To borrow the words of a late, dear friend of mine, this time of year offers an “embarrassment of riches” in the garden. From hydrangeas to zinnias, roses to dahlias, and a huge array of summer-blooming annuals, there’s certainly no shortage of color to enjoy this time of year. Vegetable gardens are beginning to yield their abundance as well, and who can resist the mouth-watering taste of fresh-picked berries? We’re blessed to live in a corner of the world that offers such a perfect climate for gardening, but as we near mid-summer, it’s important to keep our focus to ensure the beauty and bounty continue into autumn. Here are a few tips to keep summer going strong in your garden.

First, July is when we start to see several garden pests begin to show up, so take the time to regularly look for insect damage. Like clockwork, budworms have begun their feasting on petunia, calibrachoa, and geranium blossoms and buds, and unchecked, they can cause these plants to stop blooming altogether. To kill these hungry caterpillars in check and keep your plants blooming, spray every three to four weeks with Captain Jack’s Deadbug Brew, available at Vander Giessen’s. For best results, apply in the evening toward dusk, since the insecticide breaks down in bright sunlight and since budworms typically feed at night.

Another insect that’s still relatively rare but becoming more common is cottony scale, a fluffy white insect about a quarter inch long that commonly attacks hydrangeas, maples, and occasionally dogwoods. These sucking insects often attach themselves to the underside of a leaf, sucking the sap from plants and secreting a waste product called “honeydew” which can lead to mold on plant leaves. If you spot these bugs on your plants, I recommend treating them systemically with Bonide Annual Tree & Shrub Insect Control, which can be mixed with water and applied to the soil around the base of the plant.

Second, make the most of your vegetable garden by harvesting your crops regularly. Fruiting plants like peas, beans, cucumbers and tomatoes will bear more fruit if you pick regularly and avoid letting any of the fruits grow too large. To encourage more flowers and thus more fresh produce, you can also feed your vegetables occasionally with Jack’s Classic Blossom Booster fertilizer. Be sure to water your plants deeply and in early morning if possible, using a soaker hose to keep water off plants’ foliage.

Third, assess the shrubs and perennials in your garden. If many of your plants are spring bloomers and you want to add color for summer, one of my must-have perennials is echinacea, commonly called coneflower. Perfect for sunny gardens, echinacea comes in a wide range of colors, including shades of red, orange, yellow, pink, white, and more. Rarely attacked by bugs, echinacea is easy to grow and will provide flowers from early July through September—much longer than many other perennials! My go-to varieties are in the Sombrero series; these varieties withstand our wet winters very well and are naturally compact with very sturdy stems. Add echinacea to your garden to attract pollinators and leave the dried flowers over winter to feed the birds.

Finally, if your yard could use another summer bloomer, hydrangeas are hard to beat—and with so many new and improved varieties coming out in the last few years, it’s hard to pick a favorite. Limelight Prime improves on the classic Limelight variety with stronger stems, a more compact habit, and more vivid colors, and Fire Light continues to be one of my favorites with pure white flowers that age to a rich pomegranate pink. If you like the look of more traditional mophead or lacecap varieties, look for rebloomers that continue to put out flowers throughout summer—Rhythmic Blue, Tilt-a-Swirl, and Tuff Stuff all offer fresh flowers until autumn. We currently have a great selection of hydrangeas in stock at the nursery, so stop in to browse the varieties perfect for your yard.

As anyone from other hotter, more humid parts of the country will tell you, it’s hard to beat summer in the Pacific Northwest. Make the most of it this month and enjoy the long days outside. The beauty that nature has to offer here truly amounts to an embarrassment of riches!