7 Steps to Creating the Perfect Spring Garden

With Spring fast approaching here are 7 steps to creating the perfect spring garden, these simple steps can truly transform the feeling of your garden all summer long.

Lawn Preparation

March and April is the time to start preparation for your lawn. Lawns are often overlooked and simply left year after year, however with just a small amount of work, you can really make a huge difference to the quality and look of the lawn, and as the grass normally takes up between 60 – 90% of the whole garden, it can alone transform the feel of the whole garden.

There is nothing like having a lush green healthy lawn when friends are over, you will almost certainly get comments, and it really makes the whole garden experience more wholesome.

The first step is raking the lawn, remove all the dead moss, leaves and debris from the lawn , this is the hard part, you can buy an electric lawn raking machine which are usually very cheap and does make the process a lot easier for larger gardens. This will aerate your lawn, improve the drainage and give the young grass space to grow more easily, and then simply apply nitrogen based feed. You can also rake in some grass seed this may be especially important if you have children, as the grass can wear down rather quickly when kids are flying around and enjoying themselves!

Pruning

Early Spring is often an ideal time to start pruning and deadheading any damaged shrubs. Plants that are expected to flower during mid-summer for example Hydrangeas and Fuchsias, should be pruned at this time. Shrubs that are due to bloom during the winter months too should also be considered too.

This is usually a fairly satisfying and simple job, cutting out the dead to make way for young clean growth; it means also that your shrub or plant will direct its energy in to growing on healthy stems rather than wasting energy on damaged ones.

Weeding / Clearing

After a winter there are normally a few weeds which are usually easy to pick out at this time of year when the soil still has quite a lot of moisture, one small tip is to wait until after a rainy day, the weeds will in most cases come out with the root with a simple tug.

Just clearing away the debris and clutter can really make you feel that your garden is looking a lot better, that's the beauty of gardening only a small amount of work can give you great please for a long period of time.

If you have a patio then hire or buy a pressure washer and blast all the mosses, lichen and algae away, or you could use a chemical patio cleaner such as a concentrated Disinfectant Patio Cleaner.

Use spotlighting

After all your hard work, why not invest in some solar power spot lights to highlight certain beloved features or shrubs, lighting can make such a wonderful effect in your garden

and gives you real pleasure to see that favourite tree or shrub splashed with light in the evening, this can give your garden such a dash of class with very little cost, it is worth buying a good quality spot light for example custodian this works well all throughout the year and will highlight a tree or shrub all night long during summer months.

Make a feature Garden water feature

This is probably one of the most powerful features you can make in your garden, it is like installing an open fire in your living room, it gives a feature to a garden that normally becomes a centre piece, a living breathing entity that attracts wildlife, creates a wonderful calming sound, and is so visually therapeutic, that you can often find yourself lost in the gentle rippling spray.

You do need to be very careful what fountain you select as there are some very cheap tacky ones around, we would recommend you reading our guide to solar fountains.

Use Solar fairy Lights

Solar fairy lights are now used commonly in gardens to add decorative lighting effects to trees shrubs, summer houses etc. They can literally transform a garden in to a magical garden paradise in summer time.

So often gardens are not considered in the evening and night time, however why not create a simple solar fountain pond out of an old tyre, dig it in to the ground, get some plastic sheeting, and you have a small pond. Then place solar power fairy lights on the shrubs surrounding the tyre, and you have a small piece of paradise you can visit any time you wish to relax.

Seating

Analyse your seating, you deserve a rest and there is nothing like having a favourite comfortable chair, well positioned so that you can sit back, relax, and enjoy your garden, some people do get a little carried away, but it is important to remember to enjoy the fruits of your labour.

If you already have seating give it a good clean, and make sure you have that essential spare seating for when your family and friends come over, it can be so infuriating when there are not enough seats for your guests, fortunately there are some very descent strong comfortable nylon garden seats which are foldable and can be purchased for around £5.