A cheap tip for members of the RHS is to borrow books from their libraries. I am reading the entertaining Techniques and Tips for Gardeners from the BBC Gardeners Question Time Team. A well produced book of over 300 pages contains a wealth of information and ‘nuggetts that rarely find there way into practical books’

Nuggets and Gardeners Tips

• Create shady areas for underplanting by puning off the lower stems of shrubs to create a trunk with a head of top growth.
• If a tender shrub like Callistemon ‘Bottle Brush’ or Pittosporum is cut down by frost leave it until summer as it may grow back from the base. Once new growth starts you can cut away the dead stems.
• Don’t be upset if windbreaks take a hammering during wild winters, that is the job they are supposed to do.
• Epsom salts as a foliar and root feed corrects  magnesium deficiency in sickly trees and shrubs
• Feeding a lawn in spring and summer encourages dense, good quality grass. There is no point wasting time and fertilizer on a lawn that is already thick, green and lush.
• The last tip in the book page 311 about hanging baskets ‘Feed regularly -there are lots of roots packed into a very small space. Pinch out the flowers until the plants are established.’