If you’re lucky enough to have a garden, it can be a fantastic addition to your home and provide an extra living space during periods of nice weather. However you plan to enjoy your garden, it needs to be a clutter-free, useable space.
If your garden is looking a bit worse for wear at the moment, here are 5 top tips for decluttering your garden.
1. Start with your shed or storage space
Get the biggest job out of the way first, and you’ll know exactly how much storage space you’ve got for keeping the rest of your garden tidy.
Your shed might be full of gardening tools and accessories, outdoor toys and furniture. Take everything out and organise it into those categories, discarding anything that is broken, or you won’t use again. Take these to charity or the recycling centre.
Once you’ve organised, but the items back neatly, leaving as much room as you can or laying them out for ease of access. You could add hooks to the walls to hang up larger tools such as spades and used labelled storage boxes for smaller hand tools and other gardening supplies.
Why not consider taking out a long-term storage facility to store your garden furniture and summer toys during the colder months. During the rest of the year your unit can be used to store holiday decorations and heavy winter items such as coats.
2. Tidy Up
Go round your garden gathering up toys and equipment; anything that should be stored away. If you have children who play in the garden a lot, it might be worth investing in a toy box that they can access easily – and hopefully put their toys away themselves!
Store everything else in your newly cleaned shed, keep things that you use most often to the front, such as garden chairs or your lawnmower.
There is no limit to storage facility hire, consider using a storage unit for a few weeks or months to keep everything safe, clean and dry.
3. Get rid of any rubbish
Store any useable soil in bags and add your broken plant pots to the rubbish pile. If you’re the creative type you could always repurpose your pots to make mosaics … if not, make a trip to the recycling centre and get rid of anything that cannot be used again
Check your front and back gardens for stray litter that might have blown about and get rid of any old balls or other toys that are broken beyond repair.
4. Sort the greenery
With everything stored away neatly, it should be easier to assess what work needs done. Start by mowing the grass and strimming the edges. Then get rid of weeds and stray grass; use a hand fork or trowel to dig up roots and put the weeds and grass into your garden waste bin.
This will take time but it’s really rewarding when it’s done and easier to maintain. Add any plants or flowers you like to fill out the borders or plant pots and add some colour to your beautiful garden.
Check for and get rid of any deadheads on your existing plants and trim any shrubs that are becoming overgrown. Trim back any hedges or trees that overhang the garden or neighbours’ properties.
5. Place your garden furniture
If you have several garden chairs, only put out enough for however many people will usually sit in them! Keep the rest in the shed or in storage for when you’re expecting guests. Place your garden table and chairs in a suitable area and make sure the cushion pads are clean and dry.
Store cushions indoors overnight to avoid mildew.
Finally, sit back and relax, enjoy your garden, and feel really proud of all your hard work!