Driveway upkeep – common problems to look out for

Everybody wants to keep their driveway looking good – in many cases it gives visitors their first impression of your home, and is something that most householders take a lot of pride in.

If you want to keep your drive looking great for years to come, you need to put in the hours with maintaining it. Properly tending to it from the start will add to its longevity, reduce any potential repair costs and increase the value of your home.

The problems that are likely to crop up with a driveway, of course, depend on the material used to surface it.

One of the most commonly used materials is gravel, and the issues you might have include:

• Potholes – It’s difficult to avoid the pothole effect in a gravel driveway, no matter how tightly packed the stones are. The weather and continuous traffic will take a toll. It can be tempting just to take stone from another area of the driveway and fill any holes with it, but in fact what this will do is cause the same problem to eventually occur in another part of the drive, no matter how carefully you take stones from different areas! We suggest keeping some gravel back when you have the driveway laid so that you have a supply to remedy any uneven areas that crop up over time.
• Poor drainage – A driveway laid by a professional landscaper such as John Lessels Landscaping shouldn’t have any issues with drainage as this would have been organised at the start of the project. However, if you take on an already laid driveway, or lay your own, it’s something you could experience problems with at a later date. The first thing you might notice is erosion, leading to the deep ruts and potholes, and a loss of gravel. If the problems were caused by bad construction, you’ll probably need to call in an expert to install some sort of drainage system.
• Loose stone – If the gravel doesn’t seem to stay in the driveway, not only is it annoying but it can also damage lawnmowers if you don’t spot it. We’d suggest edging an errant driveway to prevent the stones escaping all over the garden, which will look good as well as keeping the gravel where it should be.

For advice on driveway projects, contact the friendly team at John Lessels Landscaping and we’ll help you find the solution.

Common Garden Pests (and how to spot them)

It’s not just bugs and insects that lay claim to your beautifully tended garden – microscopic bacteria, fungi and viruses are all there, ready and waiting to make your bedding look sorry for itself and kill off your well watered plants.

It’s not all bad – a certain amount of pest activity does help to support the bugs and wildlife that does your garden good. Don’t be tempted to douse everything in insecticide; it may wipe out the bugs to begin with but it won’t stop neighbouring colonies of pests or diseases racing in to the area – which will now be free from their predators too!

Sometimes, things can get a little out of control, and action is needed. In the right conditions and with an abundant food supply, pests can multiply. Sometimes it’s seasonal, plants grow faster when the weather is better and insects like aphids love new spring plants to feast on. During the summer only female aphids hatch, and they can go on to give birth to live young within a week of being born themselves. One solitary aphid could turn into a huge colony within weeks.

If you decide on a chemical spray, ask advice from a garden centre on which one to use as they all have different properties and some are not suitable for gardens where pets are usually milling about. The problem with a chemical spray is that it can ruin the balance of a garden and it can take years to get it back.

Preventative measures are a better way to keep the pest population down.

• Use pest- and disease-resistant plants wherever you can, especially with fruit and vegetables.
• Grow a wide range of different plants and mix them up mixed together – this will stop pests and diseases from spreading so easily to nearby similar plants.
• Encourage wildlife that kills off pests – ladybirds, spiders and other garden insects all help keep the pest population in check, as do garden birds.
• Think about investing in traps and barriers where you can, to shield plants.
• Get to know what your plants look like when they are healthy and growing as they should do. This helps you spot any problems before they become too well-established.

Designing your garden to be pest-resistant can be a project in itself; whoever said that gardening was easy? If you would like advice about landscaping your garden, the best places for certain plants and more, speak to the experts at John Lessels Landscaping and we’ll be delighted to help you with all your garden landscaping needs.