In early spring you get a good view of any structural problems and can correct any damage and untidy appearance caused in winter  whilst giving your hard landscape areas a bit of spit and polish.

A Bit of Timely Maintenance

• Clean up areas that lead into the garden – steps, porch, paths and driveways.
• Tidy paths and roads around the outside of the garden.
• Tidy up the garage, car-port, greenhouse and garden shed.
• Sweep and wash-down the driveway. Clean garden furniture.
• Clear up overgrown paths, collect up old canes and prune back overhanging shrubs.
• Repair broken fencing. Apply wood preserver where needed.
• Tidy ragged edgings to make walkways and the driveway look smart.
• Spray any weeds pushing up through gravel or tarmac.
• If part of the garden is given over to pebbles, clean up the organic bits and pieces that work their way in between them.
• Pick up litter and weeds from public paths around your garden edge.
• Remove algae and slime from paths with a cleaners or pressure wash.
• Mulch can cover a multitude of unsightly problems. Peat substitutes, bark or gravel can provide a face lift.
• Gleaming windows give a house that groomed look. Brush down the cobwebs around the window frames and wash the paint work.

Organic Face Lift

• Weed borders and garden beds. It’s easier to do just after rain when the ground is softer and the weeds come out easily, root and all.
• Replace dead plants in empty beds and borders they are a sign of neglect. Hoe and rake the soil if you are waiting for new stock.
• Rake the lawn to remove leaf-litter, twigs and other green debris.
• Mow, weed and feed the lawn. Trim the edges neatly.
• If you’ve let pot-plants die plant some ready grown annuals or herbs from a garden center.
• Cut back tree-branches overhanging the driveway, paths and lawn area to make the garden look spacious and open.
• Prune shrubs, dead stalks and stems. Make sure the shears are clean and sharp, it will make things easier for you and the plants.
• Deadhead flowers and clear up any dead petals and flower-heads
• Mulch makes plants stand out and is good for them . Invest in mulch for an instant makeover.

 


Product Reports
Path Cleaning and Cleaners
Garden Disinfectants
Best Weed Killers
Wood Care
Fence Care

Armeria maritima has many local names and is also known as Sea Pink, Cliff Clover, Ladies’ Cushions, Heugh (or cliff) daisy, Armeria juniperifolia or Marsh daisy and Sea thrift.
The colour of the 1″ ball shaped flowers varies from white Alba through pink and mauve to dark red.
The clumps of dark green foliage form good mounds useful for contrast of shape in a rock garden. The densely packed grass like leaves are up to 5 inches long.
Thrift is a perennial but if it browns in the center split the plant.

Cultivation Tips

Thrift grows well in dry, sandy soil or low fertility soil.
It is very salt tolerant hence its appearance as a wild flower along the coast.
Take basal cuttings in summer or divide large clumps in Autumn.
They need full sun all day but can tolerate dry, windy conditions.
Thrift flowers in spring through summer. Remove spent flowers to encourage more blooms.

Varieties to consider and Other Names

• Thrift is also known as Sea Pink, Armeria Maritima, Sea Pink,
• Armeria maritima alba is a white variety
• Splendens is the best Pink variety.
• Bloodstone is dark red.
• Vindictive is light pink and has an AGM from RHS
• Laucheana has dark green foliage with bright pink flowers
• Rubrifolia ihas dark bronze grass-like foliage turning deep red in winter and a cluster of pink globe shaped flowers

Unusual Facts about Thrift

• The old 3d bit the 12 sided British coin has a thrift plant on the obverse side.
• Thrift is a good nectar plant much appreciated by butterflies and moths.
• Thrift makes an interesting cut flower and can also be dried.
• Buy Seeds

from Thompson & Morgan.

• Sea Pinks are good plants for the coast.
• Thrift can absorb large amounts of copper and survive in contaminated soil.

Images of Thrift

Old Tips From Gardeners Tips

Tips for Growing Perennial Sea Thrift

• Looks good in walls and rockeries and will stand an open windy position
• Deadheading will prolong flowering.
• Makes a clump of grass like leaves and flower stalks are 6 inches long with white pink or red flowers
• Dividing large clumps should be done in early spring to rejuvenate plant.
• Can be grown from seed
• Prefers well drained soil or the plant may rot in center.
• Sea Pinks do not need fertiliser but like a sandy soil.

