Seasonal Garden Maintenance Tasks You Cannot Ignore
The foundation of any attractive and healthy garden is regular maintenance. Keeping your garden in prime condition is an ongoing commitment and requires work throughout the seasons. Those who want to take pride in their gardens and ensure they remain a space they love need to keep on top of their gardens’ needs.
As the seasons change, so does your garden, and you can expect to have different commitments based on the time of year. While this can seem complicated, taking care of your garden does not have to be something you dread. It can be an incredibly rewarding experience.
In this post, expert gardeners at Beautiful Spaces are sharing a seasonal garden maintenance checklist to keep you on track and make things easier for you to manage. We will share the most important tasks to perform each season and offer tips on how to take better care of your outdoor space.
What Is Garden Maintenance?
Garden maintenance refers to the work required to keep your garden in prime condition, both in terms of appearance and health. Your garden is a living thing and requires ongoing support to ensure it thrives.
Being exposed to the elements means your garden will have varying needs depending on the time of year, as well as the layout and kind of features used in the space. For example, the kind of plants used in your garden design can influence the kind of maintenance needed and how this may change throughout the year.
Garden maintenance is not just a one-time job, but an ongoing commitment for homeowners. Your garden requires regular care, shaping, and support to ensure it remains a source of pride and continues to grow healthily.
Understanding the different needs of your garden based on the season makes things a lot easier to manage and ensures that your landscape continues to thrive.
Seasonal Garden Maintenance Checklist
It is vital that you remain on top of garden maintenance and adjust your routine based on the seasons. Each season brings new demands from your garden, and adjusting your maintenance routine allows you to support the land through this.
Spring Garden Maintenance: New Beginnings And Preparing For Growth
The primary concern of spring garden maintenance is preparing the land for the upcoming growth and blooms the season will bring.
Spring is the beginning of the gardening season and sets the foundation for the rest of the year – the work you do now will determine whether your garden becomes a successful, thriving landscape you can enjoy for the rest of the year.
During this season, prioritise tasks such as:
- Pruning: Prune dead or damaged branches from trees and shrubs to support new growth, as well as ensuring stability as the plants continue to develop. You can also use this as an opportunity to reshape your plants and ensure they complement your garden design or layout.
- Feeding and Fertilising: Planting areas, such as flower beds and borders, will need some additional support during the spring ahead of the new growth and blooms. Use organic feeders, such as compost, or opt for slow-release fertilisers to support these areas as the season progresses.
- Planting: To ensure an attractive and balanced garden design, take some time planting new bulbs during this season. Divide any remaining perennials and ensure an even spread across the garden or planting displays.
- Mulching: Mulch is a wonderful tool to protect plants and support new growth, and spring is the ideal time to refresh your planting spaces. Add layers of organic mulch, such as compost, wood chips, or manure, to flower beds and planting spaces – avoid touching stems and trunks by leaving small gaps around your plants.
- Patio Cleaning: To get your garden ready for the warmer weather and the outdoor occasions coming up, power wash and clean your paved areas and decking.
Summer Garden Maintenance: Supporting Growth And Sheltering
Summer is one of the best times of the year for garden lovers, as it presents plenty of opportunities to get outdoors. As the weather gets warmer and the days are longer, summer allows you to take full advantage of your outdoor space.
From family barbecues to relaxing on a sunny afternoon, your garden needs ongoing support during this season to ensure it looks great no matter the occasion.
- Deadheading And Watering: Support the ongoing growth of your plants through deadheading, which requires removing the flower heads as they begin to fade to conserve energy. Along with the pruning, ensure all plants are watered regularly. During the summer, watering should be done in the coolest times of the day to avoid evaporation, such as early morning or late evening.
- Weekly Lawn Mows: Mowing your lawn weekly or fortnightly avoids it from becoming overgrown and keeps your garden looking immaculate throughout the season. During droughts or particularly hot weeks, raise the blades to avoid cutting the lawn too short.
