Uncommon tips for maintaining your garden

A beautiful garden is mostly the result of small tasks carried out regularly. You may be aware of the most common chores but here are a few uncommon tips for maintaining your garden.

• Instead of burning autumn leaves after you've raked them up, use them to make mulch for the coming spring.
• To make this mulch, run the leaves through a chipper.
• Whenever you use a chipper be sure to wear safety goggles to protect your eyes from flying debris.

• If your mulch is piled too closely to stems and trunks, it can give slugs, mice and other pests shelter, as well as suffocate your plant's roots or cause collar rot.
• To avoid these situations, leave a ring of bare soil around each plant that you mulch.

• Plastic sheeting should be used sparingly.
• This is because plastic sheeting keeps water and air from circulating, suffocates roots, and can overheat the soil in summer.

• To hold weeds back, use old pieces of wool or cotton carpet as mulch.
• Lay down strips of this carpet between rows of vegetables and in cutting gardens and nursery beds.
• Then, cover the carpet with a thin layer of soil to camouflage it.

• Mix a few strips of aluminium foil in with your mulch to help deter slugs.

• Also, put a cutting in a foil-covered container to help it grow straight.
• Make a hole for the stem to grow through for a single cutting, and for several cuttings, punch multiple holes in the foil.

• Let the wind sway around any newly planted or transplanted tree to strengthen its trunk.
• To give your new tree enough room to sway while keeping it secure, make sure any stakes you use low and have the support tie, just tight enough to keep your tree from toppling.
• Keep an eye on your tree's support as it grows to make sure it's not getting too tight.
• Support ties can be found at almost any garden centre.

• Spreading a mulch of cocoa shells can help keep slugs and snails away from your vegetables or tender seedlings.
• Slugs and snails dislike cocoa shells' rough texture, so they'll be more likely to steer clear of beds mulched with them.

These tips might sound unusual, but following them will help you maintain a greener garden.