If you didn’t have any leaves down you will now after all the blustery weather! I got back from Florida (doing Dreamflight a charity I’m a patron of ) to find the garden looking a complete tip, fallers from the apple tree, twigs and the odd branch along with a carpet of acorns and leaves everywhere.
Where to start? The Lawn. Not only does it make the garden look instantly tidier but leaving the leaves on the grass can lead to weak growth and bare patches which in turn leads to weeds getting in and a tatty looking lawn next summer.
If you want a bit of a “work-out” rake them up by hand using a spring-tined rake (lawn rake to most of us!) which also pulls out the dead grass and moss almost like using an exfoliator on the lawn. A leaf blower makes life really easy, but personally I just use the mower, set it high and it’s just like hoovering. The great thing is the leaves get chopped up so compost down more quickly and you also top the grass at the same time, making for that instant tidy look. I’d love to say it stays that way but unfortunately in two days time it’ll look like you’ve done nothing! It’s a case of plodding on until all the leaves are down, heyho.
On a cheerier note the spring isn’t too far off honest, now if you want a fab display on tulips, daffodils and crocus you need to get your bulbs in very soon before the ground freezes. Make sure you plant them to the right depth (it’ll be on the packet) as a general rule three times the depth of the bulb and don’t worry if they start to grow, they’ll sort themselves out.
We can fix it for children too that need a little help. Check out DreamFlight.org