4 Steps To Get Your Garden Ready For Summer

It’s official – summer is on its way. We can feel it. And that means that we need to get our gardens looking gorgeous so that we have somewhere beautiful to enjoy all that sunshine! Follow these steps and you’ll have a garden to be proud of…

 

The green, green grass of home

Making sure that your lawn looks lush and lovely will make a huge difference to your garden – after all, grass usually takes up more space than any other plant. Here are some tips on getting yours gorgeously green:

 

• After the wet winter season, make sure that your lawn is dry before getting the lawn mower out. If your grass is wet then a mowing session can end up taking up a little more than you intended – as in, whole clumps of soil.
• Don’t forget to trim the edges of your lawn to make sure pathways and flowerbeds look tidy, too.
• Gradually introduce a granular feed to your lawn throughout the summer to keep it looking green and healthy.
• Got any patchy areas? No need to fret – just add some extra seed to thicken the grass in these areas.
• Try to get rid of weeds when you first spot them by pulling them up, but a weed killer might sometimes be necessary. A homemade solution uses one quart of water, 1 tbsp vinegar, 1 tbsp gin and 1 tsp dish soap, and it’s said to kill the root – for some other homemade solutions check this post.

 

 

Please be seated

What’s the point of putting all of that effort into your garden if you’ve nowhere to sit and enjoy it? Invest in some classic metal or wooden furniture that will serve your garden for years to come. Or, give your old furniture a new lease of life – teak oil can make wood look good as new; or if you fancy a more radical change, grab a can of brightly coloured masonry paint for wooden or metal furniture.

 

 

Burn baby burn

A string of solar-powered fairy lights can transform a garden into a grotto, but for a lighting solution that’s also practical for green fingered gurus, consider a chiminea.

It will provide warmth as well as light when the sun goes down, and the flickering illumination is particularly romantic, but it can also be a gardener’s best friend by enabling you to burn garden waste. Be careful of what you burn, though – here’s a of useful guide on what to burn and what not to burn.

 

Get growing

Of course, your garden won’t really be up to much with no plants, so to make sure that you’ll have some lovely flora to look at come summertime you’ll want to start planting in the spring – got for summer bedding plants, but also some perennials that will pop up again and again. Before you put anything in the ground, though, thoroughly clear the area of weeds – your plants will thank you!

If you’re going to start a vegetable patch, now is the time to get some veggies in the ground so that you can enjoy them throughout the season.

 

About The Author

Hi there, my name is Eric, I work at Millrace Garden centre and I just love my garden. I am looking forward to being able to spend some summer evenings sitting in my own garden and enjoying the plants and wildlife.