The beginning of the year is always a time for cleaning up and bringing in changes, from the office to the home and finally the garden.
In getting the routine back after the holidays, one doesn’t always have a lot of time to get stuck in but if you have a few minutes here are some quick tasks that make all the difference to your garden.
Fertilise the garden
Fertilising over the next few weeks is important to keep the garden green, in flower and able to bounce back after the dry heat waves from December. The regular watering would have leached out most of the nutrients and the greens will soon start to lose their lustre and you definitely want to keep the colour and promote more flowers.
Say goodbye to weeds
Even with the dry weather, the weeds seem to come from nowhere during this time of the year. By the end of February, the effectiveness of herbicides will go down considerably as they work best when weeds are growing fast.
With that in mind, now is the time for a quick spray to bring them under control.
The weeds in the paving, which just seem to come from nowhere, must go to help tidy up the garden. If you have a weed problem on the lawn, this is the time of year that they seed so get a head start on next summer by spraying now.
Snip and tuck
This is the time of the year that you should find some time to get out into the garden with your shears and trimmers.
With all the growth from the summer, shrubs and climbers can get a bit unruly and if you shape them now, they will keep the look for the next few months.
The added benefit of cutting back at this time of the year is that it lets more light in as well as better air circulation in the garden, so smaller plants around them perk up and add some growth before winter.
Snail blitz
Snails can have a devastating effect on your veggies and ground covers if left unchecked. A few can be a good thing in the garden, as they help keep the layer of plants on the soil thinner to allow light and moisture to the earth but when they are left unchecked, they can multiply in a few seasons to give you a headache when planting new seedlings.
If you don’t fancy the idea of standing on some snails, apply some snail repellent early in the evening to catch them at their most active time of the day.
Information courtesy Eckards Garden Pavilion.
