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Look After Your Grounds and Your Grounds Will Look After You

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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.






Alfresco Entertaining in my small Garden

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We’re at the height of summer and I find that almost every day we’re having a meal in the garden on the patio. It’s lovely to sit outdoors enjoying the beauty of the garden and when we’re lucky it’s bounty as well.

As I mentioned in my last post, our tomatoes are just beginning to ripen and very soon we’ll have cucumbers and beans. We’ve already been enjoying strawberries and raspberries from the garden and I expect that we’ll continue to enjoy them for another month or so.

It’s at this time of year when I most enjoy entertaining. I love inviting a few friends or some family members over for an informal visit. We’ll get together and have a barbecue or just a snack and a few drinks. Just a chance to get together – but of course it’s always in the garden surrounded by my lovely flowers and all the lovely scents they produce.

One quick and simple treat that I whip up when guests come over is cheese and crackers. I almost always have both cheddar cheese and a soft cheese on hand like Boursin Cheese and of course a variety of tasty crackers is always handy.

Do you do a lot of entertaining in the summertime? Do you keep supplies on hand for “drop in” guests? Supplies such as tasty spreadable cheeses like the Boursin cheeses discussed above or other quick foods?

Ugh dead mouse in the garden

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My husband has the day off work today and earlier this afternoon he suggested that we go outside into the backyard and just sit in the garden at our Patio table. Needless to say my laptop comes out with me when we do this (although the glare from the sun sure makes it hard to see!).

We’d done a little work in the garden the evening before and my husband had just cut the lawn prior to our visit to the garden this afternoon.

Shortly after I entered the garden I noticed that my dog was rolling around in the grass. I thought it was just because the lawn was freshly cut so I went over to pet her … and much to my disgust I saw a tail attached to a very rotted half mouse. EWWWWWWWWwwww.

I think my dog rolled in it! She doesn’t seem dirty or to have anything disgusting on her, but I’m pretty sure that she was rolling in the grass in that particular area because of the dead mouse. Labs are particularly fond of rolling in dead animals and other disgusting stuff.

I guess we’ll give her a bath later when we go inside. Now that’s a chore and a half.

I just hope that nobody put poison down and caused the mouse to die … ’cause if my dog tasted that mouse we might have a very sick dog on our hands!

Once the mouse was disposed of I brought my camera out and started taking pictures of the garden and some of the flowers that are currently blooming.

The flowers in bloom include white phlox, Climbing Iceberg Rose, Climbing Parade Rose, Compte de Chombord rose, Cleomes, Brown eyed Susans, a couple of Cannas, Malva, the Honey Suckle vine, Black Hollyhocks, Climbing Westerland rose, Baron Prevost Rose, Pink Salvia, Blue Salvia, Portulacas, Fuchsia, Gaillardia, Breath of Life Climbing rose, Valencia rose, Sedum, Petunias, Impatiens, Sweet William, Snapdragons and Balloon flowers. Then in the front there were several roses blooming – Climbing Eden, Standard Iceberg Rose, Yves Piaget Romatica Rose, Lavender Dreams, Bonica, The fairy and some others, plus Sunflowers, Cosmos and Morning Glory.

It sounds like there’s lots of roses in bloom from my list above, but that’s only about a third of my rose collection and of the roses that are blooming – some only have a few blooms while others like the Fairy and Bonica are covered in blooms.

Hopefully this evening I’ll have some time to upload and process the pictures that I took this afternoon and I’ll post them to this blog sometime this week.

What’s blooming or growing in your garden this week?

BTW Weather wise … can you believe that September has turned out to be warmer than July? Yeah … July was cold for these parts and September so far has just been a little warmer than average. Isn’t the weather getting stranger and stranger?

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