- Weeding: Weeding is essential garden maintenance in the summer, as this is the season of growth for all plants. Your garden can quickly become overrun with weeds and wildflowers if you do not tend to it, which is why this task is an ongoing commitment throughout the seasons. Weed little and often to avoid the issue becoming too big and therefore unmanageable.
Autumn Garden Maintenance: Slowing Down And Preparing For Winter
As things begin to slow down in your garden and the space gets used less and less, autumn is a month of preparation. The garden maintenance done during this season is centred on getting the space ready for winter and ensuring it will survive the upcoming cold weather conditions, such as:
- Regular Raking: As the leaves fall during autumn, they can quickly take over your garden and cause rot. Raking needs to be a regular part of garden maintenance during this season, and all fallen leaves can be composted or used as mulch to support planting areas.
- Cut Back Perennials: To ensure that perennials return next year, take some time during the autumn to cut them back. Similar to deadheading in the summer, pruning early in the autumn can help conserve energy so plants can return and continue their life cycle next season. While cutting back perennials, remove any dead and completed annuals from the planting spaces.
- Protect Tender Plants: Ahead of the cold winter weather, store sensitive plants indoors or in sheltered spaces. Frost covers can be used for delicate plants that cannot be moved, such as in borders or flower beds, but moving potted plants indoors is often the best option to keep them safe.
- Scarify Lawn: To ensure your lawn will regrow lush and green, scarify it and apply an autumn-specific feeder. This will provide essential nutrients to the lawn throughout the season and keep it protected during its dormant phase.
- Plant Bulbs: Get ahead on next year’s gardening by planting spring bulbs during the autumn. To ensure these bulbs establish and will provide beautiful blooms come spring, planting needs to take place before the first frost of the year, which is why autumn is the ideal time for this task.
Winter Garden Maintenance: Protecting And Planning
While it is unlikely that you will be spending much time in your garden during the winter, there is still work to be done. Most garden maintenance required during this season is to support the future design and growth of the garden.
- Prune Dormant Trees: On milder days, prune dormant trees and shrubs to get the desired shape. Pruning during dormant seasons can help support new growth during the spring and ensure that your garden remains attractive and safe during the winter.
- Clean and Store Tools: As they are not being used much during this season, winter is the ideal time to clean and sharpen your gardening tools. Once they have been maintained, ensure all tools are stored safely in a sheltered space such as a garden shed. Leaving them outside will expose them to frost and rain, which will cause rust.
- Check For Damage: Immediately throughout the winter, check your hardscape areas such as paving, decking and fencing for damage. Ensure they can withstand the wind and harsh weather conditions of the season by reinforcing and applying weather-resistant stains where necessary.
- Plan Ahead: As this is a quieter time of year, it provides a great opportunity for you to plan and redesign your garden come spring. You can take the time during the winter to plan your new layout, planting displays and overall theme of your garden for the next year and get quotes from landscapers to aid the process.
Conclusion
Garden maintenance is an essential part of landscaping and is required to keep your garden in prime condition. This is an ongoing commitment that changes with the seasons to meet the varying needs of your outdoor space.
Each season has its own list of essential garden maintenance tasks, and performing these regularly ensures your garden looks amazing all year round. As this can be a lot of work, partnering with expert landscapers such as Beautiful Spaces can be extremely beneficial.
We offer garden maintenance services throughout the year and can provide regular packages to local customers, giving you one less thing to worry about. Whether you do it yourself or work with professionals, your garden needs care all year round.
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To request a quote or learn more about our services, please contact us today.
FAQs
How often should I perform garden maintenance?
Most tasks can be done seasonally, but some garden maintenance, such as weeding, lawn mowing, and watering, should be done weekly in peak seasons to ensure health and visual appeal in your landscape.
What tools do I need for basic garden maintenance?
Essential tools for garden maintenance include secateurs, a lawnmower, a rake, a spade, gardening gloves and a watering can or hose.
Can I hire someone for garden maintenance?
Yes, Beautiful Spaces offers garden maintenance services and can provide regular care. Many homeowners benefit from professional help and find it easier to manage their garden when working with professionals like us.
