How To Smarten Your Garden
Depending on whether you enjoy gardening or not, smartening up your garden can either feel like a chore or something that you look forward to. No matter which is the case, it needs to be done to prevent your garden becoming an over run and resembling a jungle, and hopefully these top tips will help both novices and those that love gardening alike.
Clear Out Borders Regularly
It’s always a good idea to keep on top of your borders throughout the year, trimming back any deadheads and taking off any dead or dying leaves. This really helps to not only keep your borders looking fresh, but also stops the fallen leaves and soil turning sludge-like if there is lots of rain. By keeping on top of this throughout the year, it won’t seem like such a big job when you’re preparing your garden for spring and replanting as you will already be on top of it!
Sheds And Greenhouses
Sheds and greenhouses are a great addition to any garden – not only can they make wonderful features but they can help to make your garden that bit smarter by making sure that you have somewhere to store all your tools and other bits and bobs that you’ll be using in the garden. Having these stored in a shed rather than in the house saves you having to traipse them in and out, making sure that you can stay focused on the task in hand and not get distracted. If you don’t want to fork out for a brand new shed or greenhouse, you can recondition your existing one by giving your greenhouse a clean or giving your shed a lick of paint, helping to build new life into it with very little expense.
Add Colour
While it’s not necessarily a way to tidy up your garden, adding colour can really help to make your garden look a lot smarter and brighter. Whether this is opting for a theme with your plants or just adding in a little dash of colour now and then, you’ll be amazed at the difference that adding just a few bright and colourful plants will make to the overall look and feel of your garden.
Add Features
Features to smarten up your garden can be anything from splashing the cash and buying a miniature water fountain or statue to saving the pennies and strategically placing an old watering can or turning some low plant pots into a birdbath. Another idea you may not think of is purchasing a wheelie bin storage unit in order to hide all those ugly and unsightly wheelie bins. You may not consider a wheelie bin storage unit a feature, however, they are made from pressure treated timber and look very stylish that will make a great addition to any garden. You can find out more here.
Features for your garden can be as cheap or as expensive as you want them to be. They may sound like silly things to do, but they help to make your garden feel as though it has been designed by an expensive architect and help to draw your eye to specific parts of the garden, rather than it just looking like a jumble of plants (especially in winter before flowers have bloomed).
Trim Hedges and Trees
This may seem obvious but you’d be surprised how many gardens have overgrown hedges and trees, not even noticing that these things make a huge difference to the appearance of a garden. Ensuring that you keep on top of pruning and trimming hedges and trees is not only a great way to show that you care for your garden, but is also helpful to ensure that the plants grow back healthily again and again. Pruning and trimming are especially important for fruit trees and while it might sound like a lot of effort, you will reap the rewards when it is time for the tree or bush to produce fruit. Trimming, pruning and general cutting back is definitely not a job that should be overlooked and with just a little effort every now and again, it doesn’t have to be a big, daunting job either.
Obviously, there are lots and lots more ways to smarten up your garden and these are just a few ideas to help you get started if you’re stuck. The key to keeping your garden smart and tidy is little and often as this makes sure that the jobs don’t build up and you don’t feel overwhelmed. You don’t have to get all of the jobs done in a day, and if you space them out and work slowly and steadily, you’ll be seeing the benefits in no time.
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