Summer Maintenance Tips For A Thriving Garden
Summer Maintenance Tips For A Thriving Garden
The Common Sense Gardening initiative found that the UK is eager to get out into their gardens, with a 29% increase in millennials enjoying gardening. Summer is the perfect time to do some general maintenance in the garden, from clearing out the guttering to sweeping the patio, sorting out the shed, painting the fence and deadheading your flowers to keep them blooming for longer, resulting in a beautiful garden that you’ll love spending time in.
Have a tidy up
Even if you had a spring clean your garden will have seen many rainy days since that will have led to lots of growth, which includes those pesky weeds. Start by pulling up weeds and sweeping patio areas. These small jobs can make a big difference to the overall tidiness of your garden. Summer is also the perfect time for checking and clearing your guttering and drains for any buildup of debris that could cause blockages. Blockages can be caused by the wind blowing leaves and sticks into it, particularly guttering that’s near trees, so these can be cut back, along with any other trees, shrubs and bushes that are starting to look untamed.
Reorganise your shed
The shed is a perfect storage solution, and not always just for garden essentials. Over the winter and spring, the garden shed tends to become a mess as more and more odd bits are stored in there and then forgotten about. Summer is the perfect time to take everything out and sort what you’re going to keep and what can go. While the shed is empty, give it a thorough clean and then organise where everything will go back in it. You should be able to access everything easily and know where everything is, if not you may need to be a bit more ruthless about what you’re keeping. Decide what you keep based on when the last time you used it was and how likely you are to use it again.
Repaint the fence and any other woodwork
Painting your fence, shed, benches, and anything else in the garden made from wood is essential for making it last a long time, as well as keeping it looking its best. Over the winter it’s likely your fence has faced detrimental weather conditions. It may need some minor repairs and can then be painted. A coat of Creosote or a similar treatment can give it extra protection it needs from the hot sun. Using a spray gun can make this a quick and fairly effortless job, instead of it feeling like a chore every year. If you decide to change the colour of your fence and any other woodwork you’ll probably need several coats before you can see the difference.
Do some deadheading
Summers means lots of flowers will be blooming, which means deadheading is an essential job to keep the flowers coming through while keeping your garden looking tidy. Everything from bedding plants to roses look better and grow better when they are regularly deadheaded. Try to do some deadheading regularly, even if it’s only for five to ten minutes at a time. The only exception to this is varieties of flowers that produce colourful hips, which shouldn’t be deadheaded. Applying a second dose of fertiliser at the end of June will also help to boost blooms. Deadheading is the perfect way to give your back a rest from all the other garden jobs too.
Having a thorough tidy up can make your garden look a lot better and can usually be done within a day or two. Tidying up your shed and giving it a paint, along with the fencing and any other woodwork, will brighten the garden up and weatherproof it. All these little jobs will help your garden to look its best.