5 Easy maintenance jobs to create a beautiful garden

Have the winter months turned your backyard into a barren wasteland? Give your garden some TLC and watch it turn into a relaxing spring time retreat. 

So what are the basic gardening maintenance jobs to tackle?

1. Trim hedges 

You may want to hide away from the world in winter, but that’s no excuse for unruly hedges come spring. Trim them back, or at least give them a little manicure if they’ve grown wildly during the cooler months. If you have taller bushes and shrubs in need of shaping and cutting, proceed with caution. Hire a long-handled hedge trimmer to get the job done safely.

“Standing on a ladder to try and trim taller hedges and shrubs is dangerous,” Tony says. “Also, remember to use eye protection and gloves.”

2. Take care of lawns

If you long for the kind of lawn that you normally see at the Wimbledon tennis championships, then you need to nourish your grass with good quality fertilizer and water.

But to really make sure the fertilizer penetrates to the roots of your lawn where it can have maximum effect – you need to aerate the soil. A lawn corer, that looks like a lawn mower and that you operate in a similar way, allows air into the root system.

“It’s motorized and you walk behind it like you would a lawn mower while it punches holes in the ground,” explains Tony. “It’s ideal if you have a hard, compacted lawn as it helps soften it to allow water to get to the roots of the grass.”

3. Remove old stumps

Have violent winter winds mandated you lop dangerous trees in your backyard? Do away with the unsightly and stubborn tree stumps by using an easy-to-operate stump grinder – use a smaller model for small stumps or a large model for more challenging jobs.

If you’ve not used the equipment before, there’s no point trying to work it out solo. Kennards Hire has a series of videos to help customers get to know how to use equipment. The team members in store can also offer advice and answer any questions you have about the tool.

4. Renew your fence

A new fence can give your home an instant facelift. Make the job quicker and easier using a post hole digger – use a small model that is light, hand-held and ideal for boring holes up to 150mm in diameter for fence posts or planting new shrubs.

5. Clear up leaves

Finally, finish off your garden overhaul by getting rid of the piles of leaves that collect in corners, the driveway and porch.

But who likes raking leaves? Make quick work of the task using a powerful lawn blower. If you’ve got a lot of garden to cover, hire a high-performance backpack blower that can also clean up grass clippings and denser foliage.

Now, there’s nothing much left to do except sit back and admire your handiwork – and invite the guests over, of course.

Source: Realestate.com.au - Presented by Kennards Hire