Top Gardening Tips

Gardens are the first thing someone sees when visiting your home and one of the most important things to have looking superb when buying or selling. Keeping a well-maintained garden isn’t has hard as you may think and we want to help you with some simple gardening secrets.

Whether you’re a well-seasoned pro or a newbie to the world of soil, plants and pruning; we’ve got a tip or two here for you.

Get your gardening shears ready, here are our top gardening tips:

1. Know your dirt
Identifying your soil type is important if you want anything to grow – even grass. Generally the standard types are sand, salt or clay but to save you time ask a neighbor or local nursery.

2. Keep mulching
This isn’t something that should just be done in spring, but year round to make your gardening easier. Mulching keeps the soil temperature stable and nasty weeds at bay. There are plenty of varieties available so it’s down to personal choice.

3. Pruning
Just like delaying getting your car serviced, putting off pruning is not a wise idea. When plants are young they are easier to prune before the branches become too thick. All plants are different so double check at the nursery when you’re buying them.

4. Plants
Pick pants that are adaptable to the climate, soil and can survive on how much (or little) sun your garden gets. That way you won’t have to take too much care of and are easily manageable – you’re future free weekends will be thanking us.

5. Watering
If you’re starting from scratch with seeds, watering often is very important. They should never dry out however as they grow a few decent watering sessions over the week should be sufficient. The best time of day to water is early in the mornings before the sun gets too hot.

6. Fertilising
It’s crucial to read the label and not to put too much fertilizer down at once. It’s also crucial to remember that fertilizer and water go hand in hand, don’t fertilise dry soil and once you put some fertilizer down make sure you water a little regularly.

7. Dirty nails no more!
Scrubbing your fingernails after a day in the garden working hard can be frustrating, especially if you can’t get all of the dirt removed and you’re off to a fancy dinner. So, before you start draw your fingernails across a bar of soap to ‘seal’ them underneath. You’ll still need to use a nailbrush but it should be ten times easier to remove the soil.