Maintaining a garden is tough, especially mowing the lawn unless you have one of those self propelled lawn mowers tested by professionals. Often, they can quickly become horror stories full of weeds, shrubs and unkempt grass. This adds to your workload in tonnes of terrible ways and doesn’t help with stress. I always struggle maintaining my garden and my friends told me to read from the expert in Australia to get some maintenance tips. I’ve got much better at gardening so I’ve come up with a few of my own top tips to help you keep your garden looking perfect all year round!
Thankfully, there are some things you can do to ease this workload. Many people won’t be satisfied with their current homespace, but there are some things you can do to spruce up the exterior. This also includes your garden, and here are some simple ways to get it up to scratch in no time!
Avoid ‘Temporary’ Planting
A traditional, seasonal planting scheme can offer you great colour, but requires constant attention. If you have to constantly regrow your flowers to match a particular time of year, the fun will turn to labour. If you wanted to go full throttle and plant some colourful trees that will also involve a lot of maintenance. Especially when you will have to prune your trees. This is when people who lead busy lives turn to professional arborist services similar to what The Local Tree Experts offer to help maintain that great look in your garden. We understand that this isn’t for everyone though. This is why we generally recommend plants that will last you all year.
Invest in some all-weather perennial plants, and move away from a more temporary planting scheme. Focus on something more long-term, and you’ll see your workload decrease.
Choose A Slow-Growing Hedge
The faster a hedge grows, the more you’ll have to trim it. Luckily, you can opt for one that grows slower. Taxus baccata, Ilex aquifolium or syringa meyeri are all worthwhile choices. All these should halt that rapid growth that can quickly become an annoyance.
You can find more information on hedge selection here, to help choose something that’s right for your space.
Use Synthetic Grass
While many people prefer the natural feel of real grass, synthetic grass is also a viable option.
It gives you that look you want with absolutely none of the maintenance. Among their many other benefits, products like Multiturf won’t be slippery when wet, don’t need to be soiled and will not grow.
And, because you’ll be in complete control of placement, you won’t have patches of grass growing in all the wrong places. You can choose to have a huge lawn, tiny strips, or a simple lining around your patio. It’s up to you!
Consider using Water Features (but make sure they’re not too shallow)
If you’re someone who has a small pond or other water feature in their garden, you’ll want to avoid making it too shallow.
If it’s too shallow, it’ll dry up fast, meaning you’ll have to constantly top it up. Besides increasing your water bill, this just becomes a massive pain. Choosing a larger feature will ensure that it can self-regulate, even in hot weather. I have quite a large pond in my garden so I’ve been spending a bit of time looking for a pond fountain. I think I’ve found the perfect one and I know it will look beautiful in my garden.
Containers, Containers, Containers…
While it may seem a good idea to buy a container for every different plant you want to display, it’s not. This means you’ll have to feed, water and plant-up dozens of separate containers, which isn’t ideal.
Instead, choose a planter with a larger volume. For starters, these can hold a greater amount of compost, meaning you can get more plants in one space.
Additionally, more compost means less chance of drying out, as you’ll only have to water one big surface area. Beats watering many smaller ones!
With this article, we hope we’ve helped ease your garden workload a little. Remember, you can still get everything looking pretty by using shortcuts! And as a bonus, you’ll be adding value to your home, meaning you’ll get that money back when you sell.
Do you garden?
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So cute!!! I love gardening as well. I have to get out there and get all the leaves and old plants out first. Ugh so much work ha
Great tips! I don’t have much of a green thumb, but I’m hoping to spruce up our yard this spring! xx
Great tips! I don’t have much of a green thumb, but I’m hoping to spruce up our yard this spring! xx
Oh man, the weather is starting to change to beautiful so I’ve been dreading the maintenance! I love the hedge look and it really does help keep out the weeds from other yards and I love the clean line look. I do however plant those beautiful annuals every year. It is a lot of work but boy we have a lot of color for 5 months. I haven’t tried getting a water feature, I have enough trouble keeping up with all of the yard maintenance. Love the list, thanks so much for sharing!!
Great tips! I am waiting paitiently for spring so I can plant my garden and flower pots! I love my garden, it is my happy place in the summer!
Yay! Garden season is almost here! I hardly use containers at all any more, just a couple of window boxes, and I’m hoping my kids will finish my fountain/pond this spring. Thanks for the inspiration!
all are really good tips angie! so true that taking care of a garden is a ton of work, but being outside in the sunshine and fresh air makes it so much more fun!! <3
I love all of your tips! My favorite is choosing a larger pot to hold multiple plants. It makes so much sense to care for on larger container than many small ones!
I love all of your tips! My favorite is choosing a larger pot to hold multiple plants. It makes so much sense to care for on larger container than many small ones!
My deck area is full of containers. They make it easy to care for your plants and change things up every year. Great tips!
Great tips 🙂 We’ve got tons of empty planters sitting around (yard sale score). I need to work up the courage to make use of them this spring 😀