How to Maintain a Healthy Garden By Clearing Out Your Perth Backyard

For many homeowners, enjoying their backyard garden is one of life’s simple pleasures, however, maintaining it is a yearlong endeavour.

Growing a flourishing garden in Perth comes with its own unique challenges. But done right, your backyard garden can be healthy, resilient and tough enough to thrive in all seasons. Gardening is all about the right planning, so cleaning your excess green waste and performing regular garden maintenance around all seasons is essential.

To successfully grow a garden in Perth, we need to think about its specific conditions. We live in a hot and dry climate and it’s important to take into account the different seasons and the weather they bring in order to maintain your garden. Perth is said to have a Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters. 

In this post, we’re going to look at three major garden clean-up and backyard maintenance seasons and when you may want to consider hiring a Perth skip bin to help dispose of some of the green waste you produce. If you are performing yard work and need a skip hire in Perth, please let us know!

SUMMER GARDEN MAINTENANCE – MULCH, SOIL AND LAWN

An Australian summer is known for being unpredictable and bringing all kinds of weather. As the days get hotter, it’s important to keep on top of your gardening and freshen up as often as possible. 

The first step to maintaining Perth gardens during the summer months is to improve your soil. Here in Perth, our soil is sandy and dry, the sun is harsh and there is not a lot of moisture. So building good soil is a must. 

The easiest way to create nutrient-filled, healthy soil is by adding clay, manure and mulch. Adding clay improves the soil’s ability to absorb and retain moisture. Animal manure adds nutrients and mulch protects the soil from the harsh sun and helps lock in moisture so it doesn’t dry out on hot summer days. 

Another important aspect of anyone’s garden and landscaping is the lawn. Keeping a lush, green lawn during summer can be difficult. As summer progresses, keep your lawn longer, as a longer lawn tends to do better in harsh weather. Keep your lawn mowing regular but leave the clippings on the lawn to help it retain moisture and protect it from harsh sun rays.

During Perth’s summer, it’s important to keep on top of your wedding so your weeds don’t steal precious moisture from your shrubs and trees. You should also be regularly checking for insect and disease damage as Aphids and Psyllids are common at this time of year. 

Trimming and pruning after the first growth and once flowers have faded is a great way to continue to promote new growth and maintain a healthy, colourful garden. This is also the time to prune fruit-bearing trees.

AUTUMN GARDEN MAINTENANCE: LEAVES AND BORER DAMAGE

Autumn is the best time of year to be in the garden. The soil is warm and it’s prime weather for growing plants. Although the weather is still warm, the nights are beginning to get cooler. The heat of summer is gone and now is the time to prune, plant, and plan for the winter and for spring blooming.

The first thing to do for autumn Perth gardening maintenance is to do regular garden clean-ups and remove fallen leaves and fruit to make use of them as mulch.

Assuming that you’re composting at least some of your garden waste, it’s probably safe to say that you won’t be looking for any major disposal methods at this time. The exception is borer damage, which is easy to detect when the trees are bare and going dormant. You’ll want to trim affected branches and dispose of them in a bin.

You should also remove dead wood from larger shrubs and do some hedge trimming. A lot of your plants will enter a dormant stage over winter so it’s the perfect time for a good trim of plants that have finished flowering. Now is a great time to do a full garden clean up and also remove any dead plants that didn’t survive the summer and trim dead leaves. 

During summer, your soil can dry out and become water-repellent. To fix this, just add some clay and mix water into the soil little by little. It’s also a good idea to add a thin layer of manure to reintroduce nutrients and soil microbes. The mild autumn temperatures we get in Perth make your garden beds the perfect environment for bugs, especially caterpillars, so watch out!

The autumn months are perfect to start planting winter-friendly veggies, bulbs and trees in your garden beds, as they will require a lot of water to thrive.  

WINTER GARDEN MAINTENANCE: PRUNING TREES AND SHRUBS & WEEDING

As winter hits, Perth gardeners tend to slow down their garden maintenance. However, cold weather doesn’t mean it’s time to forget the garden! There’s still plenty to be done.

