Preparing Your Backyard for the Christmas Festivities

Christmas is just around the corner, which means it’s time for the craziness. Supermarket lines will get longer, retail stores will get busier, and families will start putting their heads together planning who will host the ever-popular Christmas lunch.

Around this time, it’s also a good idea to consider how you’ll set up your yard for Christmas festivities. After all, we celebrate Christmas in summer, so there’s a reasonably good chance that most of your entertaining will take place outdoors.

If you need a helping hand making sure your backyard is the picture of perfection once the in-laws roll in, consider doing some of the following things.

Mow and Edge the Lawns

Backyard cricket is a Christmas day staple, so make sure your lawns are ready for the fun times ahead. Mow your lawns at least weekly or every two weeks in the lead-up to Christmas, but make sure you set your mower to cut no lower than 25mm. You can also use a line trimmer to go around the edges to ensure they’re neat and tidy around pathways.

If you know you’re going to have your hands full with shopping, tidying up your home, and looking after the kids, consider outsourcing your lawn care to the experts so that you have one less thing on your to-do list.

Do a Garden Tidy-Up

Weeding is most people’s least favourite task, and it typically isn’t a priority when it’s just you and your immediate family enjoying your backyard. However, it can become more important as soon as you start welcoming friends and other family members to your home. It’s your flowers’ chance to shine, so get stuck into the gardens, and they’ll be weed-free in no time.

Trim Trees and Hedges

The warmer months of the year are when hedges and trees start to thrive. Typically, they’re getting plenty of sunshine and moisture, and they’re loving life! Don’t forget to trim them to ensure they’re neat and tidy once Christmas festivities begin in earnest.

When it comes to your trees, you can focus on removing dead wood, decreasing branch weight, canopy thinning, canopy lifting, and canopy reduction. You can also have your hedges looking at their best by focusing on care throughout the year rather than performing a quick trim in December.

Create An Entertainment Area

There’s no denying that your lawn will get a lot of use over the Christmas break, especially if you’ve set up a pool for the kids and have already invested heavily in lawn games like cricket and swingball.

However, if you plan to entertain your guests outside, you’ll also need to set up an area for day-long comfort. If you already have a patio or deck, you’re halfway there. If not, there’s no reason why you can’t set up outdoor furniture on your lawn and create a temporary al fresco dining space.

Make sure you have plenty of seats for all guests, a large table for food and drinks, a source of heating if you plan to be outside at night, and lighting for when night falls.

Tidy Up the Yard

It’s hard to make a property not look ‘lived in’ when you enjoy it to its full potential. However, it’s worth doing for at least one day of the year so that you can invite guests with confidence.

Take the time to view your property with a critical eye and think about what you would notice the most as a guest. You might want to store away all the kids’ outdoor toys like bikes and balls, or finally water blast that slippery pathway that’s currently green and covered in moss. A fresh coat of paint on wooden outdoor furniture or fencing can also make a yard look like a million dollars.

Sometimes, all the motivation you need is knowing you’re going to be welcoming friends and family onto your property, and you might be surprised by how much you can achieve.

Set Up Tents

Having all your friends and family together in one place over the Christmas break can be wonderful, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have enough room inside your home for everyone to sleep. If you plan to have people camping on your lawn, consider setting up your tents before Christmas day. That way, you can focus all your attention on meal preparation and cleaning rather than tracking down missing tent poles while your roast chicken burns in the oven.

Let Lawn Care Experts in NZ Take Care of Your To-Do List

December is a chaotic time of the year, and you’ve likely got more things on your to-do list than you have at any other time of the year. Let us share the load. Our lawn care experts can take care of a number of tasks to help you prepare for Christmas fun ahead, such as lawn mowing, tree trimming, hedge trimming, water blasting, garden tidy-ups, and more.