Maintaining your backyard and garden is essential to providing a safe, enjoyable and inviting outdoor space for your loved ones to enjoy, but it can take a lot of labour to keep it looking its best. If you’ve ever thought, “There must be a better way to do this”, as you’re shoveling leaves into an overloaded bin bag by hand that’s about to rip open, then keep reading. Below, we’ve outlined five of the best ways to keep these spaces clean, from investing in the right materials to creating a schedule of regular tasks, using smart watering techniques, composting and leaning on others for help when needed to preserve the beauty of your outdoor spaces.
Invest in low-maintenance materials and plants
If you’re still designing your backyard and garden or considering an update to help minimise the time and effort needed for ongoing maintenance, make sure the materials you’re using for your outdoor spaces and fencing are long-lasting and easy to clean. Options like PVC fence panels are durable and easy to maintain compared to traditional fencing materials, with minimal upkeep required to keep them looking their best.
PVC is replacing timber in increasingly more exterior furnishings and features. There’s a number of reasons for this. In comparison to wood, it’s less prone to rotting, more water-resistant and durable and its smooth surface makes it much easier to clean and maintain. For example, if a part of a PVC fence breaks, you can simply swap it out with a replacement piece, whereas when a wooden plank in a dence is damaged, it often impacts the structure of the whole fence panel, making repair a lot more complex and expensive.
Select appropriate plants for your climate and space
When it comes to plants and greenery in your garden, selecting appropriate species will really help minimise and streamline your labour. This doesn’t mean you have to go for evergreen plants that never grow or change their colours. You can choose plants that are native to their environemnt because a native species is designed to thrive in your space without much support.
For example, Callistemon plants are drought-tolerant and manage well under the Australian sun, so you won’t have to do any propagation to support them. It can be a great option to keep your green spaces beautiful and easier to maintain. If you plant large deciduous trees, you’ll experience so many wonderful changes throughout the year, but the pay off is a lot more maintenance and time spent cleaning their droppings. Alternatively, using mulch or ground covers can help reduce the need for weeding, cutting down on the time and effort required for your garden maintenance.
Create a schedule of tasks
Small, consistent actions can help keep your backyard and garden clean while minimising the need for larger, labour-intensive maintenance efforts over time. Plus, creating a schedule of regular garden maintenance tasks can increase your productivity and efficiency, resulting in less time spent overall on your backyard and garden upkeep.
Start by evaluating your backyard and garden: which areas need the most attention? What tasks need to be done seasonally? Make a list of all the tasks associated with maintaining your outdoor spaces, then give them time frames for completion. Some tasks, like watering or pruning plants, may need action more frequently. Others, like cleaning outdoor furniture and wiping down your fence, can be done seasonally or yearly. Once your schedule is outlined, add the tasks to your calendar as reminders to help stay on top of it.
Use smart watering techniques
A consistently watered garden is a happy garden, but you don’t want to spend too much time standing around watering your plants. To help reduce your labour in this task, consider installing an automated irrigation system – they can be a steep investment in some cases, but they’re also the most convenient. Drip irrigation systems can be highly efficient as they offer targeted watering at or below the ground surface of the plants or areas that need it.
Using organic mulch in your garden beds can also help reduce water loss while also providing other maintenance benefits to your garden. Alternatively, installing a rainwater tank to work with your irrigation system of choice can help save you money by lowering your water bills. Plus, you’ll be able to keep watering your garden even if government water restrictions come into effect.
Start composting
Home composting comes with a variety of benefits for your garden: it helps turn yard waste and food scraps into nutrient-rich material for your plants, improving soil health and promoting healthy plant growth wherever it’s used. Compost also helps soil retain moisture, compounding the positive effects of your smart watering techniques. Finally, it makes your home more eco-friendly.
To start composting at home, set up a compost bin in a sunny or partially shaded corner of your yard. Start with a layer of larger pieces, like twigs or branches taken from pruning your garden, to create the base layer. Then, add your green and brown materials – for best results, alternate layers of these materials, using a ratio of two parts brown to one part green. Remember to turn or aerate compost fortnightly.
Seek help when needed
As the saying goes, many hands make light work. If it feels too overwhelming to tackle backyard and garden maintenance on your own, or you’re tackling bigger tasks like tree trimming, there’s no shame in hiring a professional to do the work for you.
Otherwise, try leaning on your support networks within the community. If you don’t have a specific tool that would save time and effort on a certain task, but you know someone who does, ask them if they’d be happy to lend it to you. Alternatively, if there’s a lot to be done, see if your friends and family would be happy to come round for a working bee and offer them plenty of food and drinks in return.
Spend more time relaxing in your garden, not working on it
You can limit your labour in the backyard and garden by investing in low-maintenance materials and plants, creating a time-bound schedule of consistent tasks and using smart watering techniques like irrigation systems and mulching. Also, turn to ways to turn your household waste into a nutrient-rich material for your plants through composting at home, and don’t be afraid to seek help from professionals or your community when needed. Maintaining your outdoor spaces is a long-term process, so keep engaging in regular, consistent action for efficient and effective results.
