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Month: June 2010

Garden Maintenance DIY Guide

Garden Maintenance DIY Guide

Book Cover

There are numerous books on garden design but not much information on garden maintenance. Some maintenance jobs are ‘as and when’ but others need to be done at least annually. Below are my gardeners maintenance tips.

Maintain Structure Maintenance

  • Keep on top of all repair jobs before they develop into rebuild jobs!
  • Paths need to be safe and that means obstruction free. I am guilty of using paths for seed trays and odd plants that I am waiting to plant out and I have been known to trip or kick them over.
  • Clean up after winter as concrete or flagged paths are often covered in slippy green algae. This needs to be removed or chemically treated.
  • Walls need re-pointing if stones become too loose. The   stones sometimes get loosened by frost or plant roots.
  • Fences may need treating with preservative or supporting if in danger of blowing down.

Maintenance of Services

Why hasn’t it Flowered? Top Ten Reasons

Why hasn’t it Flowered? Top Ten Reasons

015

Twice this week I have been asked why a plant has not flowered despite receiving apparently good treatment. Most plants use flowers to start the reproduction and pollination cycle but below are some of the main reasons for failure.

Reasons for None Flowering

  1. Plants too young and immature, particularly trees and shrubs. Wisteria may take 6-7 years. Biennials grow one year and flower the next.
  2. Frost damage to the buds on early fruit like Plums or to early shrubs Hydrangeas, Camellias etc. Bird, aphid or other damage to flowering shoots.
  3. Planted too late in the season.
  4. Poor cultivar or plant variety with low flowering habit. Some plants are vegetatively reproduced from poor flowering stock.
  5. Poor and incorrect pruning that removes bud potential.

    6. …

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Aphids and Greenfly Pest Control

Aphids and Greenfly Pest Control

Aphids
All greenfly are Aphids but not all Aphids are greenfly.

What are Aphids

  • Aphids are sap sucking insects,
  • They damage  plants and introduce disease  makinge them enemies of farmers and gardeners alike.
  • There are around 4,400 species and that many flies on some of my plants.
  • The little black Aphids that trouble Broadbeans or Greenfly on Roses are from the Aphid family.
  • Aphids are often specific to one plant species.
  • Aphids breed several time in a season if left untreated.
  • One female hatched in spring may produce billions of descendants from 40 generations in one year

Read Gardening Products Killing Aphids

Pest control including Aphids

Aphids

Patriotic Perennials in Red, White and Blue

Patriotic Perennials in Red, White and Blue

sedbergh

This selection of perennials are easy to grow and produce summer colours in a range of patriotic blues, reds and whites.

Centaurea shown above has many varieties in different shades and is a good cottage garden plant. It grows2-3 feet tall and needs some support. It’s red colour is much more pink but the blue is strong and long lasting.

Geranium Rozane Gerwat

Hardy Geraniums are attractive and easy to grow. The colour range includes the purple to blue or pink and Splish-Splash below which is a white with occassional blue patch. My black geranium has very poor flowers and rampant foliage.

lupins

Lupins flowering above are another easy perennial. In addition to red, white and blue there are bi-coloured Lupins with a white eye that can be very attractive. This pink looks a bit wishy washy in the photo but in real life it was a stunner.

Poppy

Oriental Poppies are strongly coloured perennials but I have yet to see a blue one which is not a Meconopsis. There are many other poppy varieties to consider growing

Geranium

Tips for Growing Astrantia

Tips for Growing Astrantia

golden acre gardens leeds

Astrantia are unassuming garden perennials now coming into flower from June .

Tips for Cultivating Astrantia

  • Astrantias are superb perennials for the stream edge or a moist border.
  • They may tolerate drier soils as long as the plants are mulched
  • ‘Claret’ is a beautiful variety with deep red pincushion flowers.
  • After flowering, plants can be rejuvenated by cutting them back close to the ground – fresh new foliage and a late crop of flowers start appearing shortly after.
  • Plants do not make big clumps or spread but they can be split in early spring.
  • Grow from fresh seed or buy as plants. Thompson Morgan

Astrantia Varieties and Features

  • Astrantia have star-like flower heads in reds, pinks and pastel shades.
  • The variegated form has an AGM Astrantia major ‘Sunningdale Variegated’

    • …

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Tips for Looking After Hanging Baskets

Tips for Looking After Hanging Baskets

golden acre gardens leeds

These tips may seem commonsense but they are always worth repeating.

Tips For Good Hanging Baskets.

  • Water early in the day ‘and or’ in the evening. Give plants a good drink regularly.
  • After 4 weeks in the same compost the nutrients will be reduced and you should add liquid feed. I use half strength fertilizer with every watering.
  • Many hanging basket plants will self deadhead but if you have zonal geraniums in the basket they will benefit from nipping the deadheads off.
  • Turn the basket round, if one side near a wall for example, is growing less well.
  • Look out for aphids on the soft lush growth.
  • If you get unexpected gaps in leaf or bloom you can still  put in new plants.

