5 Summer Gardening Tips for a Happy & Healthy Garden

With summer just around the corner, it’s a great time to start thinking about what you want to do with your garden this year.

Which is why we’ve put together a host of great gardening tips for the perfect summer garden, including what to plant, caring for your lawn, saving time on gardening and much more!

What Should I Plant?

Summer is all about colour! And while we can’t always bank on bright, blue skies here in the UK, we can at least make our borders and planters come alive with colourful blooms.

Sunflowers, marigolds, petunia, dahlia, peony, hydrangea, sweet pea. The nation’s favourite flowers are bursting with all the vibrancy of the rainbow.

You might also want to think about how to utilise every inch of your garden, including fences and walls. Climbers like clematis, honeysuckle and star jasmine can add delicacy to otherwise dull and functional walls and fencing.

Climbers are even better for small gardens, as you’ll see your garden grow up as well as out, making good use of limited space.

B&M Top Tip: if your garden tools are looking a little rusty, you’ll find the perfect replacements at B&M. Browse everything from trowels and forks, to gardening gloves and secateurs in our Garden Maintenance & Essentials category

To Mulch or not to Mulch

If you have a large lawn area, you may find that your garden bin fills up faster than you can get empty it! As such you may want to consider mulching.

This is the act of leaving your mown grass clippings on the lawn. That’s it – easy! Just leave them on top of your lawn to decompose.

The benefits include protecting the grass, conserving soil moisture and helping to prevent weeds from growing. When they decompose into the soil, they’ll return lots of valuable nutrients, keeping your lawn happy and healthy!

B&M Top Tip: check out our range of lawnmowers in our Garden Electricals range!

Planters: Go Big

If time is of the essence and you’re struggling to devote enough time to your garden, you’ll want plants that can take care of themselves for longer.

Big pots and planters generally require less maintenance and watering than small ones, for the simple reason that smaller pots will dry out faster and need replenishing.

So if you only have a paved area and nowhere to plant in the ground, consider going big! Our Sonata Planter 71cm – Slate is made from recycled rubber tyres, making it eco as well as time-friendly!

Economical Watering

The amount of water you use and the timing is crucial for maintaining healthy plants in the summer heat.

It’s better to water plants thoroughly, rather than little and often. Even to the point you think you’re over-doing it, you want to see small pools surrounding your plants.

It’s also important not to water during the hottest part of the day. When temperatures are high, you will want to increase the frequency you water, but make sure to do this early in the morning and later in the evening to prevent water evaporating.

Weeding

Prevention is always better than the cure! If you have an inherent weed problem in your garden, you might want to consider starting again and stopping the weeds coming through in the first place.

While there will be some work to do in the short term, you’ll have less maintenance to carry out in the years ahead. The best way to prevent weeds is for your desirable plants to outcompete them.

That means leaving as little space as possible in your borders when planting, while being careful not to overcrowd. Pick up some Weed Control Fabric and lay this before you start planting, cutting an ‘X’ into the fabric where you want your desirable plants to grow.

B&M Top Tip: when all else fails, there’s always weed killer. Browse our Garden Chemicals range to find the right weed killer for your circumstances.

Did you find our summer gardening tips useful? We’d love to hear about your own green-fingered tips! Share them with us and the B&M Community on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram.