Preparing your garden for the summer

Posted on April 15th, 2016

In Britain, there’s usually a 2-week period where the sun is out for longer than a few minutes and the temperature rises above 12 degrees. This is a period we call summer. During this period such activities as BBQ’ing, cutting the grass and generally living in your garden seem like essential life choices.

But before said fortnight of burnt burgers, it’s beneficial to get your garden prepared. The ideal preparation for this is during spring: the nights are getting longer, it’s (slightly) warmer and some of your favourite garden plants are staring to liven up.

Below we outline how to turn your garden into a flourishing masterpiece come the summer

Firstly, you need to have a vision in your own mind of how you want your garden to look. This is a great way to spend an early spring weekend when the weather is still in winter-mode. Once you’ve decided on how you want your garden to look, order yourself some summer-flowering bulbs that will add a splash of colour when summer finally arrives.

The carnage that winter brings in your garden is visible for all to see: brown leaves, shrivelled plants and the odd weed will probably be a familiar site when you look out to your borders and lawns! Get some old clothes on, venture outside and clear as much of the debris as possible! This is a great activity to get the kids involved in as well, as they can gather leaves whilst you go along and top dress the garden beds.

Our next step to your garden make over is not particularly glamourous — cleaning and fixing! Check your flower beds to see if any of the borders are bowing at all and if they are, replace them. You’ll also want to scrub your greenhouse if you’ve got one, as well as all of your gardening tools. Oh and power wash the BBQ because we all know it needs doing!

A common problem with gardening is that you’re constantly battling against garden pests who will eat through your lovely displays. The best thing to do it to go through your flower beds and remove any pests that you come across. You may also want to treat your soil with pesticides to prevent them returning — the earlier you do this, the better.

Hopefully by now your bulbs have arrived, so you can get them planted. When planting bear in mind the colour of the flowering plants so that they don’t clash if placed next to each other. You also need to consider the spacing of your new plants, as in the summer you may get plants that are already blooming, so factor this into your layout.

If you’ve got bushes or shrubs that you want to move to another part of the garden, now is the best time to do this! Make sure when you dig them out you take as much of the root as you can and don’t do it on a blustery day — the wind will dry the roots quicker. When re-bedding, make sure you water them well afterwards so that they bed in quicker.

When your friends come round in summer, you want a lawn to be proud of, so the work on this starts today! Grab a rake and remove any wreckage winter has left behind and then proceed to sprinkle grass seed evenly across the lawn. Make sure you water regularly until the seeds start to grow for a lush lawn that is full of life!

So now you’ve sorted your flower beds and lawn, but what about the hedges you’ve already got? They may well be over grown after the colder months, so grab some secateurs and trim away until your hedges are neat and tidy.

It’s probably best to give your patio a power wash, even if you think it doesn’t need it! You’ll be amazed at how much will come away and afterwards you’ll see the benefits no end. Patio furniture such as benches could also do with being treated in wood preserver or just cleaning up if made of metal, so that they look fantastic.

And there you have it, the Seddon Homes guide to maintaining your garden this spring so that it’s glorious in summer.

Blog page Older Posts Newer Posts