Maintenance

Maintenance is the soul of the garden after construction. The below mentioned information can help you to save your garden from rapidly deteriorating, so you can enjoy it for a long time.

Maintaining the lawn

You need the following to maintain your garden for a long time (good soilworks and automatic irrigation systems are fundamental conditions):
 

• Frequency of mowings: The main rule is that you should not cut more than half the length of the grass at any one time. What does this mean? For example, if the suggested cutting height is 4 cms, then you cut it when it is 8 cms long. If we let it grow to 15 cms, than the suggested cutting practice is the following: first cut it to 7,5 cms, then wait for 3-4 days and the 9-10 cm-long grass can be cut to 4-5 cms. The frequency of mowing depends a lot on air and soil temperature , the level of water and nutrients in the soil etc, but in practice we cut it every 6-12 days. The suggested length of the last cut in autumn is 40-50 mms. It is best to mow when the lawn is dry and not soaked.
• Direction of mowing: When the soil is very wet (or over- watered) and when the mower is full of clippings, the wheels can leave tracks a few centimetres deep, which can become deeper if one does not change the direction of mowing each time. Later this can cause an uneven surface, which cannot be easily rectified. To avoid this, each time you mow change the direction of cutting by 45-90o according to the geometry of the garden.
• Nutrient supply: With continuous cutting we take nutrients out of the soil. If we do not replenish these, deficiency symptoms can occur: the grass starts to yellow and its condition deteriorates. The fertilization programme, detailed below, fits to the seasonal development and nutrient use of the grass:
NPK: Nitrogen-phosphorus-potassium fertilizerN: Nitrogen fertilizerK: Potassium fertilizer
• You can fertilize with specific slow release lawn-fertilizers, the small particles of which can be dispersed easily, or you can use agricultural fertilizers. The advantage of agricultural fertilizers is that they are cheap but not long lasting and plants get the whole amount of nutrients at once. That is why it is important to fertilize more frequently in smaller doses, rather than in larger doses less frequently. You can disperse fertilizers manually or mechanically. The main thing is that it should be even. Unevenly dispersed fertilizer can spoil and burn the grass out for months. After spreading it is helpful to water the lawn. In spring it is worth aerating the lawn after the first fertilization.
• Weed control of dicotyledons: if this becomes necessary, it is worth having it done by professionals with a specific herbicide for dicotyledons once or twice a year. However, a healthy lawn should make this unnecessary, because when the lawn is in good health, it is thick enough to make it impossible for the weeds to establish.
• Lawn aeration and soil loosening: continuous mowing, irrigation and general wear and tear, all lead to compaction of the soil, even where the soil is well-structured. The condition of the lawn deteriorates and weeds and mosses start to establish in it. The compacted layer of the dead grass leaves and cut plant pieces prevent the water reaching the soil so easily, and do not leave room for the young growth either. Grass aerators and soil structure repairing methods should help with these problems. The best time to do them is early spring and perhaps autumn.
• The edge of the lawn: the edges of flower borders and lawns, if they are not edged with something, (e.g. edge stones, garden edge etc.), should be recut with a sharp spade two or three times a year to stop them losing definition.
• Moles: with calling down curses on them, we can drive them into our neighbour� garden. If this does not help, you can try battery or sun cell operated alarms releasing electrical impulses (they are effective). The other mole alarming techniques are just taken from folktales, or at least I have to say they did not work for us.
• Diseases: when different kinds of grass diseases occur, then consult an expert.

Pruning (formal and natural pruning)

Pruning of trees and shrubs needs to be done regularly, but especially in the first few years. In this way we can encourage trees, shrubs, hedge plants and evergreens to branch out and restore the balance between the canopy and root system disturbed by transplantation. This requires hard pruning. In practice this may look very drastic, as the size of the often expensive plant may be much reduced for a while, but in the longer term it is worth it. It may be painful for the owner to see their prize plants being so heartlessly pruned by the gardener, but do not worry about it, as you will get compact plants with dense foliage branching from the bottom, instead of leggy, untidy plants with a loose canopy. The plants which need this sort of hard pruning every year include the following: the common shrubs (e.g.the butterfly bush (Buddleia), the lavender cotton (Santolina), the blue spiraea (Caryopteris)) and most of the ornamental grasses.

Plant protection

Unfortunately the number of pests and diseases is increasing, so our favourite plants need to be protected. Almost every plant has its own pest or disease, so you should be prepared. Where possible biological control is better, but in many cases we have to use chemicals, which give instant results. In the point of plant protection it is very important to plant disease-resistant trees and shrubs into our gardens, parks and avenues. The wrong choice of plants is annoying and expensive if repeated year by year. For example in the case of planning avenues, predictable plant protection problems should determine our choice, in addition to aesthetic and practical questions.

Hoeing, weeding and their alternatives

To hoe or weed you do not need many things besides time, a flexible waist and a sharp tool. You cannot really skip it, although you can ask someone to do it for you. But you can reduce the work:
We call it mulching when we cover the soil with organic materials, pine bark, trimmings, straw or compost, all of which can reduce the weeds. In garden construction the benefits of mulching need to be evaluated. The advantage of mulching is that the moisture loss from the soil is reduced because of decreased evaporation. In addition, the condition of the soil micro-organisms is improved because of the reduced temperature fluctuation. What is most important is that you will have a better looking garden. A good way of preventing weeds in gravel is to spread a geotextile membrane under areas which are being laid with gravel. This way you can prevent the hopeless task of weeding gravel!

Composting

What can be done with the huge quantity of grass cuttings, branches from pruning and fallen foliage? Why do we buy expensive fertilizers, flower-composts, soil-ameliorators if composting is a solution for all of them? By composting you can reduce the volume of waste from your garden, and produce your own rich organic matter to put back on your flower beds.