Are your communal grounds well-tended or a bit of a mess? Limetree Cleaning & Gardening Specialists (previousley known as Sonic Grounds Maintenance), offers some useful tips for getting the best from your outside space.
Whether you and your fellow residents take care of your communal garden yourselves or use a gardener/contractor, it is useful to know something about garden maintenance. Here are a few basics to help you get the best from your green space.
Lawn Care
Cutting Height
After the cold winter months it is important not to go straight in and cut the lawn within an inch of its life. The first cut should be just a light cut, and the following few, you should take the height of the mowing down bit by bit, give your lawn time to recover in between each cut.
Also think about having your lawns fed by professionals, using a high in nitrogen feed. This should also contain selective weed killer which should help kill weeks in lawns and kill the moss.
Aerating
Another important step in the process of getting a healthy lawn.
Aerating a lawn allows nutrients to get down to the roots, encouraging more growth and healthy growth as well! It also allows oxygen to get down to the roots which will help reduce compaction. Spring and Autumn is the best time to do this.
Edging
After a long Winter, ask your garden contractor to edge the lawns using either a half moon space of a powered edge trimmer which is a lot quicker. Through the previous seasons grass always creeps over its boundaries onto paths, so Winter is a great time to trim it back to where its supposed to be.
Pruning
Managing Roses
Some people are afraid to prune roses as they think that going in too hard may harm the rose. Don’t be afraid! Roses love a good hard pruning. A lot of people believe the harder you are, the more growth you will get during the next year. Quite often people prune roses between 12-24 inches, dependant on the original size of the rose.
Check for root damage and make sure you cut away any dead stems. Cut away stems that are crossing over each other as if they start to rub together this will increase the risk of disease.
Roses like to be left to grow with no obstacle. Also during the Spring Green Fly (Aphids) will be attracted to the roses. Either use a selectrive pesticide to get rid of these, or spray the roses with a hose which should disperse the Aphids.
Managing Shrubs
Certain shrubs like to be prunded during Winter so that next year they will have good strong healthy growth.
A good guide is to trim to the previous size of last winter, if you want to keep the shrubs the same size as the previous year, or prune of a third of the previous seasons growth.
Weeds
Although Spring and Summer is when weed growth is prolific, you can keep on top of this by applying weed killer to path areas. A common use of weed killer for this is a weed killer containing Glyphosate.
Flower Beds
As we all know weeds love flower beds and they grow at their quickest during Spring and Summer! Try to dig them out first, and if this fails use a selective weed killer undertaken by a professional. Care must be taken that the shrubs are not damaged.
Bark / Slate covering of flower beds
If your flower beds are still looking a little baron, adding a membrane and a layer of bark or aggregate like slate can hide a lot of sins that you may want hidden. It will also make the flower bed and whole area more pleased to eye!
Security
Repairing Fences – Keeping animals out
During Autumn and Winter strong winds and unpredictable weather can damage fences and fence posts. As a security issue, once the weather improves these fences must be repaired or replaced so that the site remains as secure as possible.
Trim Shrubs around lights
Sometimes during the previous seasons, shrubs can creep up a bit to high and sometimes grow above outside light levels. Trim down the shrubs below lights so that the lights fully light as much of the site as possible. This is a security issue and will make people feel a lot safer as the site will be brighter at night.
Hiding Building Services with Shrubs
Sometimes utility companies like to place gas boxes, meter, etc outside on exeterior walls making the outside of the building look unsightly. Why not place some shrubs in front of them that will eventually grow up and hide these.
Drainage
After the extreme weather of winter it is important to identify drainage problems. Keep a lookout for blocked drain pipes and have them cleared if blocked. Keep gutters clear of debri and instruct a contractor clear if blocked.
If you soft landscaped areas are always flooding, then think about instructing a landscaper to install a drainage system to aid water draining away.
This article was written by Limetree Cleaning & Gardening Specialists (previousley known as Sonic Grounds Maintenance), find out more here.
