Garden Tidying Tips

It doesn’t matter how large your garden is, it can sometimes be hard to keep it tidy!

Every time of the year seems to bring its own problems.  In the spring we have to cut back untidy branches that have died off during winter and pull up weeds that have sprouted in eternal optimism.

Summer brings deadheading of all types of flowering plants, and what to do with those half-open bags of compost and lawn feed?

Worst of all may be the autumn when leaves fall from the trees like butterflies fluttering to earth. Some trees leave small leaves that easily rot away, but others like horse chestnuts and oak are not so easily dispersed. Large trees can deposit huge amounts of leaves and they need to be removed if the lawn isn’t to suffer.

Then winter, when most of us hide indoors and wait for the warmer weather to arrive!

But here are a few ways you can help keep the garden looking tidier all year long:

1. Have a good-sized shed!  A shed can be almost anything from a tiny building designed to house forks and spades on an allotment to a large hut that can even be converted into a beautiful garden sun room.  But the useful kind of shed has plenty of room for all your garden tools and shelving to house all your bits and pieces from string to empty hanging baskets.
2. Get a greenhouse. As well as enabling you to overwinter plants and to grow a larger variety of tender plants, a greenhouse can help to keep your garden tidy.  Keep all your unused pots on the shelving and half-used bags of compost can be emptied into beds or bins until you need them for the garden.
3. Use a good rake for gathering up leaves and find a suitable way to transport them to your compost heap. If you have large quantities, try using a plastic tarpaulin. It’s easy to heap dead leaves into the middle, then drag it to the appropriate place. Smaller quantities can be transported in a wheelbarrow or even a wheelie bin.
4. Create a compost heap or use a special bin to keep all the dead and surplus plant material in one place. Here you can add scraps from the kitchen, as well as dead heads and leaves.
5. Even with a shed and a greenhouse, there will be things around the garden that are still an eyesore. Why not create a small area surrounded by garden fencing or hurdles to hide the mess?
6. When you empty pots at the end of the year, compost the plant material, then empty the spent compost on to your flower or vegetable beds to improve the soil for next year. Although there may not be enough goodness in it to nourish pot-grown plants, there will still be enough left to help the soil.

Although it’s nice to have a tidy garden, don’t forget to leave a couple of small untidy areas for the wildlife. Butterflies need nettles and insects appreciate rotting wood.