How to Child Proof Your Garden

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To your child, your garden is one big play area waiting to be explored! Although potential hazards might be lurking in your garden, don’t curb their enthusiasm; with a few simple adjustments you can child proof your garden so they can enjoy their surroundings.
While nothing can replace adult supervision, here are some of our top tips for keeping your child safe in your garden:

Lock Up Garden Tools

Storing your garden tools safely in shed is the first step towards keeping your child safe in the garden but, curious children aren’t afraid to venture into sheds when they’re looking for new toys to play with! Make sure that your sharp tools like secateurs and lawnmowers are stored safely behind a locked door to prevent accidental cuts and scrapes.
If your child is helping you in the garden, don’t leave tools lying within their reach when you have to make a quick trip inside. Even if you’re only gone for a few minutes, your child could take this opportunity to play with sharp shears or, spiky garden forks.

Keep Garden Chemicals Out of Reach

The bright colours on the packaging for pesticides, weed killers and plant food can be appealing to small children. Ideally, you should store these dangerous chemicals behind the locked door of your garden shed. However, if this isn’t possible, the next best place to store these products is on a high self where they will be safely out of reach from small hands.

Watch Out for Toxic Plants

Lily of the Valley, Foxgloves and Azaleas might look beautiful but these blooms harbour a dangerous secret! Like many other common garden plants they are extremely toxic to children when ingested.
If you don’t want to remove these plants from your garden altogether, consider fencing them off using chicken wire or pretty trellis fencing.

Invest in Anti-Slip Decking

After spells of heavy rain, decking can become extremely slippery! If you live in an area where there is exceptionally high rainfall, consider investing in anti-slip decking. This ingenious solution is perfect for parents with active children who want to be outside as soon as the unpredictable British climate lets them.

Keep On Top of General Maintenance

Before you let your child explore the garden, take a walk around to see if there are any general repair jobs that are creating hazards in your garden. For example, are there any broken shed windows? Does your fence have any broken, jagged panels? Keeping on top of your garden maintenance jobs will go a long way towards keeping your child safe in your garden.

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Best Pest Control Techniques

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Is your garden under attack from pesky pests? Don’t take it lying down! With some clever pest control techniques you can save your vegetables and protect your plants from being wrecked by bugs and insects this summer.

 

Create Confusion

Usually invading garden pests are seeking out a particular type of plant or vegetable in your garden. Mixing different types of plants together will help prevent insects from honing in on a particular variety of plant. Increase the biodiversity of your garden by breaking up long rows of single crops with plants from different families. For example, plant onions alongside tomatoes or, intersperse your vegetables with low growing annual plants.

 

Cut Back on the Mulch

If you’re using an organic mulch it will be doing wonders for your soil but, the warm, damp conditions under the mulch could make it a breeding ground for young insects such as slugs and sow bugs! If these pests become a problem in your garden, reduce the amount of mulch used and, move it back at least two inches from young seedlings and delicate plants that are susceptible to disease.

 

Keep Your Vegetables Undercover

Ward off invading garden pests such as cucumber beetles and squash bugs by going undercover! Use row covers to keep bugs away from your vegetable rows and new seedlings. As an added bonus, this pest control technique can speed-up crop growth by trapping a blanket of warm air around your plants and vegetables.

 

Invest in a Pesticide

If you have a busy lifestyle you need a quick and hassle free way to win the battle against garden pests. Invest in a good pesticide to instantly get rid of troublesome garden invaders. When you are choosing a pesticide try to get one that is tough on bugs and insects yet, gentle on your plants. Don’t buy an all-round pesticide unless you really need to; if you are having trouble with a particular type of pest, a bug or insect specific pesticide will be far more effective.

What’s your favourite pest control technique? Tell us how you protect your garden from invading bugs and insects!

Visit eDecks today for a fantastic range of garden supplies at great discounted prices.

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