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Landscaping may be enjoyable for some, but it’s one of the most annoying parts of home maintenance for others. Regardless of your stance, it’s important to pay attention to keeping your garden in a good condition, especially if your home is more exposed to your neighbours. If you want to minimise the risk of running into any landscaping problems, here are some of the most common issues to watch out for.

Common Problems You’re Likely to Encounter

  • Grass issues: If your grass starts developing issues, like dead spots, they can spin out of control very quickly, and the situation can snowball beyond an easy recovery. It’s important to pay attention to the current state of your grass on a regular basis and keep an eye out for any signs of problems. Remember, grass issues won’t necessarily start showing up across your entire lawn and could be localised to a small area at first.
  • Landscape design: Doing landscaping work on a garden with irregularities can be annoying if you don’t plan ahead properly. But on the other hand, it can also be a great opportunity to unleash your creative side and explore some more interesting options. 
  • Maintenance: Landscaping is not a one-time job. Once you’ve completed the basic project, you should make a plan for maintaining your garden in the long run. This will take far less effort than the initial landscaping, but it will still require some ongoing work that should never be underestimated. If you’re careless about this, you can easily undo the fruit of all your hard work in just a couple of months.
  • Using the right expert: If you’re working with a professional, make sure they’re right for the job. For example, you should only work with certified members of the Association of Professional Landscapers (APL). This is not just about credentials – it will go a long way towards ensuring that the people working on your garden know exactly what they’re doing.
  • Poor drainage planning: Improper drainage can lead to disaster in the long term, and the worst part is that you probably won’t even know the issue is there until it’s gotten serious. You must ensure that your drainage is in order, especially after completing the project – you never know when some of the modifications you’ve done could have impacted your garden’s drainage capabilities.

Other Things to Watch Out for

  • Erosion: You might need to use a retaining wall if your garden has a significant slope because otherwise, you’re doing to deal with problematic erosion. This may or may not be a huge problem, depending on the specific layout of your garden, but it’s definitely something you don’t want to ignore.
  • Water: We mentioned drainage above, but potential issues related to water go beyond that. You have to do your best to prevent excess water from gathering in your garden, and this can sometimes require an extensive rework of your current layout. This can save you from a lot of trouble later, though, so it’s something you should discuss with a professional landscaper if your garden is prone to collecting more water.
  • Improper plant locations: The arrangement of your plants should consider more than aesthetics. Sometimes you can cause some unforeseen problems by putting certain species too close to each other. This is especially true when it comes to pests and other similar problems that tend to plague gardens at certain times of the year. If this is your first time getting some more exotic plants in place, take your time to read up on any special maintenance requirements they might have. This can spare you some very expensive mistakes later. 

Call in the Experts

Garden landscaping can be tricky, especially if you don’t have a lot of time, and it’s sometimes best to call in the experts. Give us a call on 020 7736 7801 if you need professional advice.