Summer has just officially arrived … and with it a whole new to-do list of tasks aimed at keeping the garden going in the best possible shape all season long. We’re succession sowing vegetables, of course, as the spinach and early salads face, and probably already pulled the pansies in favor of summer annuals in the pots – but there is always more, more, more to do in other parts of the garden, too. 

On the list: some strategic summer pruning, and a likewise strategic plan for deadheading or otherwise reducing self-sowers so there’s not too much of a good thing, for instance … plus there are perennials in need of haircuts and more.

My friend Ken Druse, author of 20 garden books and a longtime gardener in New Jersey, calls a lot of it not full-scale cleanup, exactly, but “editing,” and that’s our topic today, with his help. 

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