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Three Simple Tips to Make Maintaining Your Garden Flower Beds Easier

May 18, 2018 -
garden

Many of us love to get out in the garden and tend to the flower beds as the weather gets better, but it can be a physically strenuous task. If the physicality of garden maintenance is stopping you from doing as much as you’d like then a few simple adjustments could help streamline things. Here are three simple tricks to keep your flower beds flourishing.

Use the Right Garden Tools for You

easy grip garden forkHaving the right tools can make a tough job much easier. If you have a trowel with an awkward grip or can’t comfortably reach a certain spot you can fatigue more quickly and be left with aches and pains. If you do have difficulties with gripping ordinary garden tools the Easy-Grip Range can be a huge help. Available in a trowel, fork and cultivator type, the unique handle design helps make holding onto them easier. The perpendicular angle lets you keep your wrist in its natural straight-line position reducing the strain on it.

It may not just be grip that you struggle with when gardening, bending down to access the flower beds can also be difficult. You could use the Long Reach Easy-Grip tools, but if you struggle to stand for a long time this isn’t a perfect solution. Instead, the Garden Pro Bench & Kneeler is an ideal alternative. Depending on how low you need to go, you can place it either way up, providing somewhere comfortable to kneel or sit.

Consider Planting in Flower Beds with the Pots

garden pots One of the hardest tasks in the gardening is digging to plant new flowers. This can be especially difficult when it’s dry and warm as the ground is hard and you fatigue faster. To get around some of this manual labour you can keep plants in their pot when you put them in the flower bed. This has several advantages. The first is that it makes swapping flowers out really easy. If, for example, you want to change the flower beds design season by season you can simply lift the pot out of the bed instead of having to dig down to the root.

You could even put an outer pot in place first and put the pot containing the plant within that, then you’d needn’t dig at all. Of course, it’s best to plant more permanent flowers without their pots to help the growth of roots. The other advantage of doing his is that it helps control aggressive plants. If you want to include a particular plant for how it looks but it has a reputation for taking over a flower bed, then pot planting can help keep it confined. The walls of the pot will stop the roots from spreading too far and dominating surrounding flowers, keeping everything in order.

Coffee Grounds Can Benefit Your Soil

garden coffee A slightly more unusual way to help you tend to your gardens flower beds is to use coffee grounds in your soil. Not only will this help you reuse what would otherwise be waste material, but just like keeping plants in their pots it has more than one advantage. The first is that it can help enrich the soil and encourage plant growth. Being an organic material, the coffee grounds help water retention, aeration of the soil and drainage, all good for growth. It can also attract beneficial microorganisms and earth worms.

Finally, if you don’t rinse the coffee grounds before mixing them in their acidity will help acid loving plants. The second benefit is that it can help repel the pests that eat away at your flowers and plants. Slugs snails in particular do not enjoy the presence of the coffee, preventing your flower beds form becoming a buffet. Additionally, there is a theory that it can repel neighbourhood cats from doing their business in you flower beds, as that’s never a pleasant discovery when you’re out digging. So, next time you’re out in the garden tending to the flowers why not give some of these tips a go? Head to our gardening mobility aids shop for more help and advice.

Will Harrison
Will Harrison

Will Harrison is the founder of CareCo. He has worked in the mobility industry his entire life and grown CareCo from a grassroots business in his family home to the UK's leading mobility retailer with nationwide mobility showrooms and operating in the global market.

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