Gardening tips for non-gardeners
Like marmite, gardening is a pastime that you either love or hate. Yet, we all appreciate a beautiful garden. The opportunity to relax during one of those much yearned for balmy English summer evenings with a glass of fizz, listening to the birds retiring for the night as the sun dips low on the horizon. When those days come, we are grateful and happy.
The chance to observe the bees, busily buzzing around Lavender – their banquet – and butterflies landing daintily on Buddleia – the butterfly bush! The smell of freshly mown grass as an aeroplane passes overhead. Or the scent of Sweet Peas on the breeze.
As Autumn arrives, we watch trees morph from mighty and magnificent green giants to bare and gnarled woody sticks, twigs like pointy fingers in the slowly chilling air.
In Winter, we gaze at the intricate frost patterns that form on a spider’s web strung between plants, snowdrops making themselves known and Winter Jasmine with its pretty yellow flowers.
Then Spring, when Summer is gently nudging its way quietly into the garden and a blanket of daffodils, crocuses, bluebells and tulips are a colourful sight to behold.
All of this is beautiful. It’s precious, yet as a non-gardener, the sight of a beautifully manicured garden might fill you with horror at the sheer effort of it all. Because a beautiful garden requires constant hard work, right?
Not always! Follow these easy tips and you can enjoy a year round, relaxing outside space with minimal effort.
Become inspired
By planning how your garden might look, as the excitement builds and your creative juices awaken, you may automatically begin to feel more inspired to undertake the gardening work yourself – even if you are a novice gardener. Watch TV shows, look at Pinterest and gardening magazines for inspiration and ideas – then transfer them to a mood board so that your design is ready to spring to life.
Employ a gardener
This is as simple as it sounds. It might appear to be cheating, but if you really don’t enjoy gardening then it makes perfect sense to employ a professional to do it for you. Even if you get help only with the jobs you don’t like doing yourself. You don’t have to go the whole hog and hire a landscaper either – your local gardener will suffice if you are working to a budget.
Choose perennials
There’s no need to go to the trouble of planting bulbs year after year. Save time and choose flowers that will bloom yearly but avoid anything that can’t remain outside all year round.
Scatter wildflower seeds
For minimal effort – and flowers that return every year – purchase packets of wildflower seeds and scatter them through your borders. They will grow in next to no time and are usually very hardy – not to mention pretty.
Involve your children
If you are really averse to gardening, then teach your children to love gardening. A small task such as scattering wildflower seeds will fill them with pleasure, and they will create a beautiful space for you.
Perhaps then, gardening is not so difficult for non-gardeners after all.
These are simple short cuts that can go some way at least to ensuring your garden is the haven you deserve.
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