Does your garden need taming? The sunshine and showers we are prone to in Britain certainly makes your garden grow. If you’ve been too busy to look out of your window for a while, then you may get an unpleasant surprise when you do; your garden has gone wild!

You may wonder what gardening has to do with clutter, but gardens that are choked with weeds and have overgrown bushes and trees, can look just as cluttered as houses. Every time you look out of the window and see a wild, messy garden, your peace of mind will be under attack and you will feel that your life is not entirely in your control.

The secret to taming gardens is to have the right tools, the right weather and the right attitude.

Tool Up

Every job is easier with the right tools. To regain control of your garden you will need sharp secateurs for pruning, a hoe for ridding borders of weeds, a stiff broom for sweeping paths and patios, an electric lawnmower that’s light and easy to push and an electric hedge trimmer if you have hedges. If your lawn is as large as a cricket pitch then a ride-on lawnmower is probably a good idea. You will also find a padded kneeling mat useful (gardening can be hard on the knees) and gardening gloves to avoid scratched hands. Once you have the tools, then the secret is to use them!

Choose Your Weather

Everyone knows that gardening in the rain is a really bad idea, but gardening on a baking hot day isn’t such a good plan either. Digging, weeding and mowing lawns is hard physical work and if you carry out these activities in the full heat of the sun, then you will become exhausted very quickly, as well as dehydrated and sunburnt. The best gardening weather is dry and fresh, but not too hot. If you’ve only got time to spare on a really hot day, then try and do your gardening in the early morning or early evening, when it will be a bit cooler.

Attitude Counts

If you let your garden turn into a jungle then it’s very disheartening to tackle. It becomes hard physical work to sort out, especially without help, and you may need to buy or hire tools to help you. When your garden gets really overgrown, then two hours of strenuous work may not be that noticeable and this can be very demoralising. But it you don’t deal with it now then it will only get worse, so you must ‘man up’ and get it sorted. If your garden is in a real state then try and get someone to help you to get on top of it, as you will get it done in half the time and companionship will make it more fun for you. You could always organise a gardening party, where you invite friends and relatives around to tackle your jungle, and then reward them with a barbecue  in your newly tidy garden.

Keep It Up

Once your garden is looking neat and tidy again then the right attitude is equally important to keeping it that way. In the spring and summer you should ideally go out once a week and prune, pull up weeds and mow the grass. Tidying your garden weekly is fairly easy and should not strain you unduly. All the hard work has been done already and a bit of regular pottering around will keep it looking trim without you even breaking into a sweat.

It Is Worth It

Whatever you might tell yourself, it is worth making the effort. Along with tidying, de-cluttering and most other jobs, keeping gardens tidy is a lot easier when done little and often. You may think an overgrown garden doesn’t bother you, but deep down it does. You get embarrassed when visitors come, and you know that one day you will have have to tackle it and the longer you put it off the harder it will be; so like all put-off jobs, it niggles away at you and disturbs your peace of mind.

Get on top of your garden clutter before it gets on top of you and you can feel justly proud whenever you look out of your windows.