Weekends are an important time for busy homeowners to unplug from the day-to-day, and most don’t want to spend their free time doing the back-breaking work of bed maintenance. But what if we tell you there are simpler ways to do weekly garden maintenance that wouldn’t interfere with your weekend escape?
We’ve listed our trade secrets for maintaining flower beds that will be a sight of envy for your neighbours but without spending a lot of time and effort on them.
Start With Good Soil
Your garden is as good as your soil. If you use good soil, you’ll spend less time and effort keeping your flowers and vegetables healthy. If your lawn doesn’t have nice, fertile soil, you have two options: amend the soil or bring in new soil. Knowing which option you should pick depends on the kind of soil you already have. Try checking how the soil feels in your hand.
Here are the types of soils and how to tell which type it is.
Clay – clumps together into a ball.
Sandy – it feels gritty, just like sand.
Silty – it’s soft and slippery
Loamy – this is the friendliest soil to cultivate; it’s mouldable but not sticky.
Amending garden soil. Your goal is to improve the fertility and texture of the soil. Improving the texture is through adding organic material such as compost, peat moss, grass clippings, and cover crops. Fertility improves by adding fertilizers that contain nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium.
Buying new soil. Look for the sandy loam soil. It should be at least 5 percent and 15 percent clay. You’ll know if you bought the right one if it’s dark in colour, has a loose feeling, and is crumbly.
Fertilize Smarter
Slow-release fertilizers (SRFs) make low maintenance garden beds. SRFs avoid overgrowth or sustain grass growth which results in less weeding. You won’t have to fertilize your garden bed consistently as it will continue to feed your garden bed for two to three months.
Mulch Your Garden Bed
Mulch cuts the time on watering your plants as it holds moisture in the soil. It would be best to wait until most of your plants have started growing before laying down mulch. It’s ideal to spread the mulch two to four inches thick to prevent weeds from pushing through and ensure water reaches the soil.
Container Gardening
Container gardening is the best route for busy homeowners. The comfort and the time you’ll save from maintaining flowers in a container is tremendous.
Here’s how container gardening saves you time and effort:
- The soil will be less prone to disease as the soil is confined and safe in the container.
- Control rampant and invasive plants.
- Pests are less likely to discover your plants.
- Fertilizing your plants becomes easier if confined to a small area, and most of the nutrients are absorbed by your plants in the container, which means less frequency of fertilizing.
If you grow a container garden, you’ll spend less time in keeping your soil healthy, getting rid of weeds, applying pest control, and fertilizing.
Prune Shrubs Later in the Season
If you wait to prune your evergreen shrubs later in the season, you’ll save yourself from the time and labour of having to prune them again next year.
However, make sure you’re removing dead and broken branches from time to time. Removing dead or diseased branches keeps shrubs growing healthy, hence, less time on applying fertilizers, pest control, and watering.
The Simplest Way for Garden Bed Maintenance
Although all you need to keep your garden healthy is to know the basic tips on garden maintenance, it still requires a lot of time and hard work. Regular garden maintenance should be done by professionals as they will ensure your garden is lush and healthy. Yardworx offers high quality garden maintenance service in Calgary and Edmonton. Contact us today.