Member Article

Award-winning housebuilder, Barratt Homes encourages Pontefract to bloom this National Gardening Week

To mark the UK’s biggest gardening celebration, National Gardening Week, which takes place from 30th April – 6th May, award-winning housebuilder Barratt Homes Yorkshire West, which has its Ashmeade Park development in Pontefract, has created a handy top tips piece full of advice on how to make your garden bloom this spring.

1. Spring clean your garden The lighter evenings during the spring and summer seasons offer homeowners the perfect opportunity to have a general tidy up of flowerbeds, gardens borders, lawns and ponds. By simply removing leaves and other debris from your garden, you can begin to create workable soil for plants to grow. Whilst you’re at it, we recommend giving your gardening tools a clean and sharpen, as this will also help to improve performance and save you money in the long run.

2. Get planting Once your garden and tools are in shape, you can begin to start adding new plants. We would recommend planting more perennials than annuals, as annuals have to be replaced every year. Perennials last for two to three years, and usually survive the cold winter frosts.

3. Create a wildlife-friendly area Gardens are a great way to encourage wildlife within the area, and you can do this in just a few simple steps. Installing a simple bird box or feeder into your garden can really encourage wildlife to thrive. Make sure your bird box is placed high to avoid neighbourhood cats catching your feathered visitors, and in a sheltered site to provide birds with cover. What’s more, making sure your garden fence has small gaps at the bottom creates wildlife corridors, helping animals such as hedgehogs and frogs move from plot-to-plot and linking different habitats together.

4. Go organic with homegrown vegetables One great way to make your garden thrive and to get the kids interested is to grow your own fruit and vegetables. We would recommend opting for a vegetable that shows signs of life fairly quickly, to keep the little ones’ attention! Radishes are the quickest of all vegetables, germinating in just a few days and can be harvested in a few weeks. Other vegetables to go for include beetroot, early potatoes and peas.

5. Short on space? Go for bulbs If space in your back garden is limited, go for bulbs or plants in pots to create immediate impact. When they are on the point of flowering, you can plant the whole pot in a border to provide an instant splash of colour.

Sam Wood, Sales Director at Barratt Homes Yorkshire West commented: “Inspired by National Gardening Week we want to help all homeowners really take advantage of the spring season and enjoy their gardens. Not only do we love to hear about people making the most of their outdoor spaces, we’re also keen to encourage them to consider the local wildlife and help it to thrive. Gardening is a great activity to get the kids outside and involved with too and we’re looking forward to seeing gardens across our developments come to life over the next few months.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Richard Savage .