Gardens are a great addition to any home. You can spend long afternoons in the sun with your family or host garden parties for families and friends. You could even work out a bit of that stress by spending a day getting stuck into some gardening.
Being in the garden can be a wonderful social occasion, but only if the garden is a nice place to spend time in! It does require quite a bit of upkeep, especially if you have grass rather than patio. Potted plants need watering, as does the grass in heatwaves and leaves need raking with the change of the seasons.
Keep your garden looking lush all year round with a few of these useful ideas.
- Install an automatic sprinkler
If you holiday or lot or live in a particularly hot area, this is a great idea. It is a bit of an investment to begin with, but it will certainly pay off in the long run. You will no longer need to get someone in to water your plants and other greenery while you are away. Simply set the setting and frequency of watering need and head off on holiday with your mind at ease.
- Make your garden secure for animals
Some dogs, particularly smaller breeds, get a bit nervous when exploring unknown territory. Avoid them from getting into any trouble with more aggressive animals by installing invisible fencing. You can set the boundaries – linked to your dog’s collar – which will allow them to roam freely as far as you choose. This will keep them safe and give them more confidence on investigating on their own too.
- Anti-climb security spikes
This might sound like a bit of a weird one, but can be incredibly useful in some gardens! Spikes like these are a discreet way to keep unwanted visitors out of your garden, whether that’s someone else’s cat or foxes. They will also stop your pets from sneaking into your neighbours’ garden too when nothing else seems to work.
- Sneaky self-watering trick
This wine bottle watering trick is the ultimate hack for a guaranteed green garden. You just need to take an empty wine bottle, fill it with water and flip it over quickly. Then bury it in a potted plant so that the thirsty roots will draw in the moisture. This creates a kind of reservoir system that will allow plants to keep themselves the correct level of watered for days at a time.
- Protect your plants
You can go mad with all the insecticides and pesticides you please, but you don’t want to risk harming your beautiful plants. It’s great to deal with insect problems using natural DIY solutions if at all possible. You can make a slug trap this way from recycled water bottles, if you have a slug infestation problem, for example. Just a quick search online will give you plenty of creature-friendly ways to keep your garden looking as green as can be.
There you have it. Simple tricks that will have your backyard in the most visitor-friendly condition it has ever been.
