Note: This blog post is a sponsored conversation written by Lynn Smythe, the Founder and Chief Blogger for The Creative Cottage lifestyle blog. The opinions, thoughts, ideas and text are all mine.
For some of us, our backyard is merely a space that happened to come hand in hand with our homes. We’ll get little use out of them and they will simply serve as a pretty space out back. For others, our backyards and gardens are our pride and joy. We’ll spend hours in them, tending to them, and making them as presentable as possible, nurturing our own little ecosystem.
Regardless of which stance you take, it’s extremely important that you maintain your backyard. This well help to prevent it from becoming a wild and sprawling space that you can’t so much as step into never mind spend any time in. Here are a few different steps that you might want to undertake to keep things under wraps!
Setting Up Borders
This initial step may sound pretty obvious and for many people, it is automatically carried out (as they have fences fitted before they move into a property), but for others it can really pose a point of contention – you need to set up borders around your backyard. This sets boundaries and ensures that you know what land is definitely yours. If your home has come with extensive land that isn’t marked off, you need to find the borders and mark them off yourself.
Whether you use fences, stone walls, hedges, or other means of sectioning the land off is entirely up to you. But once you’ve done this, you have taken a step in the right direction to maintain your backyard. Having borders means that you can monitor the space that is yours. It means that others are less likely to trespass without permission. It means that neighbors are less likely to venture onto your turf or accidentally bother you with their actions – they can’t, for example, cut down one of your trees thinking its theirs to remove.
Settle Disputes
If there are any disputes regarding what part of the land is yours and what belongs to neighbors, make sure to settle these disputes as soon as they arise. Take the case to a legal setting if necessary. You don’t want years of bickering and arguing to mar your relationship with the people who live next door and may continue to live next door for the foreseeable future. A legal dispute can provide everyone with the answers they need to put questions and rivalries to rest.
Taking Care of the Basics
There are certain basics that almost everyone with a backyard has to carry out. These generally pertain to maintenance of the lawn. Everyone with a garden that has grass should mow the lawn on a regular basis. This will keep the space neat, tidy, and presentable. It will also help to keep the area safe, as long grass can can conceal a whole host of seriously dangerous problems and threats – from sharp rocks or debris to uneven ground or unexpected holes that you could twist your ankle in. Keeping a short lawn allows everyone spending time in the space to identify these potential issues before being physically harmed by them.
The next step of basic maintenance is pulling weeds. Weeds spread across a lawn like wildfire. Not only are they unsightly, but they can also impact the quality of the grass that you want to be there – they draw nutrients and sustenance from the soil that your grass could otherwise be getting! So, pull them, ensuring to get the root too, and use weed killer to prevent them from growing back again. If you’re really not a fan of gardening, you could always make use of professional gardening services and have someone else carry out the work on your behalf to an extremely high standard.
Keep Things Simple
If you are looking to maintain complete control over your backyard, you are generally best off keeping things simple. Of course, backyards can easily become complex and lavish. You can start dabbling in planting all sorts of plants, flowers, herbs, and vegetables. You can set up pond systems with water fountains and an array of flora. But the more you have going on, the harder it is to keep everything ticking over like clockwork.
You’ll have multiple things on your mind and you’ll be constantly checking in on different things to ensure they’re going to plan. Trust us when we say a minimalist approach to gardening will save you a whole lot of time, stress, and hassle. What’s more? A relatively minimalist approach can help to make your backyard look a whole lot bigger than it would otherwise. It’s a win win situation!
Invest in a Greenhouse
If you do want to get a little more adventurous with your gardening, you should seriously consider investing in a greenhouse. This is essentially a specialist space where you can grow whatever you want to grow under better control. You can monitor and regulate temperature a whole lot more effectively, and you can also monitor factors such as humidity in the atmosphere, meaning that you can grow a wider variety of plants successfully.
It’s also a whole lot easier to keep animals out of a greenhouse than it is to keep them away from plants that are growing completely outdoors and are consequently a lot more easily accessible to anyone and anything. This is the perfect option for those planning on growing their own edible produce in particular.
Set Up a Sprinkler System
Watering the lawn isn’t something that all of us automatically do. We assume that the grass will be fine with whatever rain it happens to get and leave nature to take its own course. But if you do want a green and even lawn, you’re going to have to stop leaving your grass to fate and start taking matters into your own hands. Watering the grass regularly and evenly is going to become an essential. But rather than running about with a watering can in hand, you can save yourself a lot of hard work by setting up a sprinkler system. This can be programmed to water your lawn at a set time on set dates.
Controlling Wildlife
As we have just mentioned, controlling wildlife can be relatively difficult. When it comes down to it, wildlife is always going to be present in your backyard to some extent. There’s always going to be some sort of creature climbing over your fence, burrowing beneath your lawn, or flying and landing in your space. This can’t be helped.
They are wild beings with no concept of being allowed in certain places but not others. At the end of the day, your home has also been built on their natural habitat. They’re going to spend time in it searching for food and finding a means of surviving. So, be as tolerant as possible with these creatures. They mean no harm. However, if you do want to minimise the amount of wildlife spending time in your space, you can take measures to achieve this. The most effective means of minimising wildlife in your space? Removing sources of food.
Nine times out of ten, animals are only spending time in your space because there’s a regular and reliable source of food about. Remember that, when leaving food out, you cannot be selective in regards to what animals eat it. Bird seed will attract birds, sure. But it will attract rats, squirrels, and other creatures too. If you’re planning on getting rid of squirrels, you need to accept that you need to remove the bird food and you won’t be able to attract birds either. Animals have no concept of what’s theirs to take and what is not. Unfortunately, you’re going to have to take an all or nothing stance when it comes to feeding them.
Installing CCTV
If you have a particularly large backyard, or if you’re particularly security conscious, you may want to have CCTV installed overlooking the space. This could help to ward off trespassers and could also tape footage of anyone who does decide to trespass on your green space. They could be identified and legal action could be taken.
There are plenty of different systems out there, so take a good look through your options before settling on anything in particular. You may also want to pair your security surveillance system with an automatic light that triggers as soon as someone steps foot in your backyard. Sure, it’s more likely to go off with stray cats wandering through in the night, but it can cause would-be-criminals to scarper if they do attempt to get close to your back door.
No matter how large or small your backyard may be, you’re going to have to put a fair amount of thought, hard work, and effort into managing it. But not to worry. It is an achievable task to maintain your backyard! Hopefully, the above advice will help you to achieve this to some extent. They’re some great starting blocks to get you off in the right direction! So, incorporate them into your routine sooner rather than later!
So, there you have it – our top tips on how to maintain and control your backyard.
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