How To Keep Your Garden Looking Presentable All Year Round
What Makes A Beautiful Garden
Gardening is an energizing hobby. Many people have taken to it over the past few months, and a lot of people spend years cultivating only the most beautiful rose bushes, the most colorful rhododendrons, all to bask in the fruits of hours of labor. Some take great pride in their lawns, ensuring that every grass blade is cut to the exact right length. For others, hosting guests on the patio is enough to encourage a clean and tidy garden.
Keeping your garden neat and tidy can sometimes feel like a chore. Ensuring your hedges are not overgrown and missing even the smallest sign of weeds can feel like an energy-consuming task. While it does take some effort, an immaculate garden is a happy garden.
We have put together a handy guide on how to keep your garden looking tidy all year round. This includes tips on keeping your flowers healthy and suggestions for equipment such as lawnmowers, which can make the process that much easier, and far less daunting. If anything, keeping your garden tidy can take less time than you think, and might even be quite fun.
Let’s get stuck and review our top recommendations when it comes to keeping a tidy garden at any time of the year.
1. Plants And Flowers
Nothing blooms brighter than a garden in spring or summer, but with the addition of seasonal plants, your garden can look hale and healthy throughout fall and winter. Good plant care is essential to keeping your garden looking prim and proper all year round. Keep your flowers well fed and watered so that they always bloom their brightest, and make sure to keep them in good fertilizer. This will give them all of the nutrients they need to thrive.
When purchasing plants for your flower bed, take the time to really evaluate its condition. The leaves, for example. If they are starting to turn brown or are drooping slightly, or even showing signs of disease, they might not be the best addition to your garden. Flowers can also be a wonderful addition, so choose a variety that is less prone to weeds. This being said, weeds are known for being able to get into places they should not be, cropping up at every opportunity. When you inevitably face weeds, look for a good weed repellent, such as Round-Up, and apply it as directed. Where possible, pull the weeds up by the root, and dispose of them.
2. Grass
The grass is easy to neglect; it can grow wild almost overnight, almost like a forest in your back garden. When this happens, it’s time to break out the lawn mower, maybe the weed whacker, and take control of the situation. However, some lawnmowers can be challenging to manage, especially in colder weather, so it might be worth investing in a robot lawn mower. Much like a Roomba for your house, a robotic lawn mower acts of its own accord, sensing where the worst patches are and mowing them down. These types of lawn mowers are generally best for keeping on top of your lawn, rather than handling overgrowth from the beginning. Make sure to keep an eye on it in case it gets stuck and to compost all of the grass trimmings for next year’s planting season!
3. Hedges
Much like grass, hedges are prone to overgrowth, and in winter, can look like a scraggly, creepy mess better suited to the décor of a haunted house. During the summer months, when your hedges are nice and green, get into the habit of clipping any overgrowth as soon as you see it. It would help if you also went over it with a hedge trimmer to keep the tops and sides nice and even, giving your whole garden a sense of order, and making your environment that much more open and welcoming.
4. Patio And Decking
Late-night patio parties are wonderful, and so are the leaves that gently fall from the trees as fall rolls around. Once the party litter and leaves start to accumulate, however, it can become unsightly. Keeping your patio and deck clean of debris and garden rubbish helps keep garden pests, such as possums, roaches, and raccoons, away from your home. To prevent a build-up of litter, make sure to regularly sweep your deck, compost all compostable material where possible, and throw away all rubbish. Additionally, patios are a prime spot for clutter. This can include anything from bicycles to patio furniture you haven’t used in years. Take a day to sort through all of the things you have not used, which you will likely never use again, and arrange a garbage collection for it.
We hope that you found these top tips on how to keep your garden looking presentable all year round useful and that you will go on to implement some of our recommendations. Please be sure to let us know if you do.
Sources:
- Putting the Garden to Bed – UNH Extension
- 10 Ways to Add Biodiversity to Your Garden – Missouri Botanical Garden