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Author: tejvan

Tips for Growing Easy Sunflowers

Tips for Growing Easy Sunflowers

Sunflowers

Sunflowers can be excellent fun to grow. Given the right conditions they can grow quickly and provide excellent height and flower in late autumn.

Sunflowers are considered easy to grow and are often considered to be a good plant for children. (see: Growing sunflowers with children) However, to get the best out of sunflowers requires a few careful points.

Grow as a Fence. Sunflowers can make an excellent impromptu screen for late summer. The height can divide a garden creating a natural sense of rooms. – something top garden designers often go for.

  • H. ‘Pastiche’: available in mixed shades of reds, and yellows. The flowers appear on multi-stemmed plants that make an effective multicoloured fence in late summer – from 1.2m to 1.5m (4ft to 5ft) high.

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Gardening Jobs We Hate To Do.

Gardening Jobs We Hate To Do.

windingpath

Cutting the grass is hard work, (you could just leave it like this natural meadow)

Gardening is a beautiful pastime, working with plants is one of the most rewarding activities. But, there are sill some jobs that never seem particularly attractive. These are some of the jobs I try to avoid doing, or at least get someone else to do. (It’s about time to invite my Mother to cut my edges)

1. Dealing With Slugs

There is no easy way to deal with slugs. Using pellets leaves a slight feeling of guilt. Any other method is either gruesome or hardwork.

2. Cleaning equipment after use.

When you’ve spent along time clipping a hedge, putting the clippings away, the last thing you wont to do is to clean all the tools you’ve used. But, it is an effective way to extend the length of tools.

3. Cutting the edges and picking up the clippings.

Mowing the lawn isn’t too bad, but, going round all the edges and cutting them is hard work with little reward.

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nerium
Nerium Oleander Review

Nerium Oleander Review

Nerium Oleander is an evergreen shrub widely distributed and cultivated. Originally from South East Asia though its exact origins are hard to pinpoint.

Cultivating Nerium Oleander

  • Nerium is a fairly easy shrub to look after. It thrives in hot dry conditions and needs little in the way of care.
  • It can grow to 2-6 metres tall, but can be pruned to keep in shape suitable for your back garden.
  • No special preparation is needed for planting. Best to choose a sunny, well drained position.
  • The main threat to Nerium comes from a hard frost. It is said to be resistant down to temperatures of -6. On particularly cold winters you could give fleece protection or choose a sheltered spot.
  • Nerium is a good choice for coastal areas as it is resistant to salt spray.
  • The species can be propagated by semi-ripened cuttings in summer or seeds.

Nerium as a Garden Plant

nerium

Nerium adds a touch of tropical colour with bright pink or red flowers providing a strong focal point to any garden. Make sure it fits in with surrounding plants. It’s not a plant for a white or blue border. But, if you’re looking for a bright colourful plant to add a touch of the exotic, this is a great value shrub.

Nerium
Nerium

Note: The Plant leaves are poisonous and should not be ingested. Also avoid contact with sap.

Historical Notes:

  • Nerium features in many of the Roman wall paintings in Pompeii.
  • Alexander the Great in his military campaigns is said to have lost men as a result of eating meat skewered on the highly poisonous Nerium twigs.

Related

Free Flowing Planting

Free Flowing Planting

In my garden I have developed a style known as – free-flowing planting.

  • There is no structure to the planting
  • I do selective weeding, to keep out pernicious weeds such as bindwind and horsetail.
  • Many plants are self-seeded like the daises which are indigenous to the area.
  • I encourage tall plants which blow around in the wind.
  • I have encouraged self-seeded plants to grow in clusters in the grass.
  • Be bold and encourage large areas of particular flowers.
  • There are no hard and fast rules
  • It is important to learn to enjoy nature’s beauty and variety and not to need strict formal planting regimes.

Front Garden

Self seeded Nigella spring up around Acers

Garden

At this time of the year, daises are a big part of the garden. Simple yet effective, they bring a smile to your face.

Front Garden

The mixed planting looks good in the evening sun.

Garden

Aquilega are another self-seeded favourite.

Garden

The pink roses are one of few selected plants. This pink rose has thrived amidst chaotic planting.

Garden

A long garden is broken up with planting in middle of lawn.

 

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Tips for Growing Runner Beans

Tips for Growing Runner Beans

Runner bean

Runner Beans are an excellent vegetable to grow. Homegrown varieties are often more succulent and tasty than supermarket varieties. Runner Beans also provide an attractive focal point for any kitchen garden. In fact you could easily grow Runner Beans within a cottage garden. Once established they can grow very rapidly and are mainly resilient to pests and dieseases.

