Small changes, big results - fine tuning your garden

Levelling up your garden can seem an insurmountable task at first, but we are on hand to help you see the wood from the trees. Small adjustments and fine tuning can go a long way to making your dream garden a reality. Aside from the major works on your lawn, hedges, and weeding, there are many other ways you can delicately improve your outdoor space. Make your garden your place of sanctuary with these changes.

Making the most of your space

Without the need for hard landscaping, think of ways you could add in seating areas around your garden to maximise use of the space. Gardens will often have natural arches, nooks, and spaces where you could add in a bench, mirror, or even a table and chairs.

Try to pick a space where you will be able to see or smell your flowers in bloom. Perhaps there is a part of the garden that catches the sun more than others, set up your hang out spot there and enjoy.

Invite nature in

By providing feed, shelter, or plants that attract certain insects, birds, and other wildlife can give your garden a dynamic feeling that will not only benefit you, but the entire ecosystem of your outdoor space.

To attract bees in the late season, try planting sunflowers, French marigold, or Honeysuckle. Butterflies respond well to Hebe, Wild marjoram, and red valerian alike. We have seen huge decline in bee and butterfly numbers over the past decade, so more people planting these flowers will see a steady increase in habitat and eventually number.

Other tips such as leaving our suet balls, seed feeders, and crusts of bread can bring in a wider range of birds to your garden. You might even become friendly with the local robin - the only birds who can remember faces and voices!

Use rubble and debris creatively

Some gardeners encourage the use of garden rubbish such as broken flowerpots, left over paving slabs, or other stone and ceramic pieces of rubble found in gardens to decorate a flower bed or create borders.

Creating defined borders and areas where flowers can and cannot grow can leave your garden looking more ordered and smarter. Think about whether you can use that brick you’ve had lying in your garden for a while in a more intentional way to help the garden.

Tree Pits

Digging a clear pit around any small or medium sized trees in your garden can neaten an area substantially. You can design the pit to a shape and size that suits your garden. If you are opting for a circular tree pit, this can add new shapes and textures to your lawn.

Tree pits draw the eye in and create showpieces of your trees to elevate the area. When you dig these pits you can also clear any weeds or grass that have overgrown around the base of your tree, giving the tree a better chance of deriving the maximum amount of nutrients from the surrounding soil.

Trimming back hedges and shaping small trees

Keeping your hedges and small trees in controlled sizes and shapes can not only make your garden more attractive, but doing so as a plant grows helps to train the branches to grow in a way that reflects your garden.

As seen in the art of Bonsai, you can stop growth in unwanted areas, which allows the tree or hedge to send more energy to branches that are more in keeping with the shape and size you have in mind. Match your neat hedges and trees with tidy short grass!

Planting hardy plants

We all run busy lives and regrettably we may not find ourselves in the garden as much as we would like to be. For this reason, hardy plants that do not require as much attention are good choices for those of you who are busy on a day to day basis but still want a haven to return to in the evenings and weekends. Some good examples are Sedum, Daylily, Clematis, and Geranium! Experiment with colour, height, and flower until you find a combination that works for you.

These are only a few of the many changes you can make to your garden to make it more inviting to both people and wildlife alike. At Enviro we have a wealth of knowledge on which plants to plant in each season, we can do tree work, clearances if you are redesigning an area, and all other grounds maintenance.

Nurturing your garden is always good for the soul, so we encourage you all to get out into either your own garden or a community garden near you to put some of these tips into action.

As always, if you are a property manager or have a site that needs grounds maintenance or tree work completed, please give us a call on 0800 878 9099.