Photo credit by Captain Oates at the Seaside

There is a clematis for every season, every aspect and every place. The flower size and colour range is also wider than you may imagine.

Types of Clematis Plants available

Early Flowering Species like alpina or montana types.
Summer Flowering hybrids like patens and florida types
Late flowering Hybrids and species like jackmanii, tangutica and viticella types
Herbaceous clematis x jouiniana or Koreana lutea
Evergreen and tender species armandii, cirrhosa and tender plants from the southern hemisphere

Selected Varieties by Colour

White – Marie Boisselot, Montana sericea, Armandii or Clematis chrysocoma.
Red – Ville de Lyon, Madame Juklia Correvon or Ernest Markham.
Yellow – Clematis tangutica, Moonlight, Ligusticifolia or Otto Froebel.
Violet – Etoile Violette or Clematis alpina Francis Rivis.
Blue – Ascotiensis, Macro petal Blue Bird or Multi Blue.
Pink – Clematis montana Elizabeth, Bees Jubilee or Hagley Hybrid.
White and purple Clematis florida Sieboldii.

Soil and Growing Conditions

Soil for Clematis should not be too acidic but alkaline soil is fine. Impoverished soil near a wall or under a hedge should be improved with plenty of humus before planting. Sandy soil looses moisture quickly and also needs humus adding.
All clematis will grow better if the roots are kept cool. Plant a bit deeper than the soil level in the pot where they were grown and cover the roots area with a tile, rock or mulch.
Large flowered varieties will have stronger colours if the flowers grow in light shade.

Types of Climbing Support

All clematis even the herbaceous varieties need some support. The easiest support is often other plants with matching characteristics – heather for small macropetala types or a tree for the more robust viticella varieties.
Walls are fine as long as the mortar and brickwork is sound for a network of wire. Clematis montana can cover a large wall quickly.
Trellis itself needs to be securely attached to battens but can be attractive when cloaked in Clematis or on it’s own in winter.
Archways, tripods and obelisks look great when covered with a climber such as clematis. Similarly pergolas can have both climbing roses and clematis co-existing.
Try a pillar made from a length of Oak or hardwood to train your clematis because you are bound to want to grow more once you start.

Varieties from Thompson & Morgan

Clematis urophylla ‘Winter Beauty’ also known as Old Man’s Beard flowers is a superb evergreen clematis bears its delicately fragrant, waxy, bell-shaped flowers in the depths of winter.
The foliage is so lush, that you’ll think its summertime all year round!
Plant Clematis ‘Winter Beauty’ against a warm house wall so that you can appreciate its winter flowers from your window. This sought after variety will appreciate a sheltered site with some winter protection.
Height: 4m (13’). Spread: 1.2m (4’). Pruning Group: 1

Clematis ‘Bill MacKenzie’ really couldn’t be easier. Watch it scramble over fences, covering unsightly sheds with ease. From midsummer this versatile climber is covered in small canary yellow blooms, which give way to large fluffy seedheads for an attractive autumn display.

Clematis ‘Crystal Fountain’™ are quite extraordinary.A fountain of crystal-blue stamens radiate from the centres of the dazzling blue, 15cm (6”) wide blooms. Terrifically floriferous, this clematis continues to bloom throughout summer and into early autumn. It’s compact habit makes it ideal for containers and small gardens.

Clematis armandii flowers in spring with exquisitely fragrant, star-shaped white blooms literally smother this beautiful evergreen clematis in spring. The new foliage emerges bronze tinted, gradually maturing to glossy dark green that will quickly cover walls and fences within a few years. Best suited to a sheltered position, this vigorous clematis requires plenty of space to twine its long evergreen stems.

Companion plants for Clematis
Tips on Pruning Clematis

More Cultivation Tips

• Pot up small clematis plants and grow them on until large enough to plant in their final positions.
• When planting clematis, choose a position in sun or semi-shade and plant the climber deeply in moist, fertile, well drained soil.
• Position the top of the rootball at a depth of at least 3″ below soil level to encourage new shoots to form from the base of the plant and prevent wilt.
• Clematis dislike soils that are particularly wet or dry. Soil can be improved by the addition of plenty of well rotted manure or garden compost.
• Train clematis plants onto a suitable support such as trellis, wires or a freestanding climbing frame.

