If it’s your first time in your own home, those large expanses of grass, flowers, and trees can be intimidating. You want to love your garden, but to do that, you need to know how to maintain it well. How can you plan your garden maintenance as a first time homeowner?  

Start Simple 

While you might be excited about your first garden, remember that you don’t need to go all out right away. Start with a few low-maintenance garden ideas and build from there. You can:

• Add low-maintenance perennials that require little water or pruning 
• Choose evergreen plants with small blossoms to reduce yard work 
• Plant in planters rather than in beds 
• Add hardscaping elements such as terraces and pathways rather than doing everything with plants 

Make Sure Your Home and Garden Work Together 

If your home’s structures undermine what you’re trying to do in the garden and vice versa, you’ll be a frustrated homeowner. What can you do to make sure that they work together? 

• Install seamless gutters and a gutter cover to prevent your gutters from clogging and overflowing into the garden.
• Position drainpipes in a way that moves water out into the places where you want it, instead of causing puddles.
• Add indoor-outdoor living spaces, such as decks and patios. Patio awnings can help ensure easy transitions between home and garden.
• Create storage in your garden, such as sheds. 
• Choose a garden style that complements your home style.

Be a Lazy Gardener 

Starting out as a lazy gardener can only be a good thing. You’re getting nature and landscape design to do work so that you can sit and enjoy your garden.

• Position your soil so that water moves in the directions where you need it. Use small trenches to stop and store water, and use rain gardens to pool water in the areas where you want it.
• Build the soil so that it supports healthy plants. According to Better Homes and Gardens, “adding organic materials—such as compost, rotted leaves, and peat moss—improves any soil.”
• Choose trees that create enough mulch for your garden. Position them away from your roof and gutters so you don’t spend time cleaning the gutters. Use the old leaves to add to your soil and protect your plants in the winter.
• Garden with perennials. This allows you to slowly build your garden, and you don’t need to plant new flowers every year.
• Choose plants such as herbs that draw in bees and other pollinators. These will help pollinate any fruit that you might have in the garden.

Look to the Seasons for Guidance 

When you first buy a house, you can feel overwhelmed by all of the tasks that you need to do. Instead of feeling overwhelmed, break up those tasks into seasons. You’ll find that your garden management is much simpler that way. Keep track of what you do so that it’s even easier next year. According to Do It Yourself, “a garden journal is widely used as a tool to document the successes and failures in a garden.” 

What can you do in different seasons? 

• In the winter, do emergency maintenance, shovel snow, and de-ice areas that require it. Make plans for your spring garden.
• In spring, make repairs needed after the winter, start seeds, do lawn maintenance, and do early spring pruning. Make your last-minute garden plans. 
• In the summer, water your plants, add summer mulch, and deter and remove insects and other garden pests.
• In the fall, plan for the winter months. Harvest fruit and vegetables, clean up leaves, mulch, and make sure that your garden is protected from winter snow, ice, and storms.

At Harry Helmet, we love to see your garden grow. That’s why we sell products that help you maintain your garden and home for the long term. Talk with us about our seamless gutters and gutter cover products to keep your home and garden running smoothly. Schedule a free estimate today.

Written by Del Thebaud