Spring is a good time to prepare the soil ready for planting out bedding plants and new shrubs, mix in plenty of home-made compost before planting - adding compost not only provides your plants with nutrients, it also helps to preserve moisture.
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Top tips from the experts
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The dust from our vacuum cleaners can be composted, so when spring cleaning is complete, empty the dust into the compost bin.
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Paper and confidential documents can be put in the compost bin – all you need to do is scrunch or shred it first.
- Cardboard innards from toilet and kitchen roll can be added to the compost bin - rip them up to help them decompose.
- The pet bedding can be composted – so long as the pet is vegetarian.
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Any winter bedding plants that are passed their prime can also be composted, as can the withered foliage from early flowering bulbs.
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As your lawn starts back into growth in early March a spring tined rake can be used to remove dead grass and moss, this can then be added to the compost bin, just make sure to mix it with some dry, coarse material - dried stalks and stems from around the garden are ideal, for a lush green lawn give it a good feed by raking some of last years home-made compost into the surface.
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Once you have planted your beds and borders spread a good layer of compost on the surface, mulching in this way will help prevent the soil from drying out, so you have less watering to do in the summer months.
