WHEN the sun comes out, Britain completely transforms from damp and dreary to a place full of possibilities.
People smile more, enjoy ice cream on long summer day walks and attend festivals, where they can unwind with their pals.
And when they can’t be bothered to go out and do an activity… They spend time in their gardens. But it all gets ruined when the outdoor space isn’t ready for that one perfect day.
Enter Guy Barter, the Chief Horticulturist of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS), who has been in the industry since 1998 and knows a thing or two about what it takes to maintain a garden.
Speaking to Fabulous, Guy shared his top tips to whip the garden into shape, easy ways to transform it into a little piece of heaven and the mistakes you should avoid making.
Guy is no stranger to helping people with their gardens either as he spent 18 years running the RHS Members’ Advisory Service.
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He told us how many people would ask him why one plant had died or how to grow another from scratch.
“Once, one lady said she hadn’t got any tomatoes on her plants. She had pulled all the flowers off, because, obviously she didn’t want flowers, she wanted tomatoes,” he recalled.
“Most people know tomatoes follow the flowers," he continued, laughing.
While now Guy is the Chief Horticulturist of the RHS, he’s still very much a hands-on gardener and has many tips on how the average homeowner can spruce up their space.
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“The simplest thing to do is cut all the edges of the lawn so they look nice and smart,” he told us, adding that this makes the biggest difference to any garden.
“Get rid of the weeds in between the paving, you can use a scraper and hot water to deal with those.
“You can keep the lawn mowed and beautifully neat, but bear in mind that you can get wildlife benefits if you leave some of the lawns to grow tall and perhaps just mow a path for your bits of the lawn you don’t actually need to walk on so you can enjoy the wildlife.”
His third tip is to trim the hedges, but warned that people should check for bird nests before taking this step.
After getting it into good condition, it doesn’t take that much to maintain it
Guy also believes an important measure to take is to go around the garden to look at what’s thriving, struggling and dead.
“Replace scraggly plants,” he said, adding that people should choose some shade tolerant plants like ivies and ferns.
“Spruce up all your containers and get rid of small ones, they never really work as well as the big ones,” he shared.
Guy said it’s a good idea to add some winter foliage plants to the garden.
“There are lots of ways that the garden can be made to look a bit better at this time of year when people start venturing out,” he continued.
Guy said that doing all of this with an average sized garden would only take a morning’s work.
“After getting it into good condition, it doesn’t take that much to maintain it,” he shared.
And when asked if there are any specific plants or flowers that both stand out and are easy to maintain, he said: “There’s some really good choices of plants.
“Plant breeders put a lot of effort into making lots of lovely hydrangeas nowadays. It’s a good shrub that flowers for a long period and needs very little care.
7 tips to whip your garden into shape
- Cut the edges around the lawn to keep it looking neat and tidy.
- Get rid of the weeds in between the paving.
- Trim hedges, but make sure to check for bird nests.
- Mow the lawn, but keep some tall grass and plants for wildlife.
- Replace scraggly plants.
- Remove small containers and replace them with bigger ones as they work and look better.
- Plant flowers and foliage that look good and are easy to maintain, such as hydrangeas.
“The other thing is bulbs. They’re relatively cheap. At this time of year, you can buy things like lilies. They’ll produce instant colour later in the summer. Then there are good plants for pollinators, like verbenas and eryngiums look good.
“Plus you could grow some fruit without taking too much time or space, such as blueberries and raspberries.”
Guy also shared some useful information on how to tackle common problems that might occur in the everyday household’s garden, including moles and weeds.
If you find that a plant is turning yellow and leave a yellow ring at the bottom, it could mean that there’s a nutrient deficiency or not enough water.
While yellowing leaves at the top of a plant is usually a sure sign of nutrient deficiency and may be in need of some mulch, fertiliser or extra water.
When it comes to a plant that’s stopped flowering, Guy said: “A lot of plants only flower for a very short season. I think a lot of people expect a plant to flower for a lot longer than it actually does.
“Some of the plants that flower in the summer for instance, like dahlias and fuchsias, they'll go on flowering week after week.
“But other plants, like daffodils for example, have a brief period in spring. Lavenders are the same.”
Weeds, however, can be a serious issue in gardens and while you can’t eradicate them, Guy said you can invest in a “good, sharp hoe” to get them out quickly.
“If funds and time permit, you can invest in something called mulch, which is usually wood or bark chip. You can put a three-inch layer of that, which will help prevent annual weeds.
“It won’t prevent perennial weeds though. So you’ll have to take your fork and get them out.”
The expert said that it’s worth keeping a few weeds in areas you don’t use very much though as they have some value to wildlife.
I think a lot of people expect a plant to flower for a lot longer than it actually does
It’s not all about how you might be taking care of the plants though as there are wildlife creatures that can be particularly “destructive”, too.
Moles, for example, can wreak havoc on a garden, but Guy shared that it is possible to prevent them from coming in.
“It’s possible, to some extent, to defend against them by burying wire netting around your most precious borders,” he said.
“As a last resort, sometimes you have to call in a mole catcher to remove them. There’s a lot of them, nowadays, who use humane traps where they aren’t harmed and can be relocated where they can do activities without causing trouble.”
Meanwhile, insects, he said, are not too damaging.
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“You can get a few occasional attacks and the best way to deal with them is to use an insecticide based on soap or on oil because they leave no residues and don’t harm anything they touch.”
“But of course slugs and snails can be very damaging,” he continued. “And if preventative measures don't work, then it’s often better just to stop growing things like hostas, for example, as they are susceptible to slugs.”
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