Everything You Need To Know About Keeping A Great Garden

Everybody wants to be able to enjoy a stunning garden. When you’ve worked hard to buy a house that you love and you’ve had your eyes on creating a garden that you can be truly proud of, you often want to be sure that you can keep things up.  Even if your garden is already gorgeous and just how you want it, then need to know what to do to keep it looking that way. Read on to find out how.

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You know it’s never as simple as buying a house with a beautiful garden and then everything is perfect. Instead, you often have to buy a great house with a substandard garden and then work hard to get it up to scratch.

If you’re passionate about having a garden that you can be proud of, but you have no idea where to start, it’s always best to begin with the basics. You usually find that once you’re able to get to grips with some basic maintenance and how-to’s, you can really do something special with your garden. So let’s assume that you’re already working on the landscaping side of things, or that you have a fully designed garden to work with. Here’s everything else that you need to know about keeping it looking lovely.

It Takes Work

First of all, lets get real a moment.  Gardening takes work and is also incredibly therapeutic but it can be overwhelming when you are juggling all the other things in and around the home. So it’s often a good idea to get your mind around that; from growing your own vegetables to planting beautiful borders of pretty flowers, this isn’t something you can do without effort. You need to know that you get back what you put in, so prepare to put the work in.

Find A Schedule

The next thing to be aware of is the kind of work you need to put in. Doing a big job one day and then not touching the garden again for weeks won’t always keep it looking good. Instead, you have to be consistent when you’re looking to keep it in check. For this reason, it can be a good idea to come up with a schedule or a routine covering off when you’ll do a bit of gardening.  Tasks which you should have on your schedule include:

• watering
• weeding
• feeding
• sowing
• transplanting

Keep Everything Tidy

The easiest way to get your garden looking great is to keep everything tidy. Make sure that you’re weeding, mulching, mowing and clearing back regularly so that everything looks like you want it to on an ongoing basis.  Got a lot to take it on?  Try rounding up friends and family to help out with big projects, we got in friends to help spread mulch in the new food forest and provided lunch and some beers!

Keep Your Tools In Good Shape

Photo Credit: Eco Warrior Princess on Unsplash

You’re probably familiar with the old saying “a bad worker blames their tools” and to keep your garden in tip top condition, you need to make sure that you’re looking after your tools. If you want to be able to maintain your garden well on a regular basis, you have to not only have the right tools, like a hoe, shovel, garden fork etc but they need to be in great working order too. If you have more advance garden tools like a tiller or a mower, make sure that you research the options you need, including OEM parts, and be sure to purchase the correct parts you need. When you commit to using the best tools and keeping them in shape, your garden will be easier to maintain.

Nourish Your Lawn

Next, you’re going to want to turn your attention to your lawn. Lawns are a fact of life in suburban areas and to avoid a nastygram from the city or the HOA, you need to work towards keeping a beautiful lawn by nurturing it in the right way.  There are options available which don’t require industrial chemicals they help keep your lawn looking up to par according to the neighbors.

Research The Right Plants

When it comes to planting or rearranging the design of your garden over the years, it helps to be knowledgeable about plants. Choosing the right plants can be tough but buying the right plants will be an investment for your garden in the long run; you don’t want to keep growing that tropical vine when you get 11 ft of snow in October. Plant selection is only easy when you know how but selecting the right plants will save your money.  So you will want to read up on the different plant families and how to take care of them if you’re going to get this right.

Aim To Nurture The Wildlife

Photo Credit: corina ardeleanu on Unsplash

If you want your garden to look as natural as possible, or you want to have an organic garden which can help take care of itself, then it’s going to be important for you to attract wildlife . By encouraging different creatures and animals to comes into your garden, you will find that your garden looks so much better and it has a nicer atmosphere too.  A natural garden can act as a feeding station for birds, bees and butterflies and will help support and attract pollinators into your garden to help you get a better harvest of fresh produce.  If you are wanting bigger harvests, becoming a beekeeper is a great way to help your fruiting plants pollinate!

Focus On Flow

Whenever you’re working on the maintenance or you are looking to add to your garden or change things over the years, it will really help you to keep the idea of flow in mind. You need to be able to think about the overall look and feel of the space that you’re creating. Don’t just make decisions on a whim. Instead, really make sure that you’re creating a sense of flow in your garden and it will always look wonderful.

Timing Is Everything

Finally, make sure that you’re aware of your timings. When it comes to your garden, you really do have to get the right jobs done at the right times. You will find that there are different things to do during the different months. So start to work out what care and maintenance you should be doing when and your garden should always look great year round.  A planner can be a great resource to mark down the jobs you need to complete, especially when you have work to do and other chores around the house.

Make sure to take the time to celebrate your accomplishments in the garden, take a step back and see a job well done.  This can help with the feeling of overwhelm and keep you motivated when it comes to large projects.

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