Hanging Basket Holidays

  • If you go on holiday you need to think about care of your baskets whilst away, even just for a weekend. …

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Common Garden Flowers

Common Garden Flowers

common garden flowers

Roses.

Beauty, dignity, fragrance and style. The rose is perhaps the Queen of flowers. A very rewarding plant to grow. Some of the modern cultivars have lost the beautiful old fragrance, but, the good news is that they are more disease tolerant. See: Tips on Growing roses

common garden flowers

Sunflower

Simple, pure and fun. The sunflowers is a great flower for anyone to grow. It is hard to look at a sunflower and not be cheered a little. It is as if the sunflower is smiling at you. Tips on growing sunflowers here

lupin

Lupins. See: Growing Lupins

common garden flowers

Sweet Peas:

Sweet peas come in many colours and offer a long flowering season, making a lovely cut flower. The fragrance helps the sweet pea to be one our most popular garden flowers.

See: Growing sweet peas

common garden flowers

Pansy

Low growing, colourful pansies are one of the most common garden flowers because they can give such a long flowering season. One of the few annuals to flower even in the depths of winter. Great value, no wonder they are so popular!

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Growing Begonias From Tubers

Growing Begonias From Tubers

begonias

Begonias from tubers are a very rewarding plant. If protected from frost, they are a relative easy plant to grow. They can remain relatively pest free and provide a long flowering season.

You can start plants as early in February in a heated greenhouse or indoors on windowsill. The best temperature is 18-22 degrees. They will start growing at lower temperatures but their growth will be slower.

Keep moist, but, not standing in water or overly damp as this can lead to rot and mildew problems.

Plant the top of the tuber just below the soil surface, hollow side upward.

Which is the top of a Tuber?

You should be able to see where last year’s growth has been cut off. It is the concaved side (dish shaped). You may also see the first buds for new shoots.

When the first shoots appear, make sure the plant gets plenty of light and is rotated if on a windowsill to get a well rounded plant.

The begonias can grow quickly and so might outgrow their first 3 inch pot. Pot on to five or seven inch pots, before they are ready to be hardened off and planted outside.

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Good Soil and How to Get Better Soil

Good Soil and How to Get Better Soil

Book Cover

Soil that is fit for purpose will help your plants grow, thrive and even excel.
Some plants need special soils or composts but good general principles are discussed below and this book will provide detailed information.

Purpose of Garden Soil

  • Soil provides the base to anchor plants through their roots.
  • Good soil holds moisture and air necessary for the health of plant roots.
  • Soil feeds plants with nutrients (NPK) and makes other trace elements available.
  • Soil recycles dead matter and hosts a variety of life forms.


Features of Good Soil

  • Soil consists of “the living, the recently dead and the very dead.”
  • Soil should be able to hold moisture but not become water logged.
  • Excess water should drain away and not puddle under the plant. To prevent puddling the sub-soil, or lower layer of soil below cultivation depth, should be broken up and not compacted. …

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Lettuce Cultivation

Lettuce Cultivation

lettuce

Fresh lettuce from the garden is well worth cultivating. It can be a quick crop, ideal for a small garden. Planted in neat rows, it can also be an attractive veg, especially if you try growing different leaf coloured varieties.

Sowing Lettuce Seed.

Lettuce can be sown from late Feb to June. Though obviously, in Feb will need careful protection. Germination takes 7-12 days. It needs a moist warm environment. However, beware that if the temperature is too hot (over 21 degrees) germination may be patchy.

Sow relatively thinly, lettuce seedlings dislike being transplanted so when thinning out, just discard the excess plants.

For growing full lettuce, sow 30cm apart. However, for salad ‘cut and come’ varieties, you can sow closer and keep cutting leaves to get a second crop.

Important Tips for Growing Lettuce

  • Lettuce need to be kept well watered.
  • They dislike hot dry sunny weather. In these conditions, like many vegetables they will bolt and run to seed.
  • For best crops, ensure the soil is fertile with plenty of organic matter. Lettuce is better when it can grow quickly.
  • For longest cropping season, sow at two week intervals. This ensures a steady supply of lettuce.
  • During hot season, try growing in the shadier part of your vegetable garden.
  • If you have a small garden, lettuce will do well in growing bags, as long as they are sufficiently watered.
  • For early plants, sow under glass and harden off before planting outside.
  • When sowing indoors and planting outside, take care to give as little disturbance to roots as possible. This can act as a check on growth. Try using disposable pots which can be planted straight outside.
  • Using a horticultural fleece can keep away aphids and reduce the direct rays of the sun.
  • Keep weeds at bay, but avoid damaging plant with hoe.

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