A mulch is a layer of material covering the soil surface. ‘Organic mulches’ are made from material that has been alive as opposed to inorganic mulches which are stone or man made.

Organic Mulches

• Commonest organic mulches are wet straw, peat, garden compost, leaf mould, rotted animal manure, coir or bark chippings.
• Organic mulches can be used to apply nutrients via compost, manures or with additives like blood and bone.
• Semi-composted bark chippings do not add any real food value but look good and rot down more evenly than fresh bark.
• A thick organic mulch will keep the soil temperature even and provide a layer for surface rooting plants like Rhododendrons.
• Wood chippings can be used as a fresh mulch but they take nitrogen from the soil to rot so compost them first.

Uses for Mulch and Mulches

• Prevents the loss of moisture from the underlying soil whilst allowing rainwater to percolate.
• Mulch smothers weeds and deprives weed seeds of light to germinate.
• Enables fertiliser in liquid or granular form to be applied.
• Mulch improves the soil condition particularly for specific plants
• Some mulch is used as a background to display plants for example grit for Alpines.
• Winter mulch can protect roots from frost.

How to Mulch

• Put your mulch on clean soil after removing obvious weeds.
• Put 2-4 inches of mulch down and expect worms to pull some of the lower mulch into the soil. Do not pile mulch against trunks and stems to avoid rotting but cover the area where roots are growing.
• Regular top dressing further mulch will add to the depth to help it last 1-4 years.

Other Mulches

• Inorganic mulches have their place. Small grade gravel or washed shingle can be used as a mulch.
• Depending on the requirement from the mulch you can use black polythene, roofing felt or woven nylon. These tend to heat up and warm the soil and are used to keep out light.
• You can plant through these mulches by cutting a cross in the fabric and folding it back. I do this for Strawberries.
• Coloured stone, slate and bark mulching can be used for decorative purposes.
• Granulated rubber chippings from old tyres can be used but are best used in children’s play areas.

Strulch is a proprietary organic mulch.

Best Mulch to Use

Organic mulches at Amazon

A century ago Sweet Violets were part of the Victorian way of life. Florists and street vendors sold them and ladies carried or wore them. Since ancient Greek times and through medieval times Sweet Violets were more than a flower or scent, they were used as a sweetener, a deodorant and medicinal uses. They were also a symbol of love used on St Valentines day and there are many Violet stories surrounding Napoleon and Josephine where the flowers are still popular in France.

Gardeners Tips For Growing Sweet Violets

Viola odorata is a perennial that spreads by runners and grows about 4″ high.
In the wild they grow in light woodland or under a hedge row in a humus rich soil.
The scented flowers are available in white as well as the deep violet.
The leaves are rounded, almost heart shaped.
Grow from seed or propagate from the stolens (runners)
Sweet Violets like a moist soil.
Feed them with a high potash feed or low nitrogen feed to optimise the flowers.

Other Links

Read about Growing Dogs Tooth Violets
For other fragrant and scented plants read Gardeners Tips
Look at the Violet Group on Flickr

Thompson & Morgan – Violet varieties available

Cosmos! What a stonking name for a plant evoking all the constellations in the Universe.

Growing Cosmos

• Cosmos flowers are a ring of broad petals and a center of disc florets similar to a daisy.
• Cosmos flowers are 2-4 inches in diameter.
• There is a lot of color variation including white, pink, orange, yellow, chocolate and scarlet colors.
• Most Cosmos bloom heavily but die with first frost.
• Leaves are fine and delicate and therefore the plants do not over shadow other flowers.
• Cosmos get quite tall at up to four feet but in rich, fertile soils tend to produce unusually tall, lanky plants.

More Growing Tips from Seed

• Smaller Cosmos are lovely in containers, showing off some of the finest lacy foliage of any annual.
• Sow 3mm deep in spring at 21-24C in a good seed compost. Keep soil damp but not wet, sealing in a polythene bag after sowing is helpful.
• Germination usually takes 5-10 days.
• When seedlings are large enough to handle, transplant and grow on in cooler conditions.
• Gradually acclimatise to outdoor conditions for 10-15 days before planting out after all risk of frost 60cm apart.
• Plant in a sunny spot on light even poor quality well drained soil.

