Summer is a time to enjoy the garden. Whether it’s relaxing out on your deck or patio or simply a well-placed chair and umbrella in the middle of the lawn we all enjoy our Christmas and our summers outside –hopefully in the sun!

Your garden should be exploding with colour and growth right about now but expect it to really take off as the summer months get underway. A lot of rain in November, whilst great for your garden, will trigger an abundance of growth that will need regular maintenance; otherwise it could get seriously out of hand.

It needn’t be a headache that interrupts your feet-up relaxation time though. A regular round of hedge clipping, lawn mowing, edging and pruning can be structured into a less-daunting program that can keep your garden looking its best right through to the autumn. Alternatively an experienced landscape gardener can probably tackle it all in one day every few weeks –depending on how big your garden is of course.

Jobs like dead-heading are a bit of a pain but this simple act of removing the spent flowers will tidy things up enormously and also give you some new flowers to boot –roses in particular should be dead-headed regularly. And you’ll find, rather surprisingly, that it’s quite a rewarding job! Flowering trees and shrubs can also be pruned at this time of year, if they haven’t been already. Maintaining a nice neat shape is not hard to do and it prevents a tree or shrub from looking unruly and untidy. You’d certainly rather they were noticeable for their good looks rather than their bad. Hedges too will benefit from a final cut for the year.

Mulching is vital in the summer. With the sun baking down on the soil it can quickly dry out if it’s not protected. Eventually it may even refuse to take up water altogether –not to mention quickly kill off most of what you have planted in there. Mulching protects the beds from drying out, keeping moisture and nutrients locked in. This ultimately reduces the amount of watering you need to do as a bonus.

And speaking of watering, with an effective irrigation system installed and working properly even the simple task of watering can be made even easier. We all forget to water our plants on occasions, which can often prove costly, but with a timed system delivering the right amount of water, you need never worry again. Well worth the investment I can assure you!

Lawns will need to be mowed every few weeks over the summer. They look great when freshly cut don’t they? Don’t cut lawns too short though or you risk the sun damaging the roots. It’s easy to think cutting them short will mean you won’t have to do it again for a while. Sound thinking, but consider how much work it would be if it were too short and got scorched? No, much better to raise the blades a tad and cut every few weeks instead.

Above all else enjoy the summer and your Christmas in the garden this year. You’ve earned it. Merry Christmas!