Give your garden a facelift

Building and maintaining an immaculate garden always seems like the sort of thing others are good at. People with golf-course-standard yards and gardens are often the secret envy of their entire street, but many people don’t realise that it doesn’t actually take that much time to achieve this. In fact, giving your long-unloved garden a makeover couldn’t be easier. Here are a few ideas to help you turn your garden into a paradise all your own.

Trimming, Pruning and Edges

This tops the list because it’s something a lot of people who are only just developing their green thumbs forget about. Trimming and pruning back unruly plants and shrubs can make a huge difference to the look of a garden. Similarly, the edges around the house, and any paths and garden beds, bring a neatness to the place. Grab a line trimmer from your local hardware store and the job practically does itself. For a line trimmer that will keep your gardens neat and tidy for years to come, lean towards well-established manufacturers such as Ryobi .

Garden Beds

If you haven’t looked after them in a while, your garden beds are likely rife with weeds. You can either pull them out at the root if you’re feeling muscular or you can break out the weedkiller and go to town on them. After that, you should be able to start planting things that are much more useful or nicer to look at, like a veggie patch or some colourful, fragrant flowers. The trick will be to keep an eye on them and get rid of any weeds trying to creep back in.

Lawn

Your lawn will likely be the easiest part of your garden’s facelift. Break out the mower and start giving it a haircut. You want to set the mower to just a little over half height; this gives the grass some volume and it prevents any weed seeds in the soil from getting the sunlight they need to germinate. During the warmer months, you should be mowing your lawn once a week to keep it under control. When it gets colder, maybe cut back to once every few weeks while growth is slowed.

Paths

Another spot where you’ll need to break out the line trimmer! Clear paths add definition and decoration to the yard, so you should keep their edges trimmed and their surfaces as clear of grime as possible. To do that, you can get a high-pressure hose to clean the gunk off and leave your paths looking like new again. This is a great way to clean up your driveway too!

Outdoor Areas

Now that you’ve got every other part of your yard cleaned up, you’re going to want to show it off, right? Add some yard lighting so you can entertain after dark, get yourself a new barbeque if the old one’s rusted out, and maybe arrange some new outdoor furniture for relaxing or for meal times.

If you follow these steps, your yard will be back under control and looking amazing in no time at all. After that, an hour of maintenance a week will give you the sort of yard your neighbours will envy. Don’t be surprised if they start asking for advice!