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How to clean up garden verges?

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  • 04-04-2021 9:28pm
    #1
    Logo
    Registered Users Posts: 706 ✭✭✭


    Apologies if similar questions have been posted before but I can't find them. I'm not a gardener but I'm eager to learn. Does anyone have suggestions on how to improve the appearance of these verges. Do I need to remove them completely and start from scratch? Thanks in advance from a newbie who honestly doesn't have a clue :)


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    #2
    looksee
    Registered Users Posts: 28,429 ✭✭✭✭looksee


    You appear to have a lot of bulbs along the border, what are they? Trouble with bulbs is they are spectacular when they are in flower, but then look scruffy till they have died down enough to tidy them up. You should really only have masses of bulbs in an area where they can be left and not noticed too much.

    Entrance verges like that are really not suitable (believe me, I have the same problem that I will have to sort). The best approach would be wait until they have died back then dig them all and put them somewhere where they can be gorgeous in flower and not annoying as they die off. Then replace with ground cover plants that will be less dramatic probably, but easier to live with all year round.

    I don't like to see shrubs all clipped to roundy lumps of vegetation, I personally prefer them to be more or less their natural shape. However some shrubs do lend themselves to being tidied up. You could clip especially the hedge to a more formal shape as appropriate, and cut back others to look more natural but less overgrown. Very generally, clip the leafy shrubs back to more constrained shapes and thin out the flowering ones. Now is not a good time to cut back flowering shrubs as you will lose the flowers for this year. Cut them back after they have flowered.

    Give us a bit more information about what is in the ground level of the border, its hard to see what is bulbs and if there are any weeds/grass.


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    #3
    Bass Reeves
    Registered Users Posts: 18,545 ✭✭✭✭Bass Reeves


    The bulbs look mostly like bluebells, there may be daffodils as well. Try to let them die back as much as possible. Strim the grass around them as much as possible. People are often to obessed with tidyness but this destroys habitats for wildlife. It's very hard to get any plants that flower all season long unless you go with bedding plants. However bedding plants demand a bed that is bate to stop weeds over coming them. Ground cover may be little difference to grass.

    Slava Ukrainii



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