Top 5 Tips for Summer

Garden Builders Gold Award Winning at RHS Royal Chelsea Flower Show 2022.

Summer can be a fantastic time of the year. The colours have finally come out in your garden, the sun is shining and the BBQ is fully lit. However, it is also the time when all these little pests and diseases thrive due to the warmer climate. Therefore, it is recommended that you keep spraying your plants regularly to protect them from the former and the latter. Make sure that what you are spraying on your plants is safe and recommended. Spraying them regularly will ensure that your plants and flowers remain pest and disease free, helping them to flourish and live longer In the summer months. Another way in which you can keep on top of larger pests is too erect physical barriers to stop pests and diseases affecting your plants full stop (I wish I knew this earlier before a deer ate my hydrangea) Whether that is a thin fabric that sits snuggly on the top of your bed of plants or even leaving them within a greenhouse.

Flower Bed at London Rooftop Terrace.

Mulch is a group of loose coverings that help to protect your flower bed through a number of variables. Depending on the type of mulch used, it can protect & improve your garden. Mulch is responsible for and not limited to:

• Suppressing weeds. Adding mulch to your crops stops the sunlight from reaching the weed seeds, therefore preventing them from growing

• The mulch itself provides nutrients to your soil and plants

• It helps the soil to retain moisture as it prevents the sun from evaporating/drying the water in the soil

• Helps to reduce the accessibility for pests and diseases to affect the plants

• It helps to offer a nice aesthetically pleasing touch to your flower beds

Another Gold Award Winning Garden Built by Garden Builders at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022.

As fantastic as plants may look when they are in full flow, unfortunately all good things must come to an end. However, you can still prepare yourself for the next time and pruning and dead-heading your plants helps them in the short and long term. Deadheading is the process of removing the flowers from the plants in order to encourage growth of the next flower. When the flower starts to die or has died, deadhead the plants to help the new flower that will come through blossom. Removing them before they start to fall can also save you that little bit of extra time of removing the petal debris that will fall. In this case, Roses are especially important to look out for. It is also important to prune your garden to prevent them from becoming to overgrown and to allow for the next flowers to flower.

Lawns are usually cover the largest surface area of your garden and it can be a serious chore to make sure it’s all cut well. However, it is essential to do so as it really defines your garden. Cutting the garden, obviously has it’s aesthetic qualities but it can also improve the health of your lawn as well. With each cut, it encourages the grass to grow back, looking fuller and thick, giving a more vibrant look.

• To start with, make sure your mower (or whatever device you are using to cut the grass) is in good working order. A poorly serviced mover can actually cause damage to your grass, causing it to bruise and damaging the tips of the grass, making it look dead.

• The timing in the summer of cutting the grass is key. You want to stay in a rhythm of cutting the grass at ‘one third’ of its height. However, in the summer the lawn will grow much faster, meaning that you will have to cut it more frequently otherwise you’ll find yourself having to cut off more than one third in order to keep it neat.

• Keeping the grass height right and consistent is important. The best lawns are kept at 2.5cm – 4cm tall. Of course, depending if the grass is in direct sunlight or within the shade, these heights are subject to chat to 4cm – 7cm.

• Make sure to cut the grass when it is dry under foot. Cutting the lawn on days that are wet, may actually in fact damage the soil as the wet cut grass will clump and smother the soil below preventing proper growth of the next cycle

• Lastly, don’t been too keen to mow a newly sown patch. Let the grass grow organically, and when it reaches a height of 4cm minimum, then cut it with the rest of the lawn.

Beautiful London Garden with Vibrant Exterior Lighting.

Watering can be the make or break of a garden. Water too much and you end up just flooding your garden and it all looks mushy and horrible but water too little and it all dries out. It’s all about the balance. So here are a few rules to keep your flowers and lawn looking perfect this summer

• Instead of watering your garden frequently, you should water it less often but thoroughly.

• Be careful not to water too much or too little. Flowers need a balanced moisture in the soil and therefore need to be carefully monitored. Of course, all flowers are different and some actually see benefits in a slight dry out before watering.

• Make sure to water your plants either in the late evening or early in the morning. This means that less water will evaporate from the soil and plants in the midday sun and therefore can soak up as much water as possible before the days heat.

• Allow the water to soak through the soil into the roots before watering. When watering, make sure not to be too rushed with it. Otherwise, the water you pour that hasn’t fully permeated through the soil, will just run off and essentially not water that plant.

• Water evenly around the soil to promote a balanced and well developed garden.

Hopefully all of these tips and tricks help you to get the best out of your garden this summer. Of course every garden is different but you should see some improvements wherever you are if you follow these rules. Gardening should be a fantastic and calming hobby for everyone and we just love to promote it.

If you do have any further question regarding your garden, please email us at enquiries@gardenbuilders.co.uk or give us call on 0208 004 9288.