Happy Easter!
The Easter weekend is upon us and hopefully the weather is good enough to allow us all to get out in the garden?!
Here are a few small jobs that can be done in between cups of tea, but will make a noticable difference once you’ve finished (and celebrated with Easter eggs, Simnel cake and/or chocolate biscuits!)
- Mow the lawn/s, using a fairly high cut setting if you have the option…it’s very early in the season so you don’t want to scalp the grass, just give it a neat trim. If you’ve got definite, formal edges to your lawn, now get the edging shears out – the transformation will be remarkable.
- Now that you’ve used the lawnmower, it’s a good time to get it cleaned up and maybe get the blades sharpened so it’s ready for a full summer of use.
If this is as far as you get on the list, get settled in a chair where you can see your garden, reward yourself with an Easter egg, slice of cake, packet of biscuits etc. and read the last note….
- Get on top of perennial weeds such as bramble, nettle, mare’s tail etc. now…how you do this is down to personal choice – you can either use a sprayable weedkiller*, which once sprayed on the leaves will be translocated to the roots and kill the entire plant or you can get some worthy exercise and hand dig the plants out, roots and all.
- If there’s any of last year’s leaves still lying around, get them raked up and either burnt or composted. If you’re burning, don’t do it while the neighbours have got their washing out and if you’re composting, try not to add too many evergreen leaves as they’ll take ages to break down.
- Check any trees or shrubs that you planted at the end of last year. Have frost and winter winds rocked them and made them unstable? If so, get them heeled in firmly now, check any tree ties haven’t come loose and then top dress with some mulch or leaf mould.
Now you’ve finished and the garden looks beautiful and tidy, take a look at your trees and hedges. Are they thriving? Has the spring foliage burst through? Has anything suddenly outgrown it’s space in the last few years? Are you concerned about anything, does something not look quite right?
If there’s anything you need relating to trees and hedges…give us a call!
* If you use weedkiller in your garden, you need to use it responsibly in order to avoid harming yourself and the environment:
As with all garden chemicals, only spray on a calm day (if you can see plants moving around, it’s too windy). This will prevent ‘drift’ from damaging yourself and the plants you want to keep.
Don’t spray if there’s a chance of rain in the following 12 hours – you don’t want it washing off onto plants you want to keep and also, it’s a waste of money if you’re going to have to reapply it later.
Try to spray as early in the morning as possible – before flying insects are around. This is especially important where bees are concerned. They’ve got enough health issues at the moment without you covering them in chemicals!