  1. Choose a site in full sun.
  2. Prepare the soil well with organic matter which will help retain moisture and feed the fast growing plants.
  3. The plants will need good support, preferably using 6 feet canes. They are best grown together – either in a wigwam effect or in a horizontal line.
  4. Once in flower keep well watered. If they are not watered sufficiently they will not pollintate and grow the bean.
  5. They will benefit from tomato feed when the beans are forming and growing. …

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Picture of Daffodil in the Snow

Picture of Daffodil in the Snow

daffodilIt is still not too late to get snow says the eternal pessimistic gardener

This daffodil still manages to poke its flower above the snow cover.

Daffodils are a very hardy flower. If they are planted at the correct depths and split every 3-4 years they can give years of excellent, maintenance free, displays. But heavy wet snow can bend or break the flower stems.

Rip Van Winkle Daffodil

This Rip Van Winkle is a special daffodil with the elongated petals but is still one of my winter favourites.

See more of our daffodil photos on Gardeners Tips

Daffodils

My Top 10 Sweet Pea Varieties

My Top 10 Sweet Pea Varieties

sweetpeas

Sweet Pea – Antique Bouquet

Traditional varieties of sweet pea colours with great scent.
sweetpeas

Sweet Pea – Blue Ripple

Delicate light blue frills on the end of white flowers. It is a lovely blue reminiscent of delphiniums
grandiflora

Sweet Pea – Grandiflora

Strong bold colours in fashion of Union Jack. Great contrast between colours
melody-rose

Sweet Pea – Melody Rose

Very charming colours with a light delicate touch. Great fragrance
sugar-spice

Sweet Pea – Sugar and Spice – bicolor

Like traditional old fashioned varieties. Shorter stems, but wonderful old fragrance – evocative of cottage gardens.
sugar

Sweet Pea – Sugar and Spice

– basket variety. Makes intense display of flowers
cream

Sweet Pea – Cream Southbourne

Delicate wavy flowers. Great large frilly blooms with extravagant scent to give a great allrounder sweet pea
firecrest

Sweet Pea – Firecrest.

Uniformity of red, eyecatching colour on strong stems
fragrant

Sweet Pea – Fragrant Ripples

A long strong stem, with wonderful wavy colouring. Also provide beautiful smell
chatsworth

Chatsworth

Lovely lilac flowers and fragrance

Sweet Pea Harvest
Photo Credit
Sweet Pea Harvest by Baha’i Views / Flitzy Phoebie CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Book Cover
Sweet Peas: An Essential Guide by Roger Parsons
The sweet pea is a favourite flower of the gardener because of its delightful scent and diverse range of beautiful colours as this Top 10 Sweet Pea variety selection shows. The book by Roger Parsons looks at the genus in detail and explains how the novice gardener or the seasoned grower can get the most from their sweet peas.

Tips for Weeding a Garden

Tips for Weeding a Garden

March is a great time to sort out any weeds that are showing after winter. Perennial weeds need to have the root sorted whilst annuals like bitter cress can be hoed off and starved of moisture.

weed
Some tips for weeding a garden.

Firstly – Is It a Weed?

One of the most common questions in gardening is – what is a weed? Well one answer is that a weed is a plant that shouldn’t be there. This may differ from gardener to gardener. In fact, I like to tolerate daisies in my lawn because I think they look attractive. However, to others they may appear weeds. Of course there are some weeds that nobody would want in their garden like bindweed, Japanese knot weed e.t.c

Be Thorough.
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Growing Veg in The Greenhouse

Growing Veg in The Greenhouse

tomato

Tomatoes grown in greenhouse. Marigold to attract hoverfly – a prolific aphid eater.
The Greenhouse offers a much wider range of vegetables that you can grow. Because space will be limited make sure you make best use of the space to grow early / unusual vegetables you can’t grow outside.

Top Tips for Growing Veg in the Greenhouse.

1. Sow Early Vegetables.

There’s an added benefit from growing early vegetables which are not quite ready for the shops. By sowing indoors, and planting in a heated greenhouse, you can have an early crop of carrots, lettuce, and peas.

2. Soil Rotation.

If you are growing in the confines of a greenhouse, you need to make sure the soil is kept disease free. If you grow tomatoes directly in the soil it is worth digging out the soil and swapping with somewhere else in the garden which has had a different crop like legumes.

3. Cleanliness. …

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