Top gardening tips for your new home.

Bring your garden to life with our top tips for a summer ready garden

Many of our customers tell us that having a garden is their favourite part of their new homes and a perfect place to entertain and spend time with their loved ones, especially in the summer months. However, we know that maintaining your outdoor spaces can be challenging at times especially if this is your first ever home of your own. That’s why we have put together our top five gardening tips to help you make sure your gardens are summer ready.

Lawn care  

Regularly mowing your lawn will help promote lush, healthy, green growth. It is recommended you cut your grass at least once a week in the summer, and once every two weeks during spring, autumn, and warmer winters. This trimming encourages the roots to spread, which will help to fill gaps and reduce weeds. Keeping your lawn hydrated is also a key element to ensuring you have healthy, green grass all year round. However, be careful not to over-water as this can cause a shallow root system and severely compacted soil. The best way to make sure your lawn is evenly watered is to purchase a sprinkler, or collect rainwater from a water butt and sprinkle over using a watering can.  

Making the most of your outdoor spaces  

Having a great outdoor space is perfect for entertaining family and friends during the summer months, and even if you don’t have the largest garden, there are plenty of options to make the most out of your outside areas. Incorporating a small living area in your gardens, using either patio slabs or decking is a great use of space. Here, you can place outdoor furniture, such as a sofa or table and chairs to extend your entertainment room. You could also add fairy lights, a rug and potted plants to make it more inviting.  Another option is to save precious outdoor square footage is by taking what you can off the ground. If you have a wall or strong fence available, this is the ideal spot to fix a slim shelving unit. You can use these levels to display plants, store smaller garden accessories, and as somewhere to set your drinks!

Potted plants  

If you don’t have an area in the garden to plant seeds directly into the ground, using planters is a great alternative and can become a vocal point of your outdoor space. There are a large variety of styles, colours and textures of plant pots, so you can really reflect and bring your personality outdoors. Raised beds are also a firm favourite to a lot of people as these are sleek and modern, and keep any four legged-friends or tiny hands from getting to your precious plants.  

What to plant in your garden now

During May, the risk of frost and poor weather should have passed in most regions of the UK, meaning many vegetable, herb, and flower seeds can be directly sown outdoors. Vegetables such as cucumbers, rocket, carrots, courgettes, and beetroot are all ready to be planted in the spring months and will be ready to eat by the end of summer. Similarly, sunflowers, cornflowers, zinnias, and scabious flowers can all be planted in your gardens at this stage of the year, and will already be sprouting in 14 days if watered regularly and left in a sun-lit area of the garden.  

Five items you can compost  

Composting not only enhances the quality of your garden soil, but also contributes towards avoiding unnecessary food waste. There are many compostable items, but here are our top five.  

• Uncooked fruit and vegetable peelings (potato, apple, and banana skins etc),
• Newspaper,
• Coffee beans,
• Eggshells,
• Stale bread.