Easy Tips for Garden Maintenance

Summer is around the corner, flowers will be blossoming and everything will turn green. Without a little bit of help, a garden may flounder this year as the frost and cold weather blanket the garden beds. Here are a few simple things a gardener can do to help his garden out of its winter sleep.

Prepping the Flower Beds

It is likely that debris, animals, and weeds have taken their toll on your once-beautiful garden. A healthy garden bed is free from garbage and weeds must be removed to leave room for growing, colourful flowers.

Cleaning out the garden bed is not a difficult chore, though it can be time consuming depending on the damage. Start by looking at the bed and removing any visible garbage. This will immediately enhance the look of the bed without being a difficult task. A good idea would be to have young children help with this as it is easy and will get them involved in gardening.

Remove any dead bulbs, or flower heads, that are in the bed and will not be coming back as these only take up valuable space that could be used for a new flower or plant. These should have been taken up in the fall, but in the off-chance a gardener forgot, do a quick run-through and make sure none were missed.

Garden Planning

Some people have a garden just to have a garden. Other people like to plan their garden to ensure a maximum explosion of season-round colour. Planning a garden allows a gardener to examine all of the different options available and what decide on what will work in his area.

Bulbs need to be planted before the ground begins to freeze in the fall, which makes them relatively resistant to the frost. These bulbs will allow for a full-coverage of colour in the spring and summer with minimal work applied.

Other plants are not as easy to care for as bulbed plants; seeds require spacing, a lot of water and attention. Simply buying an already budding plant and placing it in the ground will, most often, not produce many results either. Plants need food, sunlight, and have short-life spans depending on their specie. Research this before deciding a certain plant is a must-have for the garden.

How to Get Rid of Garden Pests

Cats and other animals love gardens. They dig holes, and eat flowers, and defecate the area without much thought to the hard work and time the gardener put into making it. There are a few, friendly ways to keep these lovable pests out of the garden.

To keep wandering, curious deer from eating plants, sprinkle hair around the border. As surprising and strange as this method sounds, deer do not like the smell of humans and will steer clear of the area. Next time you get your hair cut at the salon, simply ask for the clippings. Sprinkle them lightly around the outside of the garden, just lightly; a thick visible border is not required.

Raccoons and other animals will eat flowers, but there are tricks to keeping them away as well. Sprinkle peppers around the crops, and it will be highly irregular for an animal to continue gorging on them.

Revitalizing the Garden

Gardening can be a lot of work, especially maintaining a garden after a hearty winter. Some plants don’t make it through, debris has collected in the garden beds, and a gardener can get overwhelmed.

There are very simple steps to bringing a garden back to its usual splendour. By cleaning the beds of debris and dead plants, planting new plants, and keeping animals at bay, a garden can be on its way to health in no time.

References

Natural Ways to Keep Animals Out of Your Gardens

Gardening with Flower Bulbs