Useful Links

BBC Gardeners World – Gardening site of BBC

Royal Horticultural Society

Thompson Morgan seed varieties available

See more tips and help on Help growing Cosmos or search in the box center right.

Slugs and Snails

I would like to say that slugs and snails are friendly, useful creatures to have in your garden – but I can’t. Slugs and snails have tremendous appetites for devouring your plants. The younger, tastier and more precious your plants the more likely they are to go for them. Young lettuce seedlings seem to be very tasty and a whole row can be devoured overnight by these innocuous critters.

What can be done short of genocide – well here are some Eco friendly tips:

Tips to avoid slug damage

• Discourage slugs by removing edible debris and any slugs you can spot
• A ‘beer trap’ consisting of a low tray full of beer or similar fluid can attract and drown the slugs.
• An upturned cabbage leaf will attract a host of slugs overnight and they can be collected and dispatched according to your preference.
• New ‘green’ sprays and pellets have not yet impressed me but there are a range to try.

Barrier methods to stop slugs:

• Copper works as a barrier as they wont slide and slither on it. Copper bands and tape are available to protect your most cosseted specimens.
• A raised bed with a copper edging can be used in your veg plot
• Gravel, crushed egg shells, recycled wool pellets and other hard to slitter across barriers are recommended by various gardeners and companies but the column inches devoted to the subject show that few of them work totally. When it is wet they find a way across to gorge on your tasty crops.
• ‘Slug Gone’ are wool based pellets that are organic and pet safe. The wool forms a barrier by felting together the small barbs on the wool fibres. Useful around prized plants but expensive for general use.

Slug Pellets and Slug Exterminator at Amazon

Some methods of slug genocide

A higher tech solution is to buy a biological control called Nematodes which is watered in and the nematode microbes eat them and destroy the slugs.

Size 9 gardening boots or fly them into the middle of a busy road.

Slug pellets containing metaldehyde spread every six inches or so are effective killers and last in my experience for about 10 days. However they are not pet friendly although most brands have been treated with a flavouring to deter. http://www.metaldehyde.com/meta/en.html

Good luck and if you find a permanent solution you could be on your way to making a fortune.

Read more about  Slug Pellets and protecting Hostas from Slugs

The UK has suffered severe frosts in the middle of May 2010. This was the norm several decades ago and gardeners may have been lulled into a false sense of security.

May Frost Problems

• Most plants will recover with some warm weather but may be late or produce poorer results.
• Potato plants may have been nipped but should regrow.
• Bedding plants, beans and tomatoes could be restarted because there is plenty of time for new seedlings to catch up.
• Apple and fruit blossom will have damaged the crop for this whole year. (Any fruit that survives should grow larger).
• My early Rhododendrons were decimated just as the colours were looking spectacular (Still there is always next year)

Other Frost Damage

• Plants that have been totally ‘crisped’ will need to be replaced.
• I lost several semi-tender shrubs to the winter frosts, they were ‘well dead’ by May. This included Ceanothus, Abutilon and Cystus.
• Frost can recur into mid June so keep some horticultural fleece or bubble wrap handy.
• Harden off your seedlings – you know it makes sense!

Prune Favourite Shrubs After Frost Damage

• Tough stem tissue and buds further from the tips withstand more damage than soft leaves but are not immune if the temperatures are lower and the duration is longer.
• The more severe the damage, the longer it takes to regenerate so patience is needed to be sure you’ve located all the damage.
• Find the point down the stem where the frost damage ends, and cut down to half an inch above the nearest healthy bud.
• I am tempted to leave frost damage on the plant until new growth covers the unsightly mess on the basis it can’t get much worse. It may also offer a bit of protection against further frost. I am leaving my sad looking Hydrangeas alone for a while.

Winter Frost Damage

• Begonia plants are often the first to succumb to air frost. Get the corms inside and protected for winter before the ground is also frozen.
• Dahlia leaves go black as soon as they are bitten by the frost bug. Then is the time to cut down the haulms and dig up the tubers for winter storage in dry frost free conditions.
• Frost damage soft tissue like Annuals, Begonias and Dahlia leaves can still be composted.
• Do not forget to protect your containers that are not frost proof. Also lift all containers off direct ground contact or the bottom will freeze and may fall off the pot.

