How to keep your garden looking good through the summer 🌼🌸🐝

We all really want our gardens to look good through the summer but sometimes things conspire against us! 😔

Here are a few tips to keep your garden looking lovely - 

🌸 Keep weeding - they compete with cultivated plants for light, moisture and growing space. In dry weather they’ll take much needed water whilst harbouring pests like slugs and snails, as well as diseases like mildew! 🙁
🌺 Feed your plants - add controlled-release feed granules to all containers. These feeds only discharge nutrients when the conditions are right allowing your plants to be fed correctly for several months.
🌼 Grass care - don’t cut your grass too short, raise your mower blades slightly as longer grass acts as its own weatherproof buffer - retaining moisture. If grass is cut too short it can turn brown and allows weeds to invade! 😔
🌸 Keep shaded! If you’re going away and don’t have anyone to water your containers, move your baskets and pots to a shaded area, if possible you can place them in water, if you have suitable containers to place your pots in.
🌺 Water thoroughly, around the base of plants not just on the foliage as this allows the water to evaporate without doing much good!
🌼 Mulch - you should mulch any newly planted, shallow rooted or soft fruit. Do this when the soil is damp using bark chippings or compost. Mulching ensures moisture is trapped and smothers annual weeds, it also insulates roots from cold or heat.
🌸 Moisture - you can add water retaining gel crystals to containers you’ve already planted up by making a series of holes between plants using a pencil, then trickle in a small amount of crystals. This will hold moisture between waterings. 
🌺 Container choice - instead of a lot of small containers and pots, get some big showy containers - small pots dry out quicker, making them harder to maintain!

If you only use a few of these tips you should keep your garden looking good throughout the summer months!