. Looking at it further, there were loads of tiny caterpillars inside laying eggs which is not good for any garden!

To remedy the situation, I grabbed my favorite pruners, to cut the infected branches off, place them in a garbage bag, and disposed of them.

Problem solved (for now) but I’ll need to keep an eye on the gardens.

Garden Pest Control for Powdery Mildew

While touring the front beds, I noticed powdery mildew on my Tall Phlox. This plant is susceptible to it, although it seems to have hit much earlier this season.

If the problem was minimal, I could use some neem oil on it. Next year, I will need to be a little more proactive about using it to control the problem sooner.

But after all the rain we had and the extent that it’s on these plants, I am inclined to pull them out before it infects the rest of the garden.

While taking these photos, I put my phone down and dug them out. It happens that fast around here! LOL!

This is my chance to replace them with something less fussy and I can try something different there to change up the border. It’s extra work, yes, but it’s also an opportunity!

Earl Summer Garden Tour of the Front Cottage Garden

As we move through summer, Coreopsis, Echincea, Bee Balm, and Butterfly Weed are starting to bloom.

These plants will attract more pollinators to the garden.

The front border is drawing in more and more bees by the day.

They are really fun to watch zip around from flower to flower.

Since deer are stopping by more frequently than in years past, I just sprayed the plants that are more susceptible to deer damage.

Hopefully, they will walk on by and find a new path.

Well Garden

The well garden is bursting with yellow and orange hues from the Daylillies, Butterfly Weed, Coreopsis, Petunias, and Marigolds right now.

I love how these colors pair with the dramatic foliage color of Smoketree.

While I’m walking around this bed, dragonflies are covering the Daylillies and the bees are in heaven with the Butterfly Weed blooms.

Mailbox Garden

The Mailbox Garden is doing really well. Jackmanii Clematis is in full bloom and climbing the mailbox beautifully.

Someone drove over the front corner of my garden and took out a small portion of the Daylillies.

Since the garden is so close to the driveway…it happens.

Early Summer Garden Tour in the Backyard Gardens

The backyard gardens are doing really well.

I was able to do some weeding over the last week – not as much as I would like – but got a few of the beds cleaned up.

We are really enjoying the deck and fire pit areas and use both all the time!

The Vegetable Garden

Backyard Border

Deck Gardens

This is one of my favorite places to hang out.

Now that the containers are filling in, it feels really lush and tranquil. We eat dinner out here every night.

It is a great place to regroup with family and friends.

For source information and to learn more about how I decorated this area, see my blog Decorating the Deck for Summer.

Fire Pit Gardens

We use the fire pit a few times a week.

It’s nice to sit outside in a different area of the property and appreciate the beauty around us.

To learn more about this outdoor living area, see my blog Outdoor Fire Pit.

More About Garden Pest Control and Finding Pest and Disease Problems

Do you walk your gardens every day to enjoy them and watch for issues early? What problems have you noticed in the garden and how are you addressing them? I would love to know more in the comments below.