Garden Maintenance
Maintenance is the bedrock of all good gardening. Every part of a healthy garden benefits from regular timely care, and no garden or garden design will ever achieve its full potential without it.
See here for a link to an interview with John Sales, former Head of Gardens at the National Trust who explores the relationship between design and maintenance.
The trend for modern 'low maintenance' gardens is admirable in so far as it makes the required maintenance easier to fit into a busy life. 'Low maintenance' does not mean 'no maintenance' however. We specialise in garden maintenance and offer regular scheduled maintenance, occasional and one-off visits to suit your needs and budget.
Regular maintenance tasks:
Lawns need regular mowing. They also need fertilising and maybe weedkilling, scarifying and aerating as well if they are to flourish.
Shrubs may need regular or occasional pruning, sometimes restorative pruning.
Herbaceous plants and borders need weeding, staking, splitting, and cutting back.
Creepers need tying in, cutting back, some need pruning.
Roses need pruning and often deadheading to look at their best.
Fruit trees and bushes need regular pruning to look and crop at their best.
Soils need attention too. Not just weeding, and mulches to conserve moisture, but fertility and pH control, soil biological and structural improvement, and drainage improvements where necessary.
Pests and Diseases. We prefer not to spray for pests and diseases with chemicals and use biological and cultural controls wherever possible. There are many cultural methods that can reduce if not eliminate the need for pesticide treatments, but on occasion their use is near essential.
Hard surfaces also benefit from periodic attention: cleaning, moss removal, re-pointing, re-setting loose flagstones and ornaments.
Ponds need regular clearing or dredging, watercourses unblocking, marginal planting reduced and rationalised, pond weed controlled, top up, overflow, and aeration mechanisms, sometimes reed beds or other filtration may be required to clarify dirty water before discharge into watercourses.
Of course not all gardens get equal levels of care and we are delighted to make one-off or occasional visits to keep your garden under control, or to perform specific tasks such as formative, regular and restorative pruning of shrubs, trees, and specimen plants.
See here for a link to an interview with John Sales, former Head of Gardens at the National Trust who explores the relationship between design and maintenance.
The trend for modern 'low maintenance' gardens is admirable in so far as it makes the required maintenance easier to fit into a busy life. 'Low maintenance' does not mean 'no maintenance' however. We specialise in garden maintenance and offer regular scheduled maintenance, occasional and one-off visits to suit your needs and budget.
Regular maintenance tasks:
Lawns need regular mowing. They also need fertilising and maybe weedkilling, scarifying and aerating as well if they are to flourish.
Shrubs may need regular or occasional pruning, sometimes restorative pruning.
Herbaceous plants and borders need weeding, staking, splitting, and cutting back.
Creepers need tying in, cutting back, some need pruning.
Roses need pruning and often deadheading to look at their best.
Fruit trees and bushes need regular pruning to look and crop at their best.
Soils need attention too. Not just weeding, and mulches to conserve moisture, but fertility and pH control, soil biological and structural improvement, and drainage improvements where necessary.
Pests and Diseases. We prefer not to spray for pests and diseases with chemicals and use biological and cultural controls wherever possible. There are many cultural methods that can reduce if not eliminate the need for pesticide treatments, but on occasion their use is near essential.
Hard surfaces also benefit from periodic attention: cleaning, moss removal, re-pointing, re-setting loose flagstones and ornaments.
Ponds need regular clearing or dredging, watercourses unblocking, marginal planting reduced and rationalised, pond weed controlled, top up, overflow, and aeration mechanisms, sometimes reed beds or other filtration may be required to clarify dirty water before discharge into watercourses.
Of course not all gardens get equal levels of care and we are delighted to make one-off or occasional visits to keep your garden under control, or to perform specific tasks such as formative, regular and restorative pruning of shrubs, trees, and specimen plants.
