Your backyard can be a great way to improve your property, but it does come with some extra work. Sometimes, even if you try to look after it, you will find some common problems cropping up in your garden.
These can be unsightly, potentially damaging to your property, or even dangerous. Here are some of the most common garden issues and how you can solve them.
Pests
Pests are one of the biggest problems with maintaining a garden. They take all shapes and sizes, but they do have one thing in common. They threaten your garden and can make it an unsafe environment. Common pests include:
Wasps
Destructive insects and bugs (slugs, greenfly, etc)
Rats
Rabbits
Deer
There’s no way to deal with every type of pest, but you can use different tactics to tackle them. Destructive insects can be dealt with by encouraging birds (but watch out for your berries) or other insects (ladybugs) into your garden. Avoid using pesticides if you can.
If you have a wasp nest, you may need to call a pest control expert. To prevent nests, consider getting a paper wasp nest replica as wasps will avoid the area if they think it’s already occupied. Check out the pros at Waynes Pest Control in Huntsville AL.
Other pests can also be dealt with by a pest control specialist, but making sure that your compost bin is clear of cooked food and meat will reduce the amount of rats in your garden. Use fencing to keep out marauding deer and secure your garden against rabbits as well. They’re cute, but they’re terrible for your garden.
Unhealthy Plants
The only way to properly deal with unhealthy plants is to be able to identify when there’s a problem and what’s causing it. Sometimes this is obvious. If your plants are wilting or look visibly dry, then give them some water. Hanging baskets are especially prone to drying out quickly.
Another common problem is that, even if your plants seem otherwise healthy, they’ve stopped flowering. This is because many flowering plants stop producing flowers once they’ve run to seed. To prevent this, keep picking flowers and deadhead regularly. It clears out the faded flower heads and encourages more flowers into fall.
Some plants may have fungus or other disease. Plants that are already unhealthy are likely to be attacked by these (and insects for that matter), so make sure that your plants are well fed and watered. Remove diseased leaves and, if necessary. Replace the plant with a hardier variety.
Water Drainage Issues
One issue that’s difficult to deal with is water drainage. This is an especially common problem in built up areas. Without proper drainage, surface water can flow through your garden, damaging soil and even your property.
However, there are some surface water drainage solutions that aren’t just practical, but are attractive to look at as well. By integrating these solutions into the overall design of your backyard, you’ll barely notice that they’re there. A natural look is ideal, using rocks and tunnels to move the water around.
