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Your garden maintenance checklist
Keep your garden in top shape with these essential maintenance tips
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Last updated on August 21, 2023
Have you finally set up your dream garden? Congratulations! But now, onto the hard part. Keeping your garden or backyard in top shape can feel daunting—to the point of letting things go unattended for a month or two. To help you out, here’s a garden maintenance checklist that breaks down the process into actionable steps.
What should be on your garden maintenance checklist?
Garden maintenance checklist
☐ Check for garden pests
Inspecting your plants for pests should be on your daily maintenance checklist. You can opt for DIY insect control solutions in cases of small-scale pest problems. Otherwise, you can hire a garden pest control service to get rid of garden pests.
☐ Weed your garden
Some weeds are long and easy to spot, especially if you haven’t weeded your garden. But others are small and difficult to see if they hide under the plants. Some weeds also sneakily look just like the plants they’re growing next to. Depending on the type of weed, they steal water and nutrients from your plants.
☐ Isolate or remove sick plants
If you find some parts of your garden are infected, do two things: quarantine the affected plant with a clear plastic or glass cover to keep it from spreading disease, or remove the sick plant to prevent it from infecting the rest of your garden.
☐ Checking the soil’s moisture
Overwatering your garden can hurt or kill your plants. Use your fingers to feel the earth to about a few inches deep. Water the soil if it feels dry. But there’s no need if the soil feels too wet.
☐ Clear out fallen branches, leaves, and other debris
Debris can appear at any time. If you want to keep your garden spick and span, always remove dead plants and fallen leaves and branches. Clean out your garden, especially after strong winds or a storm. You can gather the debris into a compost pile. However, make sure to remove plants that died due to disease, as these can infect your garden.
☐ Prune and trim your plants regularly
Trimming your bushes or shrubs is an essential garden maintenance task. Your greenery can turn into an unruly jungle if you leave it be for a few months. Regular trimming and pruning not only keep your garden tidy but also uncover pests and weeds that could be hiding.
Garden maintenance tool list
You’ll need the following tools to tidy up your garden. You don’t need to have all these tools. But with just the basics, you can make your garden look nice on a budget.
☐ Hand trowel - A small shovel you can use with one hand. Its pointed tip makes it easy to move seedlings or small flowers, repot plants, and remove plants infected by pests.
☐ Soil knife - Also known as a hori hori knife or weeding knife, you can use this tool for digging, cutting foliage, and weeding, as the steel blade is sharp on both sides.
☐ Pruning shears - Strong enough to cut through hard branches and shrubs up to two centimetres thick
☐ Lopper - The big sister of pruning shears. It has long handles to make cutting easier if the branch or foliage is too deep inside a tree or bush.
☐ Garden rake - For scooping or scraping out garden debris and fallen leaves
☐ Garden hoe - To remove weeds
☐ Garden hose - Lets you easily water your garden without lugging around a bucket of water
☐ Garden gloves - Keep your hands clean and protect them from sharp branches, dead plants, and pests
Stay on top of your garden maintenance checklist
Garden maintenance can be a lot of work, but all your effort will be worth it. With proper maintenance and the right tools, you’ll have a tidy, healthy, and beautiful garden. And, of course, you don’t have to do it all yourself! You can always hire garden maintenance services or professional gardeners for complex gardening tasks.
☞ Learn more: Gardening basics
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