Garden centres are packed with people looking to give their gardens a makeover now the better weather is here. But do you really need to spend a fortune on new pots or plants when all your garden probably needs is a little Spring clean? Chill a bottle of wine because this won’t take long…
Start with some light weeding
Tackle the weeds now and you stop them spreading and so prevent a bigger job later in the summer. You can buy a range of weed killers but I use an old weeding tool that pulls them out by the roots. This means I reduce the amount of chemicals I use, which is kinder to wildlife. I also run less risk of spraying the plants I want to thrive but which are situated nearby.
I won’t mow the lawn just yet as a frost might damage the mown grass. Instead I sew a little grass seed and cover with tarpaulin to allow it to germinate while the nights are still cold.
Take the trees out of the lawn
I live in the shade of some tall sycamores which every Autumn shed their seeds on my lawn. Now is the time to remove them.
If you can get to the seedlings as they emerge and have just started to push out two small slender leaves, you can prevent them growing, even if you don’t manage to pull out all the root.
Once they have several leaves you need to be more careful about their removal.
A brush here…
Clear away dead vegetation, sweep paths and give patios and decks a good clean to remove stains and green build up. See also how to clean mould off a patio
And a clip there
The biggest mistake amateur gardeners often make is pruning too hard.
Sometimes the shock of all that cutting is too much for the poor old plant. If you get too agressive it can take a while for green, new growth to come through and the plant may die off altogether.
Prepare pots
Prepare pots by removing dead growth,thinning roots and adding new compost. You may find that pots have cracked in the winter frosts. Re-pot but hold onto the old pot pieces. These can go into the bottom of pots before the compost to act as drainage.
Now, where’s that wine…
