Summer — to do and plan

Maintaining beauty and protecting your investment

As summer arrives, it’s the season to enjoy your outdoor spaces, but it’s also one of the most important times to protect the health and appearance of your landscape. Regular maintenance during the warmer months helps keep lawns green, plants healthy, and outdoor living areas looking their best while preventing small problems from becoming costly repairs.

Whether you’re looking for projects you should tackle today or planning improvements for the coming seasons, we’ve put together helpful recommendations to guide you. Below you’ll find a list of tasks to complete now to keep your property in top condition, along with projects to start planning for next season so you can stay ahead and make the most of your landscape investment.

If you have questions or would like professional assistance, the Messer Landscape team is ready to help you create and maintain an outdoor space you’ll enjoy season to season. 

To do now

  • Hardscape install
  • Brush cleanup
  • Rock installation

Plan to do

  • Aeration
  • Leaf pickup
  • Fall planting
  • Fall mulching
  • Hardscape planning

FEATURED PLANTINGS

Summer Sunny Locations

PERENNIALS

Whorled/Threadleaf Tickseed Coreopsis — COREOPSIS VERTICILLATA

Tickseed Coreopsisis a tough, long-blooming herbaceous perennial. It forms dense, bushy clumps 1–3 feet tall with fine, needle-like foliage and masses of bright yellow, daisy-like flowers that bloom from summer to fall. Native to western, central and tidewater Virginia.

Butterfly Weed — ASCLEPIAS TUBEROSA

Butterfly Weed is a striking, sun-loving native perennial famous for its brilliant orange, nectar-rich flower clusters. Unlike most milkweeds, it features clear sap and alternate leaves. It thrives in well-drained, sandy, or rocky soils and is highly deer-resistant and drought-tolerant. Monarch butterfly host plant. Highly sought after by pollinators. Native throughout all of Virginia.

Little Bluestem Grass — SCHIZACHYRIUM SCOPARIUM

Little Bluestem Grass is a highly adaptable, native perennial bunchgrass. It features striking blue-green summer foliage that transforms into glowing shades of orange, red, and purple in the fall. In late summer, it produces feathery, silver-white seed heads that provide lasting winter interest. Native throughout all of Virginia.

SHRUBS

Buttonbush Cephalanthus Occidentalis

Buttonbush is a deciduous, multi-stemmed native shrub known for its distinct, spherical, pincushion-like white flowers. Thriving in wetlands and wet soils, it is a low- maintenance, wildlife-friendly plant highly valued for supporting pollinators, managing water runoff, and stabilizing soil along pond edges. Its Fall color is yellow-red. Native throughout all of Virginia.

Shrubby St. Johnswort — HYPERCIUM PROLIFICUM

St. Johnswort is a dense, mounded, deciduous shrub growing 1 to 5 feet tall, it features bright green foliage, exfoliating reddish bark, and clusters of showy, star-like yellow flowers that bloom profusely from early to late summer. Native throughout most of Virginia.

Carolina Rose — ROSA CAROLINA

Also known as the pasture rose, is a hardy, deciduous shrub. It typically grows 1 to 3 feet tall, features fragrant, 5-petaled pink flowers in late spring – mid summer. Has brilliant red rose hips in summer – winter. Fall color is reddish-orange. Native throughout Virginia.

TREES

Sourwood Oxydendrum Arboreum

This is a deciduous understory tree native to the eastern United States, particularly the Appalachian region. Known as the "sorrel tree" or "lily-of-the-valley tree," it is famous for its sour-tasting leaves, drooping sprays of summer flowers, and brilliant crimson fall foliage. The honey from the trees flowers is highly prized. Northern and northwestern Virginia.

American Hornbeam

This is a small, slow-growing, deciduous understory. Known for its smooth, slate-gray bark with unique muscle-like ridges, it is also known as musclewood, blue beech, and ironwood. In the late spring and summer small green flowers turn into maple-like samaras. It typically reaches 20 to 35 feet in height. Fall color is orange-red. Native throughout Virginia.
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