As the baking summer weather subsides for the time being, you may be keen to do some work in your garden. But an expert has warned you could do more harm than good when trying to spruce up your green space.
Andres Gomez, garden expert at outdoor cleaning appliances provider Aiper, shared some thoughts on how to best look after your garden at this time of year. His first tip is to leave your lawn as it is for now, even if it is looking a bit frazzled.
‘Adding extra stress’
He warned: “Don’t mow the lawn. They are surprisingly resilient, despite looking brown and parched and will come back to life when the rain starts again. Mowing it can add extra stress and pressure on the grass so just leave it as long as possible.”
Another benefit of not giving your grass a trim is this helps protect the soil and allows it to “lock in the moisture for longer” when it finally rains again. This means it will recover more quickly.
Heavy rain is forecast for many parts of the UK over the coming days. You should also take it easy with the secateurs even if your bushes are looking a bit untidy.
Mr Gomez said: “Don’t prune your shrubs yet. Even if they have dead stems and don’t look attractive, just leave them as pruning will put extra strain on your shrubs. Wait until they are showing signs of new life before you attempt to prune.”
Reuse your water
When it comes to watering, the expert advises using “grey water” to provide a deep drink for your green space. Mr Gomez said: “Grey water is water you have used for washing up, boiling veg or pasta and even bath water. Save it until it is cold and then pour straight onto the ground to directly reach the plant roots and focus your efforts on watering a few different plants deeply at a time rather than trying to cover the whole garden.”
He also said not to bother putting this water on the lawn but rather giving it to your plants which “need it the most”. Another important principle is to do your watering early in the day.
The early bird catches the worm
Mr Gomez explained: “Water the garden as early as possible so plants can use the water throughout the day rather than at night. Night-time watering can also encourage unwelcome slugs and mosquitos or midges.”
He said a common mistake with watering is having too much of a light touch. The expert said: “The main mistake people make is trying to water much too sparingly and not focus on watering deeply.
“It’s better to focus on individual pots or shrubs each day and rotate around the garden so everything gets a deeper soak.” He also warned people often worry too much about their lawn when their priorities should be elsewhere.
Mr Gomez said: “Another mistake is to spending too much time trying to stop lawns going brown. Focus on plants, shrubs and trees instead as lawns recover so quickly as soon as the rain comes.”
