The rains are here again and you have the next few weeks to take advantage and bring your flowerbeds and lawns up to scratch.
Whether you want to just update the trouble, barren spots or switch things up a little bit, here are some tips to get you going:
Make a plan
Before you descend on your garden with a spade and a hoe, take some time to plan.
Brainstorming and planning is always important to ensure that your alterations are consistent with the rest of your outdoor plans.
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It also ensures that you only bite what you can chew within a limited time and budget. Developing a basic plan is not as difficult as it initially sounds.
All you need to do is sketch out the garden as it exists then begin to make your alterations, beginning with the most important changes you want to see and then updating details of colour, texture and plant materials.
Finalise your plan by listing down the names and numbers of plants you will need to buy or transplant.
Look within
Look within your garden before you head to the nursery. There are many plants you can propagate from parts of existing ones or ones that have sprouted by themselves.
Trees and shrubs that are growing too close together can be thinned out and transplanted to new spots. Many other ground covers produce seeds, which can be used to grow new ones on a bare spot.
Review the performance of the most important plants in your garden over the last year.
Make a list of the ones that are thriving, the ones that need additional maintenance and the ones that are barely surviving. The idea is to replace the ones that are barely surviving with ones that are thriving elsewhere in the garden.
Update your garden
Finally, head out to your local nursery and select the plants you need to update your garden. Start with any trees then get down to shrubs and finally ground covering plants.
Be careful not to get too carried away by all the new and shiny stuff that may not necessarily fit into your plans.
Remember, your garden is a living being, constantly growing and changing. Your needs, too, do change over time.
A space that made perfect sense a few years back may no longer be as functional or as appealing.
The rainy season offers opportunities to update such spaces without disrupting the well-being of the plants too much.
- The writer is a landscape architect
