If you love your garden but don’t feel you have enough time or energy to spend hours gardening (or just want more time to enjoy your little patch of greenery) then here are 10 easy gardening shortcuts.
- Mulching – simply applying a layer of mulch such as bark chips over your garden beds has the magical effect of ‘completing’ the look of the garden. It covers bare soil and visually links everything together, with the added benefits of reducing weed growth and helping keep the soil moist.
- Long term weeding – some weedkillers can help prevent weeds coming up in paths and hard surfaces for up to 12 months. So, just one application of a product like Yates Pathweeder can control weeds for up to a year. Now that’s smart weeding!
- Install a watering system – regular and thorough watering can be time consuming, so installing a watering system with a timer means you can have a weekend sleep in and be watering your garden at the same time. The Pope Raised Garden Bed Irrigation Kit is ideal – it’s easy to use and can be used with automatic timers. The kit simply attaches to a garden hose and the adjustable flow trickler on spikes allows water emitted to be adjusted to meet individual plant needs.
- Grow low maintenance plants – including dwarf varieties of plants in your garden means you’ll spend less time chopping and pruning as they’ve been specially developed to remain dense and compact. Hedging and border plants like murraya, nandina, abelia, and viburnum and Australian natives like westringia, lily pily, bottlebrush, banksia and grevillea are all available in dwarf or compact varieties that require less trimming.
- Organic feeding – feeding plants is a very important part of keeping them healthy and productive. Organic plant foods like Yates Dynamic Lifter Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser are a rich source of organic matter to promote soil health, but also feed plants like flowers and vegies for up to 6 – 8 weeks with slow release organic nutrients. So you can rest easy knowing that just one application of Yates Dynamic Lifter will feed your plants and nurture the soil for many weeks.
- Grow long lived vegies - if you love the thought of home grown vegies and herbs but are daunted by the need to replant each season then there are some fantastic edibles that will grow for up to 12 months or more. You can repeat harvest silverbeet, kale, spinach, spring onions parsley and chives for many months, keeping your kitchen well stocked with healthy greens.
- Easily fill a bed with flowers – if you have a bare spot in the garden an easy way to fill it with colour is by mixing some Yates Thrive Natural Roses & Flowers into the soil, scattering some flower seed over the area, gently raking it in and keeping the area moist. Yates ‘Festival of Flowers’ and Yates ‘Wild Flowers of the World’ are 2 very pretty seed blends that can quickly fill a garden bed with a rainbow of colour. Nurture, scatter, rake and water. It’s as simple as that!
- Self-watering pots – self watering pots and hanging baskets have a water reservoir in the base that the plants can draw from. This means that you can increase the time between waterings but still have flourishing, well watered plants. Self watering pots are particularly handy if you’re away from your garden and can’t water for a few days.
- Feature pots – it’s surprising what a difference just one decorative pot filled with flowers makes. Whether you position the pot at your front door step to welcome you home or feature it on an outdoor table on a balcony or patio, it will bring a happy splash of colour into your world and create a ‘look at me’ focal point. A well fed and watered pot of flowers can last for a season or longer, so you’ll only need to refresh it a few times a year to have a fabulous ongoing display. In the warmer months think of planting pretty petunias, geranium and verbena together and in cooler weather combine gorgeous lobelia, pansies and salvia.
- Succulents – succulents are the ultimate low maintenance plants, requiring minimal watering and feeding. They come in a multitude of different shades and interesting shapes and a bowl filled with succulents provides wonderful year round colour. Requiring only intermittent watering and feeding (with a liquid fertiliser like Yates Thrive All Purpose Soluble Plant Food), they’re perfect for time poor gardeners but still help you look like you’re an absolute green thumb!
Yates Dynamic Lifter Soil Improver & Plant Fertiliser
Create organic nutrient rich soil with Yates Dynamic Lifter for better root growth, stronger plants and more flowers and fruit.
Yates Pathweeder
Kills weeds in paths and driveways, and prevents new weed growth for 12 months!
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Autumn Fungal Diseases
With this seasonal abundance of atmospheric moisture it’s easy to see why this is the time of year for fungal diseases.
Autumn Gardening - Seasonal jobs
Autumn is a wonderful time of the year for gardening, being kinder to gardens and gardeners alike. Mild autumn afternoons are also perfect for relaxing on a lush green lawn, so pop some simple lawn care tasks in your gardening diary too.
Autumn Invaders
Rodents like rats and mice can become an increasing problem during the cooler months, as they’re searching for food and shelter.
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