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Look After Your Grounds and Your Grounds Will Look After You

by Trish

A well-kept garden can completely transform a home and can become a major feature of your property. But creating a garden is one thing – maintaining it is quite another. For many, the upkeep of a garden can become overwhelming, which can ruin the hard work you’ve put in to making it your own. Once the seasons change and you’re met with a constant stream of rain showers and falling leaves, it can seem a vast undertaking. But there are some measurements you can take to keep your garden in order.

Look after wooden structures such as fences or sheds with waterproofing roofing or with a weather-resistant preserve that will protect them for longer. The same goes for maintaining wooden decking; when you install such flooring, make sure that you take the correct precautions against the damage of the seasons, so that you maintenance and repairs later on are kept to a minimum.

Lawns, whether you are growing from scratch or laying turf, require more care and attention than simply mowing every few weeks. With unreliable weather causing grass to either become dry and sallow or water-logged. Naturally, there is little you can do to control the seasons, but you can make an effort to nurture your lawn with an specific feed to help it grow, and keep it leaf-free so that it looks tidy and well-kept.

Patios and pathways are a relatively easy area of your outdoor grounds to maintain, which can be kept looking their best simply by sweeping leaves and mud away regularly and hosing down to keep them in good condition. Be sure not to overlook weeding as well, which can quickly grow into an unsightly mess if not tended to frequently. If you’re looking to maintain larger areas than a home garden such as business or industrial grounds, you may want to look into more heavy duty floor mats to protect your grounds, particularly if you plan on hosting large- scale events. A good idea is to opt for a heavy duty road mat for driveways, which is a durable flooring which will survive the unpredictable weather without degrading like many wooden flooring options.

 

A great cause of time when it comes to garden maintenance are swimming pools, which require an extensive amount of care and attention. Be sure to remove leaves and debris regularly to keep the pool, and in turn your garden, looking tidy, and make sure that filters are kept clear. Keep an eye on the pH levels of the water, and in winter remember to add antifreeze to the water and use a protective cover to maintain the pool’s condition.

By following these simple tips, you can ensure that the grounds surrounding your home are protected accordingly and are kept tidy, which can make a big difference to the overall look of your home. What initially seems like a overwhelming task is easily manageable with a small commitment to regular upkeep.

Kirsty works as a landscape gardener, working closely with client to ensure all desired needs are met.






Filed Under: Garden Maintenance, In The Garden Tagged With: deck, feature, fences, garden, lawn, maintenance, patio, season, shed, swimming pools, tips

It’s time to start your seedlings gardeners!

by Tricia

I meant to get started planting seeds indoors earlier this month, but it’s been one delay after another, most specifically _ I came down with a cold – my first in about 15 years!

So, this weekend I’m going to be getting out my seedling trays, and then I’m going to go down into the basement and find the two boxes that I keep seed packages and seeds that I’ve picked off of plants from my garden. It’s cool and surprisingly dry in our basement so it’s the perfect place to keep dormant seeds and even plant bulbs or corms like the four Cannas that I currently have down there.

I just have to decide where I’m going to put all my newly seeded trays. I think I’ll probably put them upstairs in our spare bedroom. It faces south so the containers and hopefully seedlings will get off to a good start with lots of sunlight. I do have a couple of grow lights that I can try to dig up out of the basement if I need them, but when I’ve grown seeds indoors in the past they’ve done well in that room without the need of additional lighting.

Have any of you started seedlings indoors for your garden?

I’m glad that we only have 6 weeks of winter left. I can’t wait to get outside and see new plants coming up in my garden beds. Oh and the crocuses! They’ll probably come up in my lawn by the last week of March like they normally do … perhaps earlier this year since we’ve had a fairly mild winter with barely any snow … so far anyway!

Filed Under: Garden Buzz, Garden Tips, Home and Lifestyle Tagged With: basement, bright room, Bulbs, cold storage, cool, corms, crocus, dry, garden, garden beds, grow lights, lawn, seed containers, seed packages, seeds, seeds from plants, south, winter

A little late, but Summer’s finally here

by Tricia

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Well it was a slow start, but as of this past week summer’s finally arrived in Toronto!

The week, well let’s say last Sunday, started with rain and a massive lightening storm. Spectacular really – with sheet lighting and huge vibrant lightening all over the city for about an hour and a half! It was the most vibrant lightening storm I’ve seen in a year or two!

After that the heat that is usually so much a part of our summers here in Toronto finally arrived. As the week has progressed it seems each day that passes is hotter than the last! We’ve also had a lot of humidity. Currently with humidity it supposedly feels like 36 C (96.8 F).

I think by Wednesday of this week the true summer like heat will be gone again though … so that means we’ll have only had about one true week of summer this year! Perhaps that’s still better than last summer though – last summer we had record breaking rain!

All through July I watched my Tiny Tom and Cherry, Early Girl and Glam tomatoes grow on the vine. I began to wonder if they’d ever change from green to red as they seemed to stay green and the same size for the longest time – probably due to the lower than normal summer temperatures that we were having.

However after a week of true summer like heat I can finally say that I was able to pick two ripe tomatoes and a handful of Tiny Tom tomatoes yesterday.

Likewise, my pole beans, cucumbers, raspberries and strawberries have been behind this summer. Over the last two weeks though we picked our first beans and a new (very small) crop of strawberries came in. The raspberries started to ripen and we’ve had a couple of handfuls over the last week as well.

Green beans 3

The cucumbers are growing very very slowly! Three weeks ago I noticed that we had our first cucumbers, but they were smaller than Gherkins! Now those cucumbers are a little bigger and thicker than my thumb so it’s still slow going. They’re English Burpless cucumbers so they have a long way to go before we can pick them!

Our roses are starting to rebloom now too. Maybe well have two more flushes of blooms before summer truly ends.

The pro’s of having a cooler and slightly drier summer are:

1. The lawn has been growing slowly so we haven’t had to cut it as much, and due to the cooler weather and occasional really heavy rain it’s stayed green.

2. We haven’t had the air-conditioning on for most of the summer (with the exception of this week and the last week of June) so for a change, we’ve been able to enjoy the summer with our window and doors open, and of course, we’ve saved a lot of money on the electricity bill!

3. We’ve been watering less this summer. With the cooler weather the plants don’t seem to need as much water – so again we’ve saved some money on the water bill (which doubled on the last bill anyway- Thanks City of Toronto due to increased prices, taxes and sewer and trash collection fees!)

Overall it seems like my plants don’t mind the weather we’ve had this summer although I do have a few roses that have almost totally lost their leaves due to powdery mildew (cooler weather, more dew at night on the leaves?).

The Balloon flowers seem to love this weather. They’re taller than normal (4 feet!) and blooming their pretty little heads off. Here’s a picture of a Balloon flower bud, and a Balloon flower in bloom – you can definitely see where they get their name from:

Balloon flower bud

Balloon flower 2

How is your garden doing this summer? Have you managed to eat any of the veggies that you’re growing yet?

Filed Under: Blooming today, Garden Buzz, Green Thumb Sunday, Perennials, Photography, Summer in the Garden Tagged With: air conditioning, balloon flowers, cherry tomatoes, cool summer, cucumbers, cutting, dew, early girl tomatoes, electric bill, flowers, Glam Tomatoes, grass, green beans, Green Thumb Sunday, green tomatoes, GTS, hot, humid, humidity, lawn, lightening storm, on the vine, picked, plants, pole beans, powderly mildew, rain, Raspberries, ripen, ripening, roses, save money, strawberries, tall, tiny tom tomatoes, Toronto, water bill, watering

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