Garden Cleaning

What are the benefits of garden cleaning?

Tidy appearance

Gardens are meant to be attractive. The blooming flowers and multi-colored leaves are aesthetically pleasing, but if you allow dry leaves and other debris to settle in the garden, they can greatly deteriorate the aesthetic value of your garden.

Additionally, overgrown branches give your garden a shabby look. It is for this reason that you should also prune the overgrown branches. It is important to point out that when it comes to pruning, you are advised to leave it to the experts if you want to avoid unnecessary risks.

Improves the health of your plants

Pruning of your trees and flowers is the easiest way to maintain the health of your plants. Pruning allows sunshine to pass through, so your shorter plants and flowers enjoy sunlight, which stimulates growth. It also encourages new shoots to grow, giving your garden a fresh look.

During garden cleaning, you can spot unhealthy plants and get rid of them before they infect other plants.

Prevents pest infestation.

Pests and insects tend to make their homes in fallen leaves. Raking away these leaves is the best way to get rid of pests hence ensuring the safety of your plants.

Keeps weeds in check

Weeds are a nuisance in any garden. They compete for resources with your plants, grow really fast and end up choking your plants if left unchecked.

Constant garden cleaning is the easiest way to deal with this.  If you do it frequently and efficiently, you’ll spot weeds as they grow and stop them from infesting your garden.

Protects your home

Wildfires in the Midwest are a common occurrence. In case of a wildfire, unchecked branches and dry fallen leaves will quickly go up in flames.  Pruning overgrown branches and removing dry fallen leaves will protect your garden and ultimately your home if the fires come knocking.

Now that you know some of the benefits of garden cleaning, how do you effectively clean your garden? It may not be as easy as it sounds, but here are some tips that will make your cleaning effective and efficient.

Tips on how to effectively clean your garden

Know the season

Just like with everything else, timing is vital in garden cleaning. What season is it? Different seasons require different garden cleaning practices. With this in mind, you can customize your garden cleaning to that particular season.

For example, whereas pruning is a common practice in spring, it is discouraged in fall. During fall, plants put in place measures to enable them to survive the winter. These measures include storing up food reserves for the winter and developing some hardiness to the cold. Pruning away the branches jeopardizes these measures thus compromising the safety of your plant during winter.

You are also encouraged to start weeding during early spring because it is easier to pull out young weed seedlings due to the loose soil.

Know your plants

Gardening is like a love affair between the gardener and his or her plants. For the affair to work, you must know your plants well. Garden cleaning leans heavily on this. Certain practices like pruning depend entirely on the plants.

Some plants like the Virginia bluebells bloom during spring. So pruning them during spring cleaning is discouraged if you want your garden full of flowers.

If you have plants grown for winter foliage color, they should be pruned during early spring before growth starts. And those grown for ornamental fruits are pruned after the fruits fall.

Disposal is key

How you deal with all the garden waste you collect after garden cleaning is essential. Whereas vegetables such as cucumbers will benefit from the resulting compost, you should be careful about what you include in the compost.

Do not include sick plant parts and weeds in your compost manure. These should be gathered separately from the rest of the waste and disposed of accordingly. Burn them if possible or dispose them in your green waste bin.

Don’t forget the furniture

You read it right. Garden furniture is often overlooked during garden cleaning, and we tend to remember them just hours before hosting a barbecue. Giving these tables and chairs a little bit of attention after the plants won't cause any harm. Once all the raking and pruning is done, remember to wipe off the dirt and leaves on your furniture.

What are some of the common challenges in garden cleaning?

Lack of proper tools

Rakes, hoes, spades and shears are some of the tools used in garden cleaning. Without any one of these, some aspects of garden cleaning won’t be done efficiently. Having the right tools doesn’t cover it all; the tools must be properly maintained.

The weather

The weather is very unpredictable, and that can greatly affect your garden cleaning efforts. You may be just done raking crab apple leaves, and a strong wind blows felling more leaves. This can be a frustrating experience but you should not neglect your farm as a result.

Improper disposal of weeds and sick plant parts.

Let’s be honest. There are several times when you’ve had the unwanted plants removed, only to have them placed by the edge of your garden. This may seem harmless as the plants dry off in the end but that's not entirely true.

This kind of careless disposal of weeds can lead to a recurrence of weeds in even greater proportions. Also, careless disposal of infected plant parts poses the risk of infection to healthy plants.

Should you hire a pro-company?

Yes. Hiring a professional garden cleaning company is the best solution. Here are some of the benefits you’ll reap from letting pros handle your garden cleaning.

They have the right tools

A professional gardening company will have all the right tools for garden cleaning. This saves you the hustle of having to buy and repair your gardening tools.

They know what to do

Professional landscapers know the best ways to clean your garden. So leaving it in their hands ensures it is done efficiently and effectively.

It is convenient

If you don’t have a lot of free time at your disposal, you should leave your gardening to the pros. It will cost some money, but the result will be worth every cent.

Final word

A Roman philosopher once said, ‘Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get’. The beauty of your garden will depend on the care you give it. So if you want your Black-Eyed Susan, Blazing Stars and Flowering Almonds to flourish, you better put in a lot of effort in your garden cleaning.