Communal Gardens Ready for Spring

Posted on March 1, 2017 in Gardening

Ten Tips to get your communal gardens ready for spring

With the clocks springing forward and the delight of longer, brighter days ahead, there couldn’t be a better time to take a look at your communal gardens outdoor space.

If you don’t use professional garden maintenance contractors to look after your communal gardens, we have complied our top tips to help you get your communal gardens ready for spring.

Whether it’s digging around for the right tools to get you started, planting summer flowering bulbs or bringing out your hanging baskets, the long Easter weekend is the perfect opportunity to see how your garden grows.

Here are 10 ways to get your garden ready for spring:

1. Lawn treatment

Give your lawn a health check. If it’s moss-ridden or full of weeds you may have to start again, turfing or seeding a new lawn. Feed the grass with lawn fertiliser – available at most garden centres – following the instructions carefully, and water it in.

If your lawn isn’t moss-ridden, first cut it, keeping the blades set high. If it’s already long, cut it regularly, lowering the blades a little at a time so the length is reduced gradually.

2. Coming up roses

If you have a heavy soil, now is a good time to plant out roses. Mix in a good helping of well-rotted compost to give them the best start, and select an open, sunny position for the best display.

3. Rake it in

Scarify the lawn with a springtime rake to help oxygenation and remove thatch – dead grass that mats beneath growing grass – and moss. For larger lawns think about renting a petrol driven lawn scarifier to do the same job. If you have lots of moss, apply a moss killer and wait a few days before raking it up.

4. Ground rules

Aerate the lawn to improve drainage, driving a garden fork into the ground all over the lawn when it’s moist, making holes to a depth of 10-15cm. Fill the holes with a mixture of sand and organic soil conditioner to keep the drainage open.

5. Weeding out trouble

Weeds get really active in the spring, and, if left, spread rapidly and take over the lawn, so It’s important to get the root out, but before you reach for toxic chemicals, consider an alternative and environmentally friendly option, such as the Fiskars Weed Puller.

6. Get into shape

Out of shape evergreen shrubs and hedging will respond well to serious pruning in early or mid-spring. So, if your specimens are looking a little lacklustre, now is the time to get some loppers out. Once hard pruned, help promote spring growth with mulching and feeding.

7. Quick fix

For a super-quick transformation for the area outside your backdoor, simply plant up a few pots and hanging baskets which will bring instant colour. Theme plants by colour for a display with impact, and include a mix of lush foliage, big blooms and delicate flowers.

And use the chance to be creative – a hanging basket only lasts for a few months, and costs very little to create, so use the opportunity to experiment with plants and try something new.

8. Flower seeds

Sow hardy annuals such as calendula, cornflower and annual poppies in drifts – clashing colours just don’t matter in a garden, but remember to plant taller plants behind shorter ones. Cut down perennials that have been left standing over winter, including grasses – even if they are still looking good.

9. Blast the winter grime

This is an excellent time to think about removing that winter build-up of dirt from your communal gardens hard surfaces such as drives and pathways with good pressure wash. Most DIY stores sell reasonable pressure washer for small areas but you may need a professional pressure washer for large areas.

10. Think summer watering system

It’s around this time of year we start thinking about long hot summer days! Excellent for the soul but it can be hard on your communal gardens. If your gardens already have an Irrigation or Watering System we would recommend testing it now to ensure it’s still working correctly and no pipes have been winter damaged.

If you don’t have an Irrigation or Watering System in place it may be worth think of investing in one for the long term as garden shrubs can be expensive to replace if they die during those long hot summer days.

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