From Mowing and Leaf Removal to Tidying Up – Spruce Up Your Garden

You know the saying; a clean home is a happy home? That is true. When we have clutter both inside and outside our homes, not only does it look shabby, but it is a direct reflection on your neighborhood as well, and many people would rather live next to a neighbor that looks after their property rather than misuse it. 
With the current economic climate and the dawn of quarantine, working from home has become the norm, and with it, people have been finding innovative ways to stay active when they cannot go to the gyms or fitness centers. Sometimes doing chores around the house may just be what you’re looking for. It may not be your cup of tea, so why not clean up the outside of the house and make it look spanking new instead?
You can take it upon yourself to set up a DIY project to spruce up your garden as well. not only clean it up but also trying to make it look beautiful, after all, you have time on your hands now so may as well spend it outdoors working in the garden on a weekend. Plus, if the suns out you’ll get that much-needed vitamin D on your skin. Don’t forget to wear sunscreen. 
Below are some tips for you besides mowing and leaf removal, to include on your gardening DIY day that will make it look ten times better and give you and your family another reason to spend time outdoors. 
Many people have taken the current situation as a chance to improve things both indoors and outdoors, and some have even gone so far as to add more creative recreational space to their gardens such as building a deck, a garden bar or a barbeque spot and even a greenhouse or a hot tub, check this website out and the inventive ways in which people have used their time both indoors and outdoors.
Let’s jump into some simple and effective garden spruce-up tips for you and the environment.
 

Plant to Attract the Right Insects. When you plant the right foliage in your back or front yard you can attract the right kind of bugs that won’t harm but rather help the biodiversity of the environment. Let’s take for instance bumblebees and bees, these are some of the most useful insects for the environment and play an important part in the biodiversity of it, however, in recent years it has been noted that they have become less and less and more towards becoming extinct. 
We need bees for various reasons and planting flowers and vegetables such as apples, cranberries, snapdragon, evening primrose, California poppies, and many more. These busy workers, help in cross-pollination, from a male plant to a female plant and vice versa. They leave behind the seeds of pollen on a variety of plants which help them grow and in the case of vegetables produce food for us. 
They also produce honey, which we love to add to our food. So besides producing the honey for us, they also produce it for their counterparts, other insects, and birds. Also, we don’t realize that they are also part of the food chain, and other insects such as spiders, dragonflies, and mantises eat bees. We need bees and adding plants that attract them to our gardens is doing your bit for the environment https://friendsoftheearth.uk/bees/why-do-we-need-bees.
 
Tidy Things Up. Keeping things neat and tidy are fundamental, not just for peace of mind but also for your health. When dirt, heaps of leaves, and grime get built up in any form inside to outside the house, bugs start to come, they lay eggs, have more children and the circle starts again. Not to mention mosquitoes, that spread various diseases are also prevalent. 
No matter what the season, even though some are worse than others, it should be a priority to not only clean up the garden from its overgrown grass and piles of leaves. Debris and leaves can pile up if not swept away and disposed of responsibly regularly, causing more work for you in the long run as well. it just takes the fun out of it when it becomes a chore. 
Trimming the edges around the trees and fences can make a huge difference to the look of the space. If you have flower beds for instance make sure you de-weed them by using bark that keeps the weeds at bay, plus it looks nice too. If you have hedges, trim them and if you have a fence, make sure it’s still standing and in good condition. If it’s wooden, sometimes a re-do coat of clear varnish will do the trick of sprucing it up and protecting it from the elements.
Things you should consider are trimming the side-walks, and flower beds, any pathways, and fences, or curbs. One can also use a leaf blower to blow away the leaves if raking isn’t your thing. Make sure you don’t blow your dirt into your neighbor’s garden. If you mulch the grass and leave clipping, it will provide more to the garden, rather then bagging it up and throwing it away. You can reuse it effectively in this way and it has valuable nutrients that don’t go to waste.
 

