Spruce up for celebrations

There is no better way to welcome guests and set the scene for festive entertaining than to have a garden full of colour, neatly mown lawns, clipped edges, and sumptuous hanging baskets or containers decorating outdoor living areas.

Here are eight ways to spruce up your garden without too much effort.

1. Fill them up

Fill up half empty containers with flowers. Garden centres are full of flowers in pots that can just be popped into the container. Red is the colour of Christmas and for containers in partial shade try Begonia “Nonstop”, which has masses of deep red double blooms, and low, compact growth. Plant it in rich, well-drained soil and don’t over water.

2. Eye-candy

Lush hanging baskets at eye level provide instant gratification. Look out for “Quick Mixes” which contain three pre-selected plants in one pot, and available through most garden centres. The combo’s include mixes of calibrachoa, bidens and bacopa as well as bidens, lobelia and verbena. There are also baskets just planted up with calibrachoa, the mini petunia that never stops flowering. Containers or baskets containing plants for shade should be placed in areas that receive good light. Even those plants that can take full sun will do better if placed where they receive morning sun and afternoon shade. In mid-summer most containers do best if watered daily, although receiving water every second day is adequate.

BRIGHT IDEA. A sparkling mix of white verbena, yellow bidens and blue lobelia in a container or hanging basket will liven up outdoor living areas. Pictures: Supplied.

3. Colour bags to the rescue

This is for flower beds that have lost their mojo. Colour bags contain fully grown flowering plants that provide instant colour and, with care, continue to flower for the rest of summer. Renew the spot where you pulled out the plants with compost, remove the plants from their bags, plant and water.

4. Add Christmas lights

To bring some magic into the garden, especially for the kids. There is now a huge range of eco-friendly solar powered Christmas lights that you can string up a tree, or wind around its trunk. A good idea is to make a feature of one tree and use the lights to turn it into a living, outdoor Christmas tree. Lights are available from hardware shops, like Builders Warehouse, in a range of colours.

5. Quick trim

With clippers in hand give overgrown shrubs and perennials a light shaping and trim, and remove dead flowers. It is good garden therapy and encourages new growth and flowers.

6. Quick cut and clip

If it is the last thing your gardener does before heading off for Christmas, make sure the lawn is mown and the edges are trimmed. An immaculate lawn sets off a garden, and allows you to get away with less than perfect beds.

CRIMSON TIDE. Begonia “Non Stop” can be used indoors as well as outdoors as floral decoration.

7. Supercharge the plants

With all the rain, most of the fertiliser will have been washed through the soil. An application of granular fertiliser like Vigorosa (that’s suitable for all plants and lawn) or the liquid feed, Margaret Roberts Organic Supercharger, will keep plants in tip-top condition during the festival season.

8. Banish unwelcome guests

Get rid of aphids, beetles and sucking insects like thrips that can spoil blooms when you want the garden to look at its best. Also prevent fungus diseases that are prevalent because of all the rain. All it takes is a mix of organic insecticide like Ludwig’s Insect Spray or Margaret Roberts Organic Insecticide mixed with the Margaret Roberts Organic Fungicide and a sticker like Spray Stay to keep pests and diseases away during the next two weeks.