Landscaping a garden from winter into spring

Landscaping feature from Kent Blaxill offers advice on how to get gardens back into shape.

After one of the UK’s wettest ever winters, the country is eagerly awaiting spring. Lots of gardens are damaged almost beyond repair due to widespread flooding and record rainfalls. Others have been neglected, falling into disrepair. Fortunately, sprucing a garden up after bad weather isn’t too difficult. Whether you’re a contractor or tidying your own garden, you need the right tools to repair and restore your ailing outdoor areas.

Protect any garden wood

Sheds and fencing can suffer through the winter, fading and distorting. Hopefully you protected your wood with a protective coating before the cold snap hit. Regardless, you’ll likely have to re-paint and retreat your wood to keep things fresh and ready for a new season.

Choose a weather-resistant coating, as both the spring and summer will still bring plenty of rain. Grab some exterior paint like Dulux Weathershield from Kent Blaxill.

Take care of decking

Decking is the focal point of lots of gardens. Built to last, it shouldn’t take too much of a hammering through winter but does tend to fade, crack and bend when exposed to snow and lots of moisture. The wood soaks up the wetness and distorts as a result. That means that over the winter, you need to protect your decking with a wax coating to repel moisture.

The spring will still bring lots of moisture, so any un-coated decking will need to be treat again with a decking stain like Cuprinol anti-slip decking stain.

Some decking may be too old or warped to be repaired. If that is the case, replace it with newer composite decking, a non-wood solution that will not split or rot and doesn’t require paint.

Re-energise paving

Paving suffers in the winter due to moisture. You’ll need to kill any weeds that have grown between paving stones. After killing off any growth, you’ll then spray the paving flags down with a pressure washer to help bring them back to life and remove stains. Brushing some kiln-dried sand into the gaps after things have dried up is a good way to prevent more weeds growing and to spruce up the overall look of the paving. Keep a bag of sand in your shed or garage and re-brush it in every few months.

Bring the lawn back to life

If you’ve got a lawn, chances are it has suffered through the harsh winter weather. Areas will have thinned out due to flooding and will need to be reseeded with the correct type of grass. If you’re unsure on what type of lawn it is, visit a garden centre and ask them for assistance – they may offer you a strain that is more resistant to wear and disease. You can use lawn feed to revitalise starving grass and help cultivate new, stronger growth.