Read about ‘Frost Garden Protection’ and Frost Pros and Cons

Globe Artichoke Cynara cardunculus is a perennial thistle with an edible flowerhead. It grows   6-10 feet tall and has arching, deeply cut, silvery green leaves. It crops in the second year after sowing.

Growing and Cultivation Tips

• The globe artichoke requires a rich sandy well manured soil. It prefers a warm sunny site.
• Seeds should be started off inside and transferred outside once the soil is warm. Alternatively sow seeds outdoors in free draining soil in mid spring when the soil has warmed up.
• The globe should be planted in rows three feet apart with two feet between each plant.
• After harvesting the main head, secondary heads will appear and these too can be used.
• In cold areas, cover the plant with a mulch of straw, compost or bracken to protect it through the winter.

‘Green Globe and other seeds available from Thompson & Morgan
Globe Artichokes grown from seed,can take a long time to mature and it’s far easier to buy ready-rooted suckers to plant in the spring.

Globe Artichokes are architectural plants growing 5 feet tall and make big clumps of arching, jagged silvery leaves that are at home in the border or veg patch.


Cynara scolymus blown open

BBC Tips on Growing Globe Artichokes
‘In the first year, plants need to put all their energy into making growth.
Remove any flowerheads as they form.
In the second year, allow the edible heads to develop for harvesting in summer.
Pick the bud at the top first, when it’s large and swollen, but before the scales have started to open. ‘

]]> http://gardenerstips.co.uk/blog/flowers/vegetables-herbs/growing-globe-artichokes/feed/ 0 http://gardenerstips.co.uk/blog/gardening/design/what-is-new-for-ponds-in-2010/ http://gardenerstips.co.uk/blog/gardening/design/what-is-new-for-ponds-in-2010/#comments Wed, 14 Sep 2011 08:05:30 +0000 hortoris http://gardenerstips.co.uk/blog/?p=6655

I may be behind the times but here are some new, or new to me, ideas to enhance your garden pond this summer.

New Pond Design

‘Islandscapes’ and Floating Planters



‘The Next Big Wave In Ponds’ (Oh please) ‘enhance the beauty and biological health of ponds, providing innovative filtration and a lush growing environment for terrestrial plants. lslandscapes offer food and fun for fish, frogs and other wildlife’ according to the blurb on Freedomponds.com
Velda do several floating planters made in covered styrofoam.


Ecopond Tadpole Food

I have to admit to never thinking of feeding tadpoles but if I did here is the answer. Ecopond Tadpole Food provides the nutrition that tadpoles need up to the point where they develop back legs (4-6 weeks after free swimming begins). See also frogspawn tips on Gardeners Tips

Preformed Ponds



Rubberised or rigid plastic ponds are one of the easiest methods of creating a new pond. I bought one in a kidney shape with 3 different depths created by shelves. It saved a lot of hard work once I had dug an appropriate hole!
In one garden I saw such a preformed pond raised up rather than buried and think that is a creative idea if you can support the weight of water.

Pond Liners

Now you can cover black PVC liners with a stone coating. This makes the black edge of a pond look natural with a pebble or stone finish. Sold in various widths it could be used to finish off a butyl lined pond or as a run off into your garden proper. The brand I have seen is Oase Stone Liner.

All these products are available from the links above or a specialist like Bradshaws of York. Amazon supply the preformed ponds.

Pond Renovation

1. As winter approaches all ponds need a bit of tlc to see them through the winter.
2. If removing dead leaves and waste from the bottom of the pond leave the sludge on the edge so any small creatures can crawl back into the water.
3. Repair leaks to prevent having to regularly top up the water. Evaporation is unavoidable so you may want to think of easy top-up methods.
4. Create ways of stopping leaves dropping into the pond. Nets are unsightly unless semi submerged. Barrier hedges of box to stop prevailing winds may help.
5. Make edges safe and secure. Reinforce and renew if necessary any childproof measures.

Read more on Preformed Pond Shapes including installation tips.

]]> http://gardenerstips.co.uk/blog/gardening/design/what-is-new-for-ponds-in-2010/feed/ 1