Content asset · the gardening calendar
A west Hertfordshire gardening year, month by month
Most gardens don't need more work — they need the right work at the right time of year. This is how we plan a year on a Hertfordshire garden: what we do when, what can wait, and what you'll regret leaving. Use it to do it yourself, or use it to check we're not selling you a job your garden doesn't need this month.
Spring
March – May
The lawn wakes up and wants its first cuts — high at first, then lower over several passes, never scalped in one go. Scarifying, aerating and overseeding are best done now while the grass is growing hard enough to recover. Beds get weeded, edged and mulched before growth closes over them, and this is the main planting window for a new scheme. Ponds are left largely alone: frogs and newts are spawning, so heavy clearing waits.
Summer
June – August
Keeping on top of things rather than starting them. Mowing and edging every week or fortnight, hedges cut once nesting season has properly finished, deadheading to keep flowering going, and watering new planting in dry spells — deeply and less often beats a daily splash. Pond levels drop and weed grows fast, so thin it in stages and leave what you pull on the side overnight so the wildlife in it can crawl back. Good month to catch up on painting, pressure washing and shed repairs while everything's dry.
Autumn
September – November
The quietly important season. Final cuts with the blades raised, leaves off the lawn before they mat and kill the grass underneath, and a second window for scarifying, aerating and overseeding. New turf lays best now: warm soil, reliable rain, roots away before winter. Borders get cut back and perennials divided — though leaving some seed heads standing feeds the birds. Ponds get their main clear-out now, once the breeding season is long done.
Winter
December – February
Not a dead season, just a different one. With the leaves down you can see a garden's bones, so this is when structural pruning, shaping small trees and taking out dead and crossing wood are done. Overgrown gardens are far easier to clear now than in June. Hedges can be reshaped while dormant. Stay off a frozen or waterlogged lawn. Plan the planting for spring — it's the month designs actually get thought about rather than rushed.
What shapes the work
Every garden reads a bit differently.
How much a garden wants, and when, comes down to a short list of things. It's the same list Will works through with you at the quote.
- 01How much of the garden is lawn, how much is bed, and how much is hedge — the three want completely different amounts of attention.
- 02Whether the garden is ticking over or needs bringing back from overgrown first; those are two different jobs and two different prices.
- 03What you have growing. Hedge and shrub species dictate when they can be cut, not the diary.
- 04Whether there's a pond, because wildlife timings override tidiness timings every time.
- 05Whether there's a dog — poop scooping before a mow isn't optional if you want the lawn done properly.
- 06How much you want to keep doing yourself. Plenty of clients keep the fun jobs and hand over the rest.
None of this is complicated, but it's easy to do in the wrong order. If you'd rather not keep track, that's the job: Will works the garden through the year so it never swings between jungle and scalped. Quotes are free, and he'll tell you when something genuinely doesn't need doing yet.
Rather not keep track of all that?
That's the job. Free quote, and the whole gardening year handled in the right order.