Since now the summer is just about to knock at our doors in Canada, it is time to spruce up our backyards. It might seem like a gigantic task but all it takes is a clean sweep, little bit of trimming, lawn mowing, and pest control to make your yard perfect for family gatherings, hangouts, and for spending leisure time. Moreover, if you don’t take proper care of your lawn during the summer season, overgrowing of grass and proliferation of pests can become a serious problem.
So, stop procrastinating and get to work.
- Mission Clean Sweep around the Backyard
Before mowing your lawn or trimming the shrubs, the first thing you want to do is to clean up your backyard to get rid of the plastic bottles, soda cans, tree branches, rocks, candy, and chocolate wrappers, or any other junk that might have accumulated over time. After collecting all the junk and debris, make three different waste piles—one for composting which you can use for making your own fertilizer, another for the material which can be recycled or reused, and the third one for disposal purposes. Additionally, if you have gathered some rocks or boulders, you can use them for making borders around the trunk or pathways.
- Trimming Shrubs and Removing Dead Leaves
If you have a large tree in your backyard, cut its unnecessary branches with a chainsaw or a tree shear and trim shrubs for an elegant look. Once you are done with trimming, don’t forget to remove the dead leaves and debris accumulated underneath shrubs. Their removal is crucial because they have an affinity for bacteria which can infect the shrubs. Moreover, these dead leaves can be a perfect material for composting.
- Mowing Lawn with Sharp Blades
After cleaning and trimming process, now is the time to bring your lawn mower into play. But before starting, you must make sure that the blades are sharp enough to cut the grass evenly. Because using dull blades for trimming grass will result in an uneven surface, and it will consume lots of energy too. According to agronomists, it is advisable to cut the grass 2.5 to 3 inches above the ground because it will help the roots to become healthy, and it will also stop the growth of weed. Therefore, you must adjust your blades according to this standard for better results. Once you are done with lawn mowing, you can either use the clippings for composting purposes or just leave them on the lawn.
- Make Your Own Fertilizer
Instead of throwing away all the plant matter gathered during the whole process, put them in the compost pit, add some topsoil over it, mix it, and add some water to make your own organic fertilizer to use in your garden.
- Keep the Pests Away
The advantage of having lots of plants and flowers is that they attract beautiful dragonflies and butterflies, but at the same time they are also attacked by the harmful pests; such as fleas, termites, mosquitoes, ants, etc. In order to get rid of the harmful effects of pests, you must use pesticides or insecticides in your backyard. If you are inclined towards biological pest control, you can use beneficial nematodes (Heterorhabditis bacteriophora) because they have been proven very useful.
With the application of the above steps, you will get a cleaned up and tip-top backyard. If you want to create a beautiful ambiance, you might add a water feature (small pool, fountain, etc.) or a solar fixture which will definitely make your backyard stand out.