Winter months are known for the spread of weeds because of the extra water available, so it’s important to stay vigilant in your garden and keep on top of your weeding and pruning.

Pruning creates the largest volume of garden waste. Whether you’re cutting back the shrubs or trimming overhanging branches from your ornamental trees, you’re going to be left with some unwieldy green waste that needs to be disposed of. This is best disposed of in a green waste skip bin.

In Perth, Western Australia, the best time to prune is usually in the winter. Most plants are dormant at this time, and those that aren’t are typically nearing the end of the flowering season. This means they’re going to have a lot of gangly growth that is ready to be removed.

If you commit too much pruning before winter, you’re at risk of trimming branches that are set to flower. That’s why experts usually recommend waiting until most of the flowers are falling from the trees. This allows you to fully enjoy your flowering trees and then set them up for another burst of colour in the coming seasons.

A good idea during winter is to cut off all flowers whether they are dead or alive, to conserve the energy of the plant and promote root growth instead. An easy way to prevent weeds is to use mulching as a form of weed control. This also helps to retain heat in the soil and prevent frost which can lead to disease.

Now is also the time to apply a slow-release fertiliser to introduce nutrients into your garden continually. Be sure to also fertilise your fruit trees as they need the extra energy to produce fruit in the cooler weather. You should also prune your fruit trees to help them produce more fruit. Speaking of pruning, winter is when you need to give your roses a harsh prune and remove about two-thirds of the plant to get the best crop over the next few months.

Winter is also a good time to plant roses, trees, shrubs, hedges, ground covers and winter flowering annuals. It’s also time to tidy up your veggie garden and decide which veggies you would like to grow for spring.

SPRING GARDEN MAINTENANCE – CLEARING OLD OUTDOOR FURNITURE & MINOR GARDEN WASTE

Spring is when all your hard work during winter starts to pay off and you begin to see the fruits of your labour. Spring is a great time to be alive for Perth home gardeners and there is a lot to do to get your garden ready for summer. 

The number one thing to do during spring is to continue to mulch and soak your garden beds. Soaking your soil will encourage plants to send roots deep into the ground to chase the water. Deep roots during summer mean your plants will have access to moist soil even during the hottest days. You should also introduce compost to help with water retention and nutrients. 

Spring is also the best time to take a closer look at your old unwanted furniture. The weather is warming up, and many homeowners start thinking about entertaining and hosting outdoor barbecues. This is a good time to check and see if any of your outdoor furnishings and fixtures are showing signs of wear.

You may find that all you need to do is repaint the wooden furniture and tighten up any loose nuts or bolts. If you determine that any of your outdoor furniture is beyond repair, consider hiring a small residential skip bin to dispose of these furnishings along with some of your green waste.

This is also a good time to rake through the garden to pull up any dead growth and dispose of it. Check the perimeters of flower beds and other features and remove any weeds that have grown up. Lawn care during spring is also essential. Restore any dead patches by taking runners from other parts of your grass and replanting them. Spring weather means an increase in soil temperature and it doesn’t get as cold at night. This makes spring the perfect time to plant just about anything.

Finally, we mentioned above that pruning was best-taken care of in the winter. If you haven’t tended to this yet, early spring is your last best chance. In particular, look for spent flowers, old canes from perennials and any branches that have been nipped by frost. These are ready for removal as well.

PERTH BACKYARD CLEAN-UP & GARDEN WASTE REMOVAL

Gardening, whether you’re pruning, weeding or planting, often creates a lot of waste. Sometimes the regular green waste wheelie bins aren’t big enough and you may be in need of a bigger green waste skip bin for your garden cleanup. Allmetro Bins has got you covered!

We offer a range of different-sized skip bins to help you get rid of all your debris. We pride ourselves on our fast, reliable green waste removal services. Book a Perth green waste bin with Allmetro Bins today!