Garden & grounds year
What we'd be doing in your garden, month by month
Half the questions we get asked come down to timing: when to turf, when to cut a hedge, when to verti-drain, when to book summer works on a school site. This is how we plan a year across the gardens and grounds we look after in east Herts, north-west Essex and Cambridgeshire. It's a guide, not a rulebook — the weather gets a vote, and so does your soil.
01
Season 1 of 4
Late winter · January to March
The quiet months, which is exactly why they're the right ones for building.
- Best window of the year for hard landscaping — patios, drives, walling, fencing and drainage — because the garden isn't in growth and you aren't trying to use it.
- Bare-root hedging and trees go in now, while dormant, and establish far better than anything planted in a dry spring.
- Winter pruning on deciduous trees and shrubs, and any tree removal or stump work that would disturb nesting birds later in the year.
- On commercial grounds: drainage works, repairs to hard surfaces, and planning the summer programme before diaries fill up.
02
Season 2 of 4
Spring · April to May
Everything starts moving at once, so the order of work matters.
- Turfing and grass seeding — ground is warming and there's still moisture in it, which is why new lawns laid now knit in fastest.
- First cuts of the season, set high to start with, then brought down gradually rather than scalping growth that's only just away.
- Feeding grasses and soils, and overseeding anywhere the sward thinned out over winter.
- Beds weeded and mulched before weed seed germinates — an hour now saves a day in July.
- Shrub and ornamental planting goes in, with watering arranged for the first dry spell.
03
Season 3 of 4
Summer · June to August
Maintenance season on gardens, and the build window on school sites.
- Regular grass cutting on a booked round; in a dry spell we raise the height rather than stress the sward.
- Hedge trimming once nesting is over — hand-held trimmers where the finish shows, flail where the run is long.
- The summer holidays are when we programme school and college works: sports pitch restoration, jump pits and run-ups, safety surfacing and markings, while the site is empty.
- Weed control on beds, gravel and hard surfaces, and litter collection on larger grounds.
- Decking cleaned and treated while it's dry enough for the finish to take.
04
Season 4 of 4
Autumn · September to December
The most useful season of the lot, and the one most often skipped.
- Verti-draining and top dressing — the single best thing you can do for a compacted lawn or a worn pitch, done now so it recovers over winter.
- Autumn feed and overseeding, repairing the damage a hard summer's use has done.
- Leaf clearance, repeated as they fall rather than left until they've matted down and made paths slippery.
- Final cuts, with the height raised again going into the cold.
- Planting season reopens for trees, hedging and shrubs — and it's a good time to start the conversation about next year's landscaping work.
Timing questions
The four we get asked every year.
When is the best time to have hard landscaping built?
Late winter and early spring, before the garden comes into growth and before you want to be using it. The ground is workable, machinery access is easier across a dormant lawn, and the scheme is finished and settled by the time the season turns.
Turf or seed?
Turf gives you a lawn immediately and can be laid through most of the year provided it can be watered; seed is cheaper and often knits in better, but wants warm soil and reliable moisture, which in practice means spring or early autumn. On a prepared base either will work — the preparation is the part that decides it.
When should hedges be cut?
After nesting, which in practice means from late summer. We will not cut a hedge that is in active use by nesting birds, and we will say so rather than take the job on regardless.
When do school and college grounds works happen?
The summer holidays, almost always — pitch restoration, jump pits and run-ups, safety surfacing and markings all need an empty site. Which means the conversation needs to happen in the spring term, not in July.
If you're weighing up when to start something, ring and ask — we'll tell you honestly whether it's worth waiting a few weeks for the right conditions, even when that means we don't do the job until next season.
Planning the year ahead?
Whether it's a build to schedule for the winter or a maintenance round to start in the spring, ring and we'll work out the timing with you.