 
Keep Things Orderly. This is also something that you can do to help make your surrounding environment look pleasing. In the summer months, one can add some hanging baskets or potted plants to the outdoor space. Colorful flowers inside hanging baskets can add some well-needed charm to any home. 
If you have a shed or a greenhouse, make sure it is kept orderly. Make sure the locks work and the door work fine too. If you have a greenhouse, the same applies. Even if you do not frequent it or use it at all, it is a good idea to make sure it is neat and tidy and check for any broken paneling or glass on the floor, that may be harmful to others.
If there are structures you don’t use for instance the greenhouse, you should get it taken out completely and use that space for something more fulfilling like a pond, a playhouse for the kids, a flower bed or grow a nice big old tree there instead, to put some garden furniture underneath and have your Sunday family breakfasts on. The list of things you can do with open spaces is endless. 
This would also include cleaning your garage or outhouse, and moving things into labeled storage boxes and dusting off any dirt, dust or cobwebs from ceilings and corners. Keeping things orderly in a garage is also a very important project to undertake on its own. You can make a day out of it too. 
Cleaning the garage floor front oil stains or wiping away any mold using vinegar and warm water, are a few things you can do for this space and feel much better for it. The quickest way to sort out the garage is by using the rule of 3: Empty it, clean it thoroughly, and organize things back in their place.
 
Mowing Your Lawn. This is a straight forward task that anyone can do. It may sound obvious but if you did nothing else to the back yard and just mowed your lawn only, it can make a big impact on the look of it already. Of course, our advice will be to do more than that if time permits.  All year-round, with the change of seasons, one needs to mow their lawn and give it a weekly inspection for anything that may be out of place, overgrown, or uprooted. Sometimes prairie dogs, moles, ground squirrels, or birds can do that. Because these are burrow creatures that live underground, they have been known to dig holes in people’s yards.
Your garden is part of the aesthetic appeal of your house, and keeping it in tip-top shape is your responsibility. Also keeping your rubbish bins somewhere inconspicuous is advisable so you don’t ruin the appeal. Cutting your lawn regularly also helps get rid of old dry grass and make way for a new fresh layer. 
Did you know, it also considered therapeutic to mow your lawn? The repetitive movement of going back and forth will help you tune your mind into a state of meditative calmness, which can be extremely relaxing and good for your overall psyche. Plus, it amounts to a good work out as well. 
If, however, you already get enough of that peace of mind doing other things or you simply do not have the time for that type of exercise, you could also simply hire a service to do it for you in an expert manner, places such as Heroes lawn mowing service can take the hassle out of your hands and be in and out within no time, plus when a company specifically offers this service, you know they will be good because it is their specialty.
 

Grow A Vegetable Garden. Not just for you but the environment and rest of the garden as well. Grow some vegetables or create a vegetable garden where your greenhouse used to be. There is nothing better than cooking exquisite recipes with freshly grown vegetables from your backyard. Plus, they will be clean, organic, and without any harmful pesticides in them.
They have a twofold advantage; you can use the vegetables in your home cooking plus the shavings and peels can go into a compost that you can use to make organic mulch for all your other plants. Nature feeds nature. 
If you don’t have that much room for a whole new vegetable patch you can grow them in containers. Recycled plastic or paper containers make for some brilliant vegetable houses and you can even put them in your kitchen once they start sprouting. Herbs are also an easy way to grow green in containers or a small patch in between other plants or sidewalks for instance.  
Cilantro, oregano, mint, basil rosemary, dill, and many more herbs, are favorites of experimental and famous chefs who prefer to use their home-grown variety rather than the store-bought ones. When trying to stay as close to nature as possible by being resourceful with the environment you are given, it will also help the earth in many ways than one. 
You can also teach your children to be resourceful and grow their greens, for sustainability and eco-friendly living, making them more environmentally friendly and respecting the eco-system more than a lot of people do. In this day in age, we need to look after the natural elements that are given to us and not misuse them. 
As exciting as it to DIY things yourself, we can get carried away sometimes, so a word of caution is, to make sure your vegetable and herb patch have what you and your family will eat. There is no point in growing tomatoes if none in the house enjoys them. The common ones are tomatoes, cucumbers, celery, spinach, beans, squash, and peppers. Throw some fruits in there too why not? Some apples or strawberries might be everyone’s favorite. 
The rule of thumb when choosing, make sure you go for the low-maintenance, but high-yielding plant variety. Those mentioned above are usually part of that category. 
We hope that all this information provided above will help you turn your house into a home and gives you a reason to get up from your home office and go outside to get some well-needed air and sunshine and improve your surroundings while doing it. There is nothing like the ultimate DIY project that you can do with your family to help bring a little adventure into everyone’s lives in this current situation. There is no better time than now to take on any improvements in and around your house. 
 

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