You can spend a lot of time making your plant borders and beds attractive and free from weeds. The problem is you get a few rainy days and they don’t look as attractive, but worse, the weeds inevitably return.

If you’ve planted your garden the way you want it, but would like to enhance its look, think about using waste slate to cover the earth in the borders and beds around the plants. You get instant results and it’s fairly inexpensive. Importantly, the slate helps to stops the weeds growing and it also protects the ground from drying out in the summer months, but allows water to seep through to the earth underneath. Additionally, your borders and beds will look more attractive and you can spend more time admiring them, rather than raking the ground and removing weeds.

It’s a simple task. Firstly calculate roughly the area you need to cover then add about 20 percent to the figure. This gives you plenty of extra slate if you need it at a later date, or if you need to fill in areas that settle too much. The slate is likely to be delivered in bags, so give the measurement to the supplier to ensure you get the correct number of bags delivered.

While you’re waiting for your slate to be delivered, spend time preparing your beds and borders. It’s the ideal time to cut back or trim any plants. Remove any dead branches and then rake the earth and ensure you remove weeds. Get the beds and borders into the shapes you want and water the areas well. It a great chance to take a photo at this point, so you can see how attractive your beds are, once the slate is laid.

Gradually empty the bags of slate onto the beds and borders. Start at the back of the beds and work toward the front. Ensure you rake the slate around the base of the plants, but be careful you don’t damage any small plants while doing so. You need to get the layer of slate fairly even and be sure you cover all the earth. A good way to tell you’ve covered the earth properly is to get a step ladder. Position the step ladder safely near the bed or border and then climb up a few steps. Look down at the bed and you can easily spot any places that need extra slate. The thicker the layer of slate, the less likely that weeds will be able to grow through.

Go and stand in various places around the garden to make sure you’re happy with the result. Once you are take another photograph and then compare the photo you previously took before you paid the slate against the photo after the slate was laid. You will notice a substantial difference. Another feature you will find is that the slate changes color during different times of the day and when it rains the slate glistens and darkens.

Virginia Slate maintains a full including high availability slate roofing.

Virginia Slate maintains a full inventory of slate http://www.virginiaslate.com/inventory.html including high availability slate roofing http://www.virginiaslate.com/inventory/roofing.html.

Author Bio: Virginia Slate maintains a full including high availability slate roofing.

Category: Advice
Keywords: Home, Repair, Renovation, Benefits, Advise, Tips