Maintaining the Hard Landscaping in your Garden
Spring is the ideal time for maintaining the hard landscaping in your garden.
In our previous blog, we looked at ways to help your garden plants recover from winter and to flourish through the rest of the year. This time we turn our attention to the hard landscaping elements of your garden – patios, decking, fences, etc. Winter cold can also heave pathways and rockeries and damage bird baths and planters.
Here we have collected ten top tips we hope will be useful. Even if you have help maintaining your garden, a checklist can still help you to plan what needs to be done.
- Check the general condition of your deck or patio. Clean it to remove any algae or moss that has built up over the winter and make any needed repairs. Perhaps add protection in the form of paint or sealant to keep the weather out next year.
- If you have stone paths or edging, you will probably be able to see any signs of frost-heave damage. You may want to think about repairing cracks in paved areas now before they worsen. Again, clean paths of moss or algae to avoid the risk of slippery surfaces.
- Move furniture out of storage; clean and re-oil or repaint as needed. Clean off outdoor furniture so it’s ready when you are for relaxing after a busy day in the garden, or just enjoying a cup of tea in the Spring sunshine.
- Repair fences and trellises – High winds in winter can create havoc with these structures. It can be a good idea now to check fence posts and panels, as well as trellises and their fastenings and fixings and make any repairs necessary.
- Lubricate latches and hinges on gates – You may like the familiar sound of a squeaky gate, which gives you advance notice of a visitor. However, adding a drop of oil or grease to the hinges and latches helps them to work smoothly and protects them from rust.
- Before the warm weather arrives, it is a good idea to clean, repair, sharpen and oil your lawnmower and tools. It is also a good time to think about taking stock of all your tools and garden supplies. A trip to the garden centre or hardware shop now, could save time and effort later.
- Check planters, ornaments and birdhouses – Anything that spends the winter outside could have been upended and suffered injury in the stormy season. A nail or a screw here and there and a dab of hard outdoor filler and a splash of paint and you can quickly restore them to their former state. Birds will be starting to nest very soon, so make sure that bird houses are clear of any old nests and weatherproof for the season ahead.
- Refresh gravel or mulch as needed – Winter rain may have washed away or flattened mulch and gravel which you might want to replace.
- Make visual checks of the wiring or bulbs on outdoor lighting and make repairs or install replacements where necessary. Sometimes a little corrosion has started and it can be a good idea for you to replace a couple of screws now rather than lose a whole light fitting later.
- Keep it green. It is a good idea, if you want to respect and enjoy the wildlife in your garden to put out some food and water. It’s important to clean bird feeders and bird baths regularly to reduce the risk of infection spreading amongst the local population.
Keep a clean bowl of hedgehog food and water available throughout spring to support them as they emerge from hibernation. If your garden is fenced off, you may want to think about cutting a small opening or two in the base of the fencing to create a ‘hedgehog highway’.
This is a marketing article from My Holiday Home Insurance, a specialist provider of insurance for holiday homes, leisure homes, holiday lodges and static caravans. Our team of experienced advisers are always happy to help, so for more information call our Northampton office on freephone 0800